JUNE 15. 1915 



515 



claims and advertises. This being true, be 

 certainly has the power to forbid the use 

 of his name did he choose to do so. Our 

 California friends— at least a great part of 

 them — indorse Burbank, and they feel hurt 

 wlienever I presume to criticise him or the 

 Burbank Company. Very likely new facts 

 are being daily brought out in regard to the 

 cactus as well as everytliing else. I regret 

 that Professor Rolfs did not put a date to 

 what he says above. 1 am especially inter- 

 ested because there are people in the neigh- 

 borhood of our Florida home who have in- 

 vested as high as 1000 " slabs " for one 

 planting. 1 hope to give our Florida read- 

 ers photos of those plants occasionally, so 

 they can see for themselves what growth 

 these wonderful "creations" (and I hope 

 they honestly deserve to be called such) are 

 making. 



Later. — Our good friend Borchers, of 

 Laredo, Texas, has sent us something like 

 half a dozen bulletins from the Department 

 of Agriculture in regard to spineless cacti. 

 From a " suromary " from one of these bul- 

 letins I clip the following: 



THE PRICKLY PEAR AS A FARM CROP. 



The experimental plantation cost nearly $9 an 

 acre, including all expenses, beginning with the 

 breaking of the raw prairie and ending with the cut- 

 tings properly placed. With good labor and proper 

 management this expense, it is believed, could be 

 reduced to $6 or $7 an acre. Even |9 per acre is 

 low for a plantation that does not require renewing 

 for fifteen or twenty years. 



A conservative estimate of the annual production 

 of prickly pear under cultivation is 22 4-5 tons, or 

 enough roughage for one bovine animal for a year 

 from each acre of ground. This is to be harvested 

 biennially. 



Cattle, sheep, goats, swine, and even chickens will 

 eat the crop readily at any time of the year. 



Eight times as much gro^vth of prickly pear has 

 been secured under cultivation as was obtained with- 

 out cultivation in ungrazed pastures. 



More than six time« as m-ach roughage (actual 

 feeding value) has been secured during the past two 

 years Jrom prickly pear as from sorghum. 



From another one I quote as follows : 



Our experiments seem to show that when prickly 

 pear is fed with cured fodders or grains the diges- 

 tibility of both is increased. For this reason prickly 

 pear has a greater food value than is shown by its 

 analysis and digestion coefficients. 



The steers seldom drank water when fed prickly 

 pear alone. In fact, in feeding a ration of 100 

 pounds of this feed per day the animals obtained 

 from the feed over 8 gallons of water, which is more 

 than was usually drunk by them when fed cured 

 fodders alone. 



Animals scour quite badly when fed prickly pear 

 •lone: besides, other feeds are needed to supply the 

 proper amount of proteids; and for these reasons it 

 is better not to feed itJilone. 



A ration for a 1000-pound milch cow of 50 pounds 

 of prickly pear, 10 pounds of wheat bran, and 10 

 pounds of alfalfa would furnish about the correct 

 theoretical amount of nutrient*, in which the ratio 

 of proteids to carbohydrates would be 1 to 5.46. 



As both the above were from bulletins 



published in 1908 (seven years ago), very 

 likely considerable i)rogress has been made; 

 but as the above facts seem to be pretty well 

 established, it gives me considerable enthu- 

 siasm. I am especially interested in grow- 

 ing spineless cacti for poultry. 



KAOLIANG, A POSSIBLE RIVAL OP FETERITA. 



We clip the following from the Country- 

 side Magazine: 



A NKW FOOD STUFF. 



From South Dakota comes the news that kaoliang 

 is being eaten with relish by man and beast. The 

 School-of-Agriculture girls have made it into grid- 

 dle-cakes, waffles, bread, doughnuts, muffins, and 

 numbers of other goodies. Livestock eat the forage 

 and seed-heads. The home economics department of 

 the School of Agriculture is preparing a list of kao- 

 liang recipes for distribution among the farm wom- 

 en of the state. 



Kaoliang is a non-saccharine sorghum, introduced 

 several years ago by the United States Department 

 of Agriculture, to fill the demand for an early-ripen- 

 ing grain sorghum on the great plains of the North. 

 It has been found to be a satisfactory yielder in the 

 driest years. In a two-year test, it yielded better 

 than corn. It matures about September 15. 



Kaoliang is one of the forward steps in making 

 the most of the earth. It is by such steps as this 

 that men go forward toward the time when there 

 will be plenty for each member of a world popula- 

 tion inconceivably greater than ours. Kaoliang is 

 a lesson in making the most of things as they are. 



I have searched our catalogs, but can find 

 no mention of kaoliang; neither have I 

 heard of any such plant. We learn from 

 the above that it was introduced by the 

 Department of Agriculture several years 

 ago. If so, some of our readers in South 

 Dakota may be able to tell us something 

 more about it. 



Wliile I am on this subject, our recent 

 experiments in cooking feterita did not 

 turn out to be as successful as when we 

 tried it in Florida. The whole grain was 

 boiled one whole forenoon, but it did not 

 get soft as with our first experiment. The 

 only reason I can offer for it just now is 

 that the sample sent us by mail had been 

 freshly harvested, and was easy to cook on 

 that account. We shall soon be able to 

 settle the matter, as you will see by the 

 letter below, from our Florida garden : 



I planted the cassavas about the 10th of May, and 

 also the sweet potatoes. The jabotica is grrowing 

 nicely, and is pretty. The feterita all headed out, 

 and is beautiful. I am planning to send you a head 

 of it when it gets ripe. The hens are not laying 

 much. They all want to sit ; but I shut them up to 

 break them. 



The wheat is higher than I am, and is still grow- 

 ing. Mr. Harrison had me get out three baskets of 

 dasheens to send by mail. I am with Mr. Keller 

 picking tomatoes. 



Manatee, Fla., May 26. Wesley Welch. 



The grain mentioned above is the Egyp- 

 tian wheat. When I left Florida the last 

 of April it was not a foot high; and if it 

 has grown higher than Wesley's head in just 



