ON CACTUS AS CATTLE FOOD 



But during the other ten months of the year 

 the cattle subsist exclusively on the fruit and 

 young leaves of the cactus. 



They receive not a drop of water except as they 

 find it in the succulent cactus slabs. 



"Yet," the narrator continues, "it is a remark- 

 able fact that during the dry months of the year 

 we get a higher percentage of fat cattle from that 

 paddock than from any of the others." He adds 

 that he considers the cattle fed in this way on 

 cactus to make as well-flavored beef as any that 

 he has tasted in San Francisco and New Zealand. 



Another record of the same sort is given by Mr. 

 Robert Hind, a millionaire sugar planter and 

 ranchman of Honolulu, who declares that on his 

 ranch in Hawaii he has horses that "do not know 

 what water is and will not drink it if it is brought 

 before them. They have never tasted water." 



"I have good, fat cattle," Mr. Hind continues, 

 "that have never seen water and would not know 

 how to act if water touched them. I have other 

 cattle that I have imported from the United States 

 which have not tasted a drop of water since being 

 turned out on my cactus and blue grass pastures. 

 They have lived for years without water, and are 

 as fat as any grass-fed cattle in the United States. 

 They make just as good beef as you can get in any 

 restaurant." 



[221] 



