An Australian Scene Feeding Wild Thorny Cactus to Sheep in Times of Drought. Often Death 

 Was the Penalty, Due to the Thorns But Many Sheep Were Saved. 



Results of Feeding Wild Thorny Cactus in 

 Various Parts of the World 



For hundreds, probably thousands of 

 years, the great, rapid-growing, desert 

 thorny cactus has furnished food for stock 

 and fruit for man, especially in Southern 

 Europe, Northern Africa, Australia and 

 the United States. 



The whole plant furnishes nutritious 

 food in abundance, yet great pain and 

 often death was the penalty for using 

 them. In addition to the slabs, which fur- 

 nish the forage, the fruit produced many 

 tons to the acre, is very valuable as a stock 

 food, owing to the high percentage of 

 sugar. 



The slabs of the wild cactus are cov- 

 ered with a mass of stout thorns, often 

 from one to two inches in length, and as 

 sharp as needles. 



Frequently, in times of drought, the 

 hunger-driven livestock endeavored to 

 reach the rich succulent slabs, so jealously 

 guarded by the thorns, and as a result 

 would often be seen with blood dripping 

 from their mouths. 



Stockmen and herders, for hundreds of 

 years, have availed themselves of this 

 source of food supply, and it is frequently 

 a common sight to see men gathering 

 from the desert the slabs, which are to be 

 fed to cattle, sheep and hogs. 



The custom has been to burn or singe 

 the thorns or spines from the slabs before 

 feeding to the stock. The process of singe- 

 ing was necessarily a slow and expensive 

 one, and this expense, coupled to imper- 

 fect results in ridding the slabs of all the 



