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_ Opuntia Englemanii (Cactus). 
A number of species of cactus, mainly of the genus optntia, and 
commonly called nopal, or prickly pear, are used as food for cattle and 
sheep in the dry regions of Texas and westward, where the ordinary 
forage plants fail. In the natural state cattle dc not often touch it 
unless driven by hunger, except while the new growth is young and 
tender. Sheep eat it without preparation more readily than cattle, and 
for them the plants are sometimes merely cut down, so as to be within 
reach. More often the herder passes along and clips off a portion of 
each flat joint, so that the sheep can enter their noses without coming 
in contact with the spines. For cattle it is customary to singe off the 
a over a brisk blaze. 
Leonard A. Heil, San Antonio, Tex. : 
The cactus or prickly pear grows abundantly in nearly every section of southwest 
Texas, often reaching a height of 10 or 12 feet. Ever since the settlement of the 
ee by the English, and probably years before, it has been used to supplement 
; sin times of drought, but now it is being used with other feeds at all times, and 
Scoiatly | in the winter. Sheep do well upon it without water, there being sufficient 
_ moisture in the leaves, The herder goes along with a short sword and clips the 
points of the great leaves so that the sheep can insert its nose, when it readily eats 
them entire. 
John ©, Chesley, Hamilton, Hamilton County, central ES aaa 
The prickly sie! is used here to a great extent. We have a ranch in Stephens 
County where we are now feeding the pear to over a hundred of our ee cattle, 
and they are doing wellon it. It is fed at nearly all of the ranches of Stephens 
County where they are feeding ai all, and there are thousands of cattle being = 
this winter on prickly pear that are enne well and will come to grass in good shap 
that otherwise would have died, or at least the larger part of them. 
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