8 BULLETIN 208, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



were distributed at the side of the furrow and partially covered by 

 pulling the sods back on their bases. No attention was paid to this 

 acre of ground after it was planted. The area was fenced, however, 

 in order to keep stock out of some varieties which were originally 

 planted in an adjoining acre of ground, but the handling in this respect 

 was not at all uniform, for part of the time the cattle were allowed 

 access to the field, when the grass and other vegetation on the plat 

 were grazed closely, like the other native pastures on the place and in 

 the vicinity. 



This plat of ground, besides furnishing information on this particular 

 subject, throws important light on the handling of pastures in general. 

 Its irregular, periodical harvesting by dairy cattle, which were herded 

 on the acre of ground on two occasions, showed conclusively that this 

 acre, besides growing the crop of prickly pear, actually furnished more 

 grazing than any other like area of native pasture on the farm. 

 This result was due to periodical as contrasted with continuous graz- 

 ing. Of course, an exact quantitative comparison between this plat 

 and the remaining native pastures of the farm is obviously impossible, 

 except in so far as one is able to judge from the total results of the 

 farm pastures as compared with the number of animals fed for single 

 days on this acre. 



Under the above conditions, which are the same as those of the 

 native cleared pastures of the region except in so far as the periodical 

 grazing and the actual planting of the cuttings may affect the growth 

 of the pear, there was a very low production as compared with even 

 the poorly tilled soil. The growth was of such a character as not 

 to warrant harvesting until after it had attained an age of 5 years 

 instead of 3 years in poorly cultivated and 2 years in well-cultivated 

 ground. 



At the end of a 5-year period this acre of ground yielded a crop of 

 58,920 pounds, which is 29.46 tons, or 5.89 tons per acre per annum. 

 The harvesting was done in a manner comparable with other harvest- 

 ings discussed elsewhere, leaving small stumps for future growth. 

 The distances apart here were the same as in the cultivated plantings. 



Three years later a representative number of rows were again har- 

 vested from this area, the growth being, of course, from the old 

 stumps left at the previous harvesting. The yield this time was at 

 the rate of 9.8 tons to the acre each year. Here, as in all other ex- 

 periments thus far conducted, the growth was considerably greater 

 from old stumps than from freshly set cuttings. This is simply due 

 to the greater productivity of well-established plants. 



A few representative rows of this uncultivated acre were harvested 

 at the end of the second growing season and reported upon in Bulletin 

 124 of the Bureau of Plant Industry. The yield obtained was at the 

 rate of 2.83 tons per annum. 



