UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 728 A 



i 



S^&'^&mTU 



Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief 



jiuy^Jwi*. 



Washington, D. C. 



December 18, 1918 



CERTAIN DESERT PLANTS AS EMERGENCY STOCK 



FEED. 



By E. 0. Wooton, Agriculturist. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



The necessity for emergency feeds 1 



The machines 4 



Kinds of feed 6 



Keys to plants described . 9 



Other plants available 10 



Distribution and density 11 



Renewal after cutting 13 



Qua ity of the feed 14 



Quantity fed 18 



Mechanical condition of the feed 19 



Stock losses from using this feed 20 



Cost of feeding soap weed 20 



Importance of emergency feeds 22 



Argument for feeding range stock 23 



Summary and conclusions 25 



THE NECESSITY FOR EMERGENCY FEEDS. 



It has been the practice for a long time in certain parts of the arid 

 Southwest, mostly in what is known as the Big Bend region of 

 southern Texas, to feed sotol * to range stock in seasons of scarcity 

 of the usual range feed. The custom is probably one that originated 

 in Mexico, where this plant is used more or less extensively for human 

 food, as well as for the production of an alcoholic beverage where, 

 consequently, its qualities are well known. 



Hitherto, the usual method of preparing sotol for stock feed has 

 been to cut the stem off at the ground and with a machete or an ax 

 split open the head, which is formed of the enlarged leaf bases and 

 the thickened top of the stem. This process exposes the soft tissue 

 of the head to the animals, and either cattle or sheep may be expected 

 to "do the rest." 



The past two seasons, 1916 and 1917, have been unusually dry in 

 the whole of the arid Southwest from central Texas to the Pacific 

 coast, and in consequence the normal crop of range feed did not 

 grow. Farsighted stockmen in many cases sold off some of their 



1 Sotol is a Mexican or Indian name for a species of Dasylirion. The species found in western Texas 

 is Dasylirion texanum, while the plant of southern New Mexico and Arizona is D. wheeleri. See descrip- 

 tions of species farther on in, this bulletin. 

 69803°— 18— Bull. 728 1 



