2 BULLETIN 728, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



animals or moved them to other places, in order to reduce the number 

 to be kept on their ranges to something like a proper adjustment of 

 the numbers to the feed available. Many have fed prickly pear * 

 with success when any of this kind of feed was present on their lands. 



Notwithstanding the recognized necessity for a reduction in the 

 numbers of animals upon the range, there were many men who for 

 one reason or another were unable to sell or move their animals. 

 Under such circumstances the only possible alternatives were to 

 feed the animals or let them die. 



The idea of feeding range stock is not new to most of the stockmen 

 in western Texas and in southern California, but for the men in 

 southern New Mexico and southern Arizona, who are almost without 

 exception cattlemen, the practice is largely a new one, though many 

 of them have heard of the use of sotol as forage, and some who have 

 lived in Texas have practiced feeding it. Sotol occurs in only a very 

 small part of the country where feed was scarce this past year, but 

 in much of this area there is a greater or less amount of other species 

 of plants that are usable. 



Stimulated by the patriotic desire to avoid all possible losses of 

 meat animals as well as probable serious financial loss, the more 

 enterprising men began casting about for feed of one kind or another. 

 Many of the men in Texas had already laid in a supply of cottonseed 

 cake or meal. Some were able to buy milo maize, or kafir corn, or 

 hay of some kind. But the supply of many of these feeds was below 

 normal for the region because of the drought, and all were abnormally 

 expensive, while transportation systems were much overworked. 

 Hence the need of using all kinds of feed available on the ranges. 



It is difficult to determine just who should be credited with the 

 idea of using certain of the plants other than sotol that grow abun- 

 dantly in some places in the region. The practice seems to have 

 arisen independently in several places at about the same time, both 

 in Arizona and in New Mexico. 



1 Griffiths, David. Behavior, under cultural conditions, of species of cacti known as Opuntia. U. S. 

 Dept. Agr. Bui. 31, 24 p.., 8 pi. 1913. 



Feeding prickly pear to stock in Texas. U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Animal Indus. Bui. 91, 23 p., 



3 pi. 1906. 



The prickly pear and other cacti as food for stock. U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant Indus. Bui. 74, 



46 p., 5 pi. 1905. 



The prickly pear as a farm crop. U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant Indus. Bui. 124, 37 p., 2 pi. 190S. 



The "spineless" prickly pears. U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant Indus. Bui. 140, 24 p., 1 fig., 1 pi. 



1909. 



The thornless prickly pears. U. S. Dept. Agr., Farmers' Bui. 483, 20 p., 4 fig. 1912. 



Yields of native prickly pear in southern Texas. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 208, 11 p., 2 pi. 1915. 



and Hare, R. F. Prickly pear and other cacti as foods for stock. N. Mex. Agr. Fxp. Sta. Bui. 60, 



134 p. 1906. Literature, p. 124-125. 



Summary of recent investigations of the value of cacti as stock food. In U. S.Dept. Agr., 



Bur. Plant Indus. Bui. 102, p. 7-18, 1 pi. 1907. 



Hare, It. F. Experiment i on the digestibility of prickly pear by cattle. U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Animal 

 Indus. Bui. 106, 38 p. , 1 fig. , 1 pi. 1908. 



Thornber, J. J. Native cacti as emergency forage plants. In Ariz. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 67, p. 457-508, 

 8 pi. 1911. 



Wooton, E, O. Cacti in New Mexico. N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 78, 70 p., 18 pi. 1911. 



