CERTAIN DESERT PLANTS AS EMERGENCY STOCK FEED. 3 



The first suggestion of using any of these plants for feed, of which 

 the present writer knows, was made to him in 1914 by Mr. C. T. 

 Turney, of Mesilla Park, N. Mex. Mr. Turney's idea was to use the 

 tops of a species of Yucca ( Yucca data) locally known as soap weed, 

 for silage. 1 Mr. Turney was cooperating with the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture on the Jornada Range Reserve near Las 

 Cruces, N. Mex., in handling more than 5,000 cattle under the 

 range conditions of that region. It was here, in 1915, that the 

 first controlled experiments in the feeding of chopped soap weed 

 to range cattle were begun. Cutting up the tops with an ordinary 

 silage cutter was found to be difficult, and the chopped material was 

 not altogether satisfactory, because the machine used was too fight for 

 the work. Mr. Turney asked a firm of manufacturers at El Paso, 

 Tex., for a heavier machine, which they proceeded to design and 

 make. This machine 2 has been in use for some time in southern 

 New Mexico and is the first of a number since made and now in 

 use. It is heavy enough to cut up the stalks of the soap weed, 

 and thus the discovery was made that the stalks are better feed 

 than the tops. 



In 1916 Messrs. Cook and Johnson, of Willcox, Ariz., fed this 

 same plant, the material being chopped into pieces of suitable size by 

 hand, the men using axes and hatchets. A number of animals were 

 fed in this way, but the work entailed is very hard and the feed pro- 

 duced is not in a very good condition, though the results obtained 

 were fairly satisfactory. Several of their near neighbors tried the 

 plan. Most of these men have recently bought machines to do the 

 work and are getting better results. 



In May, 1917, a man at Thatcher, Ariz., devised and built a machine 

 for slicing soap weed which was in use for a short time. Since then 

 some modifications of this type of machine have been introduced 

 which have materially improved its usefulness. 



In January, 1918, a machinist at Deming, N. Mex., designed and 

 constructed a machine which shreds the stalks of this same plant. 



Besides these machines, the ordinary wood-pulping "hog," such as 

 is used for cutting up wood for paper pulp, has been tried with some 

 success. 



It will thus be seen that many people appreciated the need of such 

 machines and that stockmen have been eager to buy them and use 

 them. Machines of various makes are now in use on ranches all the 

 way from Willcox, Ariz., to Marathon, Tex., and north from the 

 Mexican boundary to Carlsbad, Engle, and Silver City, N. Mex. 

 Considerable extension of this area to the northward hi eastern 



1 Jardine, J. T., and Hurtt, L. C. Increased cattle production on southwestern ranges. U, S. Dept, 

 Agr. Bui. 588. p. 26. 1917. 



2 See the El Paso Morning Times of Jan. 7, 1918, for the story of this machine. 



