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



Several different kinds of machines are now being manufactured, 

 any one of which will do the work required and can be handled readily 

 by the kind of labor available on the average stock ranch. 



The cost of the necessary equipment, from $1,000 to $2,500 (de- 

 pending on the number of animals to be fed), is such that it is within 

 the reach of the average stockman who needs it. A much smaller 

 initial expense is usually sufficient, since most of the ranches are 

 already supplied with one or more gas engines and all the horses 

 and wagons necessary for the work. 



The chemical analyses of these feeds and the experience of the men 

 who are feeding them agree in showing that the feed is of low nutri- 

 tive value and is to be considered as roughage, comparable to range- 

 grass hay. If fed alone it may be expected to keep stock from 

 starving; if fed with concentrates a properly balanced ration may 

 be worked out. 



The customary practice 1 among users of the feed is to give young 

 stock 6 to 12 pounds of chopped soap weed a day with one-half to 

 three-fourths of a pound of cottonseed cake or meal. Mature stock 

 are given 20 to 40 pounds of soap weed and 1 to 2 pounds of cotton- 

 seed cake per day. Of the chopped feed alone, 20 to 25 pounds per 

 day will save stock from dying. With a pound of cottonseed cake 

 in addition, a fairly well-balanced living ration is produced. 



Only two of the species of the plants here discussed may be ex- 

 pected to renew themselves if cut off. The bear-grass of the New 

 Mexico-Texas Plains region ( Yucca glauca) will produce a new crop 

 in three or four years. Soap weed (Yucca data) will doubtless need 

 10 to 15 years to produce another crop equal to that now being 

 removed. All the other species will probably be destroyed if cut off 

 at the ground for feeding purposes, unless steps are taken to insure 

 a new crop. 



The average cost of feeding about 20 pounds of chopped soap weed 

 per animal is about 50 cents a month, or If cents a day. With the 

 addition of cottonseed cake, when worth $67 per ton at the ranch, 

 stock can be kept in good condition and sometimes improved for 

 about 5 cents per day per animal at the present prevailing prices of 

 labor, fuel, oil, etc. 



The argument for the emergency feeding of range stock rests pri- 

 marily upon a basis of war-time need of meat, but it can easily be 

 shown that it is a perfectly good economic policy. Stockmen in the 

 region under consideration would doubtless have acted much as they 

 have, with respect to this method of saving their stock, even if the 

 war-time incentive had not existed ; but they would probably have 

 adopted this method much more slowly. Such delay would have 

 resulted in much greater losses of animals and income than will now 



