34 ; 
oes better on the sunny slopes than on those facing north. It is rather difficult 
to establish, as the plants are easily killed when young, but when once well 
rooted, sainfoin will live from twenty to twenty-five or sometimes a hundred 
ies provided the soil is rich enough. One crop of hay can be cut each year. 
It should be cut at the time of full bloom, which in the latitude of Washington, 
D. d is about the 1st of May. In England the average yield ranges from 13 to 24 
tons per aere, and the hay is better and more nutritious than that of red clover. 
Eighty pounds of seed should be sown per acre, any time from the middle of 
May to the end of June, and, unlike alfalfa, it should be covered quite deeply 
to insure germination. If shelled seed is to be had, half as much will suffice. 
Fresh seed must yi ge be used, as it loses its vitality if kept a year. It can 
n any part of the United States, and should be more extensively cul- 
— especially i in oats where the ground is too dry or too barren for red 
1 The yield of seed ranges 
hee. 10 to 25 bushels of 40 pounds. 
same recuperative ability as the 
lovers. 
Opuntia engelmanni. Nopal; Prickly 
pear. (Fig. 33.) 
A E of cactus which grows wild 
fr western Texas through the 
it regions of the Southwest to 
California. Its so-called leaves, 
or flat joints of the stem, are some- 
the g regions of Tex a 
where this prickly pear grows, : 
it forms one of the most highly | 
valued fodder plants. It is some- 
times the range, but the 
or ost economical 
FIG. 33.—Prickly pear (Opuntia engelmanni). 
moval of the spines. They are 
singed off by holding the joints a moment in a blaze, or the stems are chopped 
up in a feed cutter without removing the spines, or they are boiled to soften 
them. This cactus is chiefly utilized in dry seasons, when rhum is a 3 
of grass on the ranges, the eee stems containing a large amount of water, 
and enough starch and gum to sustain life. The best way is, however, to feed 
with hay or cotton-seed meal. Mang à thousand head of cattle are marketed 
every year which have been fattened entirely ne prickly pear and cotton seed. 
A ration of 5 to 7 pounds of the cotton seed and 50 to 60 pounds of prickly pear 
without proper admixture of other reste prickly pear cuuses laxity, and when 
fed to working stock, a tendency to bloa: 
