172 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
Mr. Spruuman. Another problem we are giving attention. About 
4,000,000 of acres of grasses are cut on swamp land in the United States. 
We do not know fully all these different grasses that constitute the 
hay that is cut on swamp lands. We do know that some of that hay 
will sell at higher prices than timothy when put on the market; and 
on some of these swamp lands in the State of Iowa there is something 
like half a million of acres cut, and if this land is drained and put in 
other crops it would be worth easily $100 an acre. That must be of 
some value or they would not retain land in swamp grasses where 
land around them is worth so much; and much of it is easily drained. 
One of the assistants in my office owns a nice farm in eastern Kansas 
on land close to town and worth $100 an acre, in sight of the college 
of Kansas, and he keeps that in grasses. The yield is sufficient to 
pay. Weare beginning to study these swamp grasses with a view of 
saving the seed of them, and we are trying that in many places where 
there is swamp land that has nothing on it at all. The richest land is 
overflowed land, and it is found in every State of the Union. Weare 
trying to find out if these grasses can be propagated by seed. We 
have got to study grasses in that way in order to find out how to 
propagate them. hen we have done that I think we can make this 
overflow land and swamp land valuable land. It is very rich, and all 
it needs is something that will stand the conditions to which it is 
submitted. 
There is one other very interesting line of work that shows the 
desirability of a man keeping his eyes open. <A year ago I had a letter 
from a man out in Utah, who told me that he thought I would like to 
know of an experience of his; and I assured him I did appreciate it 
after I found out what it was. One winter he had no hay; it was $30 
aton. Grain was plentiful and cheap. He decided he would under- 
take to winter his cattle on cactus and grain—the prickly pears of the 
West growing all over the desert, and where it is really desert, too. 
It was mentioned here yesterday by some one that it has been the 
practice in famine years for a long time to burn these prickles off of 
the cactus—to singe the thorns—and then feed them to cattle; and 
they make pretty good fodder. Now, this man was somewhat original 
in his ideas and methods, and he decided he would cook the cactus 
instead of singeing the thorns off of them. He mixed his grain with 
it and went to feeding his cattle, not knowing whether his cattle would 
starve to death or not. I am merely giving you what he tells me in 
his letter, and 1 do not know whether it is true or not, but I have 
some reason to think it is. He says: ‘‘In ninety days I sold the best 
bunch of steers I ever sold;” and then he added—which was, I think, 
due to enthusiasm and not quite true—‘'I regard the boiled cactus as 
the equal of alfalfa hay, pound for pound.” 
J think he is very enthusiastic in that matter. But last summer I 
was down in San Antonio, Tex., and I found a manufactory down 
there prea acme: machines for chopping cactus. They have learned 
by accident down there that these spines, which are terrific things on 
the prickly pear, and which crush into the flesh—you kill cattle down 
there and you find them sticking into the flesh and bones—when these 
things are wet they become like feathers and will not stick into any- 
thing. They run them through the chopping mill and let their own 
juice exude onto the spines. You can pick that chopped cactus up 
and find that it has not a prickle on it. To-day they are feeding tons 
