25 



During 1912, Mr. Norton remarked, the cattle 

 got very little of these s1;alks, and their feed 

 was much the same this year. For the last 

 sixteen months the food had been composed 

 mostly of cactus — say from 97 to 98 per cent, 

 of it. No evidence of animals having suffered 

 from scouring was remarked in the feeding- 

 shed, and it was stated that this did not occur, 

 the relative dryness of the Prickly-pear, per- 

 haps, furnishing the explanation of this. The 

 single ox that was pointed out as pear fed, and 

 that could be closely inspected, was in fairly good 

 condition. 



It was found that Mr. Norton had had 

 imported in 1907, cuttings of some of Luther 

 Burbank's "spineless cacti" as well as speci- 

 mens from elsewhere. Several of these had not 

 been propagated by him, but of those that were, 

 a practically thornless variety of 0. decumana, 

 obtained from the old Horticultural Gardens at ' 

 Ppona, and Nopalea cochinelifera were the most 

 suitable, both being readily eaten by stock. 



Much attention has been given to the so-called 

 ' ' Norton Experiment Feeding. ' ' It should, how- 

 ever, be remarked that the fodder actually re- 

 ceived by the animals apparently accords with 

 the " W. Standard " for a cattle ration, and 

 that in this ration Prickly-pear actually contri- 

 buted a not very large proportion of the com- 

 ponents. 



In nearly all the experiments already 

 alluded to, involving the almost exclusive employ- 

 ment of Prickly-pear, the duration appears to 

 have been too short to admit of definite conclu- 

 sions being arrived at as to the efficiency of 

 Prickly-pear during "famine times." 



Dried Prickly-pear as a fodder. — In regard 

 to the possibility of using dried Prickly-pear as 

 fodder, N. C. Soman, of Belgaum, reported in 

 1910 that it was eaten by cattle when moistened 

 with salt.* At Athni it was found that animals 

 ate the plants when scorched and dried as 

 greedily as when fresh. Such instances led_ to 

 the suggestion that dried segments might be im- 

 ported into Gujarat to be utilised in this way.t 

 The proposal was not acted upon owing partly 

 to the extra expense necessary, and partly to 

 doubts as to the feeding value of such dried 

 pear.$ 



PricJdy-pear as fodder for Ostriches. — Mr. 

 Wm. Kirkpatrick, of Messrs. Bird and Co., Cal- 

 cutta, was kind enough to supply some particu- 

 lars regarding the feeding of his ostriches near 

 Delhi with Prickly-pear (0. nigricans), the 

 birds coming originally from South Africa and 

 from Somaliland. His information was corro- 

 borated by Mr. Jugal Kishore and a native assis- 

 tant who carried on the farm for Mr. Kirk- 

 patrick. The splines were removed from the 

 plants either by plunging the " joints" into hot 

 ashes in an ashpit or else by holding them over a 

 fire and singeing them. The singed joints were 

 then sliced. The Prickly-pear being insufficient 

 by itself, to it was added herbs and gram, btit not 

 wheat or maize. About 1 part of cactus was 



* Vid. Famine Dep., Bombay, Res. No. 226, 14th 

 Feb., 1900, and Res. No. 1331. 7th Mar., 1900. 



t Vid. Memorandum No. 1558, Bombay, 16th Mar., 

 1900 ; also " Use of Prickly-pear as Fodder m Gujarat, 

 ib. No 2293, May, 1900. 



t Vid. Commr. N.D. 25th April, 1900, Famme Dep. 

 Res. 2293, May, 1900. 



added to about 2 parts of gram, while other 

 green fodder was added as found necessary for 

 the comfort of the birds. Though the latter did 

 not require much water when cactus formed part 

 of their diet, it was considered advisable to have 

 water available in case the birds needed it. 

 Prickly-pear was not fed to ostriches until they 

 were at least 40 days old, and then only in small 

 quantities, on account of the danger of causing 

 intestinal trouble. 



Objections to the use of Prickly-pear. — The 

 Indian farmers commonly showed a very 

 marked aversion to the use of cactus as 

 fodder (even during times of scarcity), this 

 attitude being largely based on ignorance and 

 distrust of any novelty.* It was, however, in 

 part due to a belief that its use was not attended 

 with any beneficial results, but rather was the 

 cause of looseness of the bowels, as well as a 

 general debility, t Besides this, there was the 

 danger of personal injury by the thorns, as well 

 as the cost of removing them from the segments 

 during the preparation of stock fodder. Since 

 these were at first often dug out with a knife by 

 hand labour, a great deal of time and expense 

 was involved, but later, Messrs. Harvey and 

 Sabhapathi, of Bellary, introduced a form of 

 iron pincers for the purpose. As already men- 

 tioned, burning was also resorted to in some 

 districts, the spines being singed. 



Use as Ensilage. — A few attempts have been 

 made in India to utilise Opuntias in the making 

 of ensilage. At Nellore, in 1888, it was found 

 that the product was not eaten at all by stock, 

 probably on account of the thorns.t Quite 

 recently (1910) an article appeared in the 

 " Indian Agriculturist, "§ mentioning that in 

 New South Wales the most practicable 

 method for dealing with Prickly-pear was 

 to convert it into ensilage, the thorns becoming 

 softened during the process. This report led to 

 attempts being made in the Anantapur district, 

 Madras (June-October, 1910), but the resulting 

 material was too rotten to be used, the condition 

 being attributed at the time to access of rain 

 water. It was mentioned that it was useless to 

 attempt any silage work in India on account of 

 the destructive effects of white ants. No cases 

 of utilising Prickly-pear as ensilage were met 

 with or heard of, during the Commission's tour 

 in India. 



DESTRUCTION BY UTILISATION AS A 

 SOIL FERTILISER. 



Should it be found practicable to restore to 

 the soil whatever the prickly-pear plant has 

 accumulated during its growth, it is obvious that 

 in many instances this course would add to value 

 of the soil as a yielder of crops of one kind or 

 another. That this is so, has been long recognised 

 by the agriculturists of Southern India, dillenii 

 being thus utilised in Madras and Mysore, and 0. 

 nigricans in the Bombay Presidency. Moreover, 

 this method of employing prickly-pear involves 

 its destruction. ' 



* Vid. Famine Dep., Bombay, Res. 1296, 26th 

 April, 1901. 



t Master, J. N., Proceedings Board of Revenue, 

 Madras, 20th July, 1877. 



% Rep. Bd. Rev. No. 209, May, 1888. 



§ Indian Agriculturist 34, I., Feb., 1909, p. 61. 



