27 



fibre, wrote :— ' The Prickly-pear, which 

 so abounds and has become such a 

 nuisance in the country that large sums 

 are expended annually in cutting it down 

 and burying it, might prove valuable 

 as a paper material.' Liotard, in his 

 'Materials in India Suitable for the 

 Manufacture of Paper,' describes it as 

 a coarse fibre, easily cleared of extrane- 

 ous matter, which he is inclined to think 

 would pulp well. The samples of fibre 

 shown at the Colonial and Indian Ex- 

 hibition were, however, by the paper- 

 makers who examined them pronounced 

 quite worthless as compared with other 

 equally plentiful materials." 



We have no evidence that the material has 

 as yet been examined by manufacturers of wood 

 pulp, much less has wood pulp derived from 

 prickly-pear been tested as a constituent in the 

 many trade articles (other than paper proper) 

 into which wood pulp enters. This matter is 

 again referred to in the section of our report 

 dealing with the investigations in Europe and the 

 Mediterranean area. 



MINOR USES OF PRICKLY-PEAR OR ITS 



CONSTITUENTS. 



Mucilage. — Amongst other uses of the 

 Prickly-pear may be mentioned one to which 

 attention was drawn by Mr. H. Sampson, Director 

 of Agriculture, Triehinopoly. This consisted in 

 employing the mucilage of the plant suspended 

 in water in making the chunar forming the 

 surface of walls, &c., in various stone edifices. 

 By this means, it was stated, a plaster was 

 obtained of singularly close texture capable of 

 taking a high degree of polish. This is a matter 

 that may be further looked into. 



Fruit. — In some places the natives use the 

 fruit as a food, while in a few districts it was 

 said that the juice was used as a medicine for 

 colds, &c. 



Use as a Hedge Plant. — Prickly-pear is 

 the plant most comm-only used for making 

 hedges throughout India. In some districts 

 the natives use aloes or agaves, as v/ell 

 as certain species of EupJioriia, and occasion- 

 ally the columnar cacti {Cereus spp.). Sur- 

 rounding each field or group of -fields there is 

 generally an embankment; and it is on this that 

 the hedge plants are grown. In the case of the 

 various species of Prickly-pear employed, those 

 in general use are the spiny, sturdy species such 

 as 0. nigricans and 0. dillenii, both of which grow 

 commonly to a considerable height, and form 

 a strong protection against the entrance of man, 

 cattle, and hedgehogs into the fields. They pos- 

 sess the disadvantage of affording a harbouring 

 place for snakes, so many of which are venomous. 

 Should any plants die during the hot, dry season, 

 they become replaced by the planting of others. 



A similar embankment is built around each 

 of the young trees planted out in fields or along 

 the main roads, Prickly-pear (0. dilletvii or 0. 

 nigricans) being laid on the top of and against 

 the outside of these small circular walls. This 

 prevents cattle eating down the plants. It is 

 quite a common occurrence in India to see trees 

 surrounded by a mass of cactus which originally 



protected it. Gamble, in his " Manual of Indian 

 Timbers," (1902, pp. 382-3) refers to the use of 

 Prickly-pear as hedges for marking forest boun- 

 daries and for protecting avenues of trees along 

 roadsides against injury by cattle. 



Relative to this practice, G. Girimaji Rao 

 writes:— "It must also be stated that when this 

 bush (Opuntia dillenii) is planted around fruit 

 trees the trees come to bear very soon on account 

 of the moisture stored in the soil by it. Fruit 

 trees so surrounded by Prickly-pear do not need 

 any watering at all, even in summer. Anybody 

 can grow any kind of fruit tree here in this way. 

 In our experience, tamarind trees grown in this 

 way have come to bearing sooner than have trees 

 grown in the usual way. "* 



Mr. Wm. Kirkpatrick caUed our attention 

 to the huge " saltwall " built to the south of 

 Delhi. This high, dense mass of Opuntia nigri- 

 cans extends for very many miles along the bor- 

 ders of Rajputana, being originally erected to 

 prevent the smuggling of salt. Portions of this 

 hedge were seen by the Commission at Garihar- 

 sura and Faruknagar. At Dharwar, this species 

 is used as a formidable gaol fence. 



Prickly-pear plants are occasionally used in 

 oLher ways as a means of protection ; for example, 

 many of the inhabitants of Benares place 0. 

 dillenii on the tops of their huts to prevent the 

 monkeys, which enjoy full liberty in this 

 ' ' Sacred City of Hinduism, ' ' from stripping oflE 

 the roof. Sometimes this species, as well as 0. 

 nigricans, is spread over setting cement to protect 

 it against intruders. 



Use as a Cover Crop. — A further method for 

 employing Prickly-pear was followed in Madras 

 Presidency from 1874 onwards, which doubt- 

 less served to widely propagate these notorious 

 weeds. This was to purposely cultivate it 

 as a cover to protect growing seedlings of 

 economic trees. This scheme, attributed to H. 

 S. Thomas, was strongly advocated by the Deputy 

 Conservator of Forests of South Arcot (Mr. 

 Woolridge), who reported that " there could be 

 no doubt of the result of the system," and com- 

 pared it to that of using dwarf date plants then 

 in vogue. He also reported that as the trees grew 

 the Prickly-pear plants on their part died. "In 

 his experience the increased shade and moisture 

 from the growing trees have been found to destroy 

 the cactus in time — a view also held by Mr. 

 Steavenson. ' 't 



However, the Madras Government had sub- 

 mitted this proposed method of using Prickly- 

 pear to the various Collectors, whose replies up 

 till 1883 were nearly all inconclusive, since either 

 insufficient time had elapsed for results from ex- 

 periments to be shown or opportunity for carry- 

 ing these out had not presented itself.J Later 

 reports also showed that further experiments 

 were for various reasons also inconclusive.§ || 



* Vid. " Prickly-pear," " Mysore Revenue and Agricul- 

 tural Gazette" (Vernacular), Vol. VI., No. 2, Nov. 1911 

 (Translation) ; also, Wallinpir, W.H.A., " Concerning the 

 Opuntia vulgaris." Bombay, 1876. 



t Vid. Proceedings Board of Revenue, Madras, No. 

 1135, 20th April, 1882. . 



J Vid. Proceedings Board of Revenue, Madras, No. 

 1777, 10th June, 1883. 



§ Vid. Proceedings Board of Revenue, Madras, No 

 732 (Forest 143), 2.5th Mar., 1886. 



II Vid. Proceedings Board of Revenue, Madras, 

 Resolution 27, 15th April, 1887. 



