36 



All of thuse animals are fond of the fruit. Be- 

 fore feeding to ostriches, the joints must be 

 chopped up, special machines being utilised for 

 the purpose. When used as food for other stock, 

 Kaalblad may be chopped up or may be fed 

 whole, but the Doornblad must be treated in such 

 a way that the spines become less dangerous. The 

 latter may be done by singeing in various ways 

 or to a certain extent by chopping up the pear. 

 Boiling or steaming the joints is frequently done 

 before using them as fodder for pigs. 



In some districts — e.g., Uitenhage, which is 

 rather fertile and rarely experiences a drought — 

 the pear is held to be worthless on account of its 

 low feeding value, though American aloes may 

 be chopped up and used to form part of the diet 

 of ostriches and cattle. 



The utilisation of Prickly-pear for fodder 

 during droughts is not unattended with disad- 

 vantages. Unless care be exercised, purging of 

 the animals, whether ostriches, sheep, cattle, 

 goats, or pigs, frequently occurs (R.S.C. 1898, p. 

 36; R.S.C, 1890, p. 22; R.8.C., 1906, p. 69; 

 MacOwan, 1897, p. 3). Then, again, the small 

 spines from the fruit penetrate the tongue, jaws, 

 &c., and give rise to inflammation which may ex- 

 tend even to the stomach and cause death 

 (Grobelaar, 1891, p. 246; Maedonald, 1891, b, 

 p. 26; 1897, a, p. 30). A similar result may 

 follow the eating of the joints of the more spiny 

 plants, but usually cattle suffer less than smaller 

 stock, such as goats and sheep (Wallace, 1896, p. 

 90). These injuries often prevent the animal 

 from bemg able to feed on harder stuff (such as 

 grass), supplying the animal with soft food, such 

 as lucerne, being then resorted to with much 

 success. Ulceration often results from the 

 wounds and not uncommonly is followed by fly 

 infection, the maggots aggravating the condition, 

 bometimes the mouth of the affected animal be- 

 comes so bad that grazing is impossible, and 

 death by starvation frequently follows (R.S.C, 

 1896, p. 9). Some beasts become so fond oif the 

 plant that they, " even when suffering acutely 

 trom the injury which it produces, have been 

 known to remain beside a pear-tree with the 

 tongue hanging out and to continue to eat the 

 /^r*,,™*^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ actually died of the effects" 

 (WaUace, 1896, p. 90). Hutcheon (R.S.C, 1906 

 p. 6) referred to the same matter, mentioning 

 that, it IS not the Prickly-pear joint but rather 

 the spmules on the fruit which cause most of the 

 injury. 



. _ The actual direct loss of stock caused by 

 injuries resulting from feeding on the pear has 

 been estimated to be £200,000 annually (R.S C 

 1890, p. 2, T^yiii.; R.S.C, 1891, p. Ill/Append 

 dix, p. 1; Wallace, 1896, p. 90, &c.). On one 

 larm at Grraaff Remet, in one year, 1,200 goats 

 died_ from its effects (R.S.C, 1898 p 69) 

 Ostriches, cattle, and even human beings have be- 

 come blinded temporarily or permanently by the 



?7opP'^1o?°^^" F^S'o*'^^ fruit by the wind 

 (R.S.C, 1890, p. 22; R.S.C, 1898, p. 9; Grobe- 



laar, 1891, p. 246; R.S.C, 1891, p. 25; Marloth, 

 1892, p. 111). 



J. Burtt Davy (1909) has referred to the 

 subject of Prickly-pear as a stock food, and has 

 summarised the matter (pp. 14, 15). Pie states 

 that it is a useful though not very nutritious 

 form of stock food, but the presence of spines 

 means an element of great danger and expense. 

 The chief value of the plant seems to be — 



(1) its use as a food during prolonged drought, 

 when other and more nutritious food is scarce; 



(2) its use as a roughage along with more con- 

 centrated foodstuffs for cattle ; (3) or as an acces- 

 sory to ordinary rations of concentrated food and 

 hay, as it supplies succulence which is difficult 

 to secure in semi-arid regions during a large 

 period of the year; and (4) in the fact that 

 working oxen can be maintained for an indefinite 

 period on a ration consisting largely of Prickly- 

 pear. The amount used varies from 125 to 200 lb. 

 daily for a full ration to an adult animal, to from 

 40 to 70 lb. per day as part ration for a dairy 

 cow. He refers to the danger of feeding Prickly- 

 pear alone, owing to the tendency of the fibre to 

 form balls within the digestive canal — this some- 

 times causing the death of the animals — ^and 

 mentions that the spinules frequently cause irrita- 

 tion of the eyes, sometimes resulting in total 

 blindness. 



Mr. R. W. Thornton carried out careful 

 feeding experiments at the Robertson Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station, Cape Colony. He used 

 the chief kinds occurring locally (Kaalblad, 

 Doornblad, and 0. monacantha) as well as a 

 number of imported species. 



An extract from his report (29-4-13) readi 

 as follows : — 



" With regard to our feeding experiments, I 

 may say that these were carried out with cattle, 

 ostriches, and pigs; and Prickly-pear was fed to 

 these animals pulped and boiled, with the thorns 

 removed by burning and with the thorns on. A 

 second series was tried by supplementing with 

 lucerne hay, and a third by supplementing with 

 maize. 



' ' The ostriches did well in all cases, but did 

 best when the Prickly-pear was supplemented 

 with lucerne hay. The draught cattle, whilst 

 doing no work, did fairly well on Prickly-pear 

 alone, but became very thin when worked. The 

 milch cattle did not do at all well on the 

 Prickly-pear alone, and neither did the pigs; 

 but ill all instances where the Prickly-pear was 

 used as roughage and supplemented with other 

 good food the results were very successful. The 

 older stems were found to be more nutritious than 

 the younger leaves." 



[The experiments referred to were carried 

 out and reported on in 1908 with twenty-five 

 different cacti, those which were found to possess 

 some value being the varieties of 0. decumana 

 and Nopalea cochinelifera.] 



