CERTAIN DESERT PLANTS AS EMERGENCY STOCK FEED. 17 



The distances which feeds produced on cultivated land must be 

 transported compel the stockmen who use such feeds to seek those 

 that are highly concentrated. The cottonseed products, meal and 

 cake, are such feeds, and they have high protein content. They are 

 to be had in the region and with a shorter haul than any feeds of 

 equal value, with the exception of alfalfa. Hay and forage crops 

 are not concentrated, and they are correspondingly hard to transport. 

 But while the cottonseed products may be safely fed in small quan- 

 tities, it is necessary that they be accompanied by sufficient roughage 

 to give the requisite bulk and balance to the ration. They can not 

 be fed alone for a long time or in very large quantities without serious 

 detriment to the stock. If the dry range feed is practically all gone, 

 the needed roughage may be supplied by soap weed or some other 

 of the plants listed here if the plants grow on the ranch in sufficient 

 quantity to make it possible to shred them. 



But it is argued that without knowing the digestion coefficient it is 

 not possible to tell a great deal about the value of feed from the ordi- 

 nary chemical analysis. 1 From the practical standpoint, however, 

 the answers obtained by feeders are conclusive as far as they go, 

 though the optimistic stockman may easily overstate the results 

 he has obtained. There is no doubt that the use of this feed saved 

 thousands of cattle in the region in 1917. One man who was feeding 

 2,800 head of all kinds of cattle, from coming yearlings to cows with 

 young calves, assured the writer that his losses had been kept down 

 to approximately 7 per cent, 2 and that they would doubtless have been 

 as high as 30 per cent without this feed, though he was feeding cotton- 

 seed cake besides. 



One man who was feeding 400 head of cows and calves said that 13 

 of the cows were so weak when feeding was begun that they had to 

 be helped up every time they lay down. They had been fed nothing 

 else but chopped soap weed for six weeks and are now strong enough 

 to take care of themselves. 



One other extreme was that of a young cow found down and unable 

 to get up. She would have died of thirst in a few days. The men 

 hauled her to the watering place on the float with which they were 

 hauling the soap weed and commenced to feed her. By using the 

 chopped feed and a little cottonseed meal she was saved and has since 

 dropped a calf which is alive and well. 



There is no question that the chopped soap weed, sotol, bear-grass, 

 or sacahuista will keep cattle and sheep from starving if fed in suffi- 



1 The need of this digestion coefficient is thoroughly appreciated, and steps have already been taken to 

 obtainthis factor for both soap weed and sotol at the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station, which 

 is especially equipped for this work. 



2 It is customary to figure on an average loss of about 10 per cent on open ranges. 



