CERTAIN DESERT PLANTS AS EMERGENCY STOCK FEED. 13 



certainly none of the other species are to be found on as much land 



as this one. 



RENEWAL AFTER CUTTING. 



The soap weed (Yucca data) and the bear-grass (Yucca glauca) 

 both sprout readily when cut off at the ground. The best information 

 as to the latter indicates that a new crop about as good as the original 

 may be expected from cut-over land in about three or four years. 

 There can be no doubt that the tall stalks of the soap weed ( Yucca 

 elata) are much older, however. Plants from 6 to 10 or 12 feet high 

 are certainly 15 or 20 years old or older. Stockmen who have ridden 

 the ranges in southern New Mexico and Arizona for many years are 

 unanimous in estimates of this order. New heads of leaves appear 

 at the ground, generally the next season after the old stalk is injured 

 or killed, but it takes years to grow new tall trunks. Where they 

 occur, these plants really constitute the desert forests, and many of 

 them are at least 50 to 75 years old. Since the stems furnish by far 

 the better part of the feed, it will be seen that the present method of 

 using the plants is really but calling upon a supply of reserve feed that 

 was not before appreciated and that its renewal is a slow process. 



Experience in Texas indicates that the sotol and sacahuista do not 

 recover when they are cut off at the root. Reports from Marathon 

 and Sonora agree that areas which were cut over 15 years ago have 

 not produced a new crop since and show no prospect of doing so. 

 While actual experience is lacking with respect to the various other 

 species mentioned here, it is highly probable that, with the exception 

 of lechuguilla, none of them will sprout from the root when cut off. 

 Lechuguilla sprouts readily from old stems, but the plant has a 

 very shallow root system and it would be dug out bodily if fed, 

 hence there would be nothing left to sprout. Yucca baccata has 

 underground parts that might sprout, but it is an unimportant 

 species, never very abundant. 



Data as to the ease with which seeds will germinate are also lack- 

 ing, but young seedlings are very rare in the regions where they 

 might be expected to occur. The writer has noticed this condition 

 many times. All the plants here considered produce abundance of 

 seeds when they fruit, but a large proportion of the seeds are eaten 

 in the pod by the larvae of insects. This is especially true of the 

 yuccas. 



Under conditions that can be supplied in a greenhouse or a garden 

 the seeds of several of the species germinate tolerably well, but such 

 conditions do not often occur in the situations where the seeds 

 naturally fall; hence, reproduction from seed, while possible, is but 

 remotely probable in the open country. Moreover, if stock learn 

 to eat the plants they will pull up the young seedlings long before 

 they get large enough to protect themselves. 



