The old stumps with a little corn will fatten cattle very fast. We buru off the thorns 
in feeding it, but most stock-raisers do not. The apples ripen about the Ist of July 
and are eaten by almost everything. Hogs get fat enough upon them to render inte 
lard when the crop is good, and it seldom fails. 
A. J. Speneer, Uvalde, Tex.: 
It is eaten by cattle, sheep, goats, and hogs. They eat it mainly as fonnd on the 
range, though sometimes the thorns are scorched off. It is considered one of the best 
native forage plants, especially to carry these stock through the long droughts that 
oceur occasionally in western Texas. It is a partial substitute for water for all stock 
that eat it. The only injury I have known to result from eating it has been to sheep, 
and then only when eaten while frozen. 
S. S. Jamison, Burnet, Tex. : 
It is used extensively in the southwestern part of the State, especially by Mexicans, 
for wintering work-oxen, cows, and other cattle upon. The thorns are scorched off 
before feeding, and no harm results from its use unless it be too great a laxness at ~ 
times. Only one kind is used as far as [ know, but it varies in height in different 
localities. In this country it grows from 6 inches to 2 feet. Farther south it grows 
taller. 
Prof. George W. Curtis, College Station, Tex.: 
It is used quite extensively for cattleand sheep. The prickles are singed off, or the 
whole plant is boiled and fed, mixed with bran. Only the Opuntia vulgaris, and per- 
haps a variety of the same, are used, so far as I know. I have no positive knowledge 
of any injury to stock from feeding npon it, but from its purgative nature I should 
be afraid that it might cause abortion in pregnant cows. 
Has your attention been called to the use of the prickly-pear cactus asa lubricant ? 
Certain of the Western railroads have used it with excellent results. It is gathered 
in Texas, shipped to St. Louis, ground up coarsely, and pine tar added to keep the 
albuminoids from decomposition (I do not know whether anything else is added or 
not), after which it is barreled and returned. The total cost is 2} cents per pound, 
and it is said to do the work of 6 or 8 cents’ worth of grease and rags formerly used. 
It is especially useful in preventing and cooling hot boxes. If this comes into gen- 
eral use it will open a new field of production. ) 
Leonard A. Heil, San Antonio, Tex.: 
The cactus, or prickly pear, grows abundantly in nearly every section of south- 
west Texas, often reaching a height of 10 or 12 feet. Ever since the settlement of 
the country by ihe English, and probably years before, it has been used to supplement 
grass in times of drought, but now it is being used with other feeds at all times, and 
especially in the winter. Sheep do well upon it without water, there being sufficient 
moisture in the ‘eaves. The herder goes along with a short sword and clips the 
points of the great leaves, so that the sheep can insert its nose, when it readily eats 
them entire. é 
Dr. A. E. Carothers, an extensive ranchman of Cotulla, La Salle 
County, Tex., began feeding prickly pear and cotton-seed meal to four 
hundred head of steers for the purpose of fattening for the market, and 
at the last account was highly pleased with the result and confident of 
financial success. He singes off the thorns with a flame, and cuts up 
the pear and feeds it mixed, in troughs, with the cotton-seed meal in 
the proportion of about 5 pounds of meal to 70 pounds of pear. The 
steers eat this food with great relish and take the food rapidly. They 
have about a 2,500-acre field torunin, If this method of feeding proves 
