Edible Products, 



[June, 1900. 



ately followed by a drought, prevented 

 the growth of barley and all other 

 winter crops. The winter of 1895, there- 

 fore, proved a very severe one, many 

 cattle dying. The first of his cattle 

 went down while there "was plenty of 

 dry grass, and the stock in fair condi- 

 tion ; the cause of death being, it was 

 believed, inflammation of the bowels. 

 Having no green stuff to give the poor 

 brutes, he conceived the idea of boiling 

 prickly-pears, of which he had a fair 

 supply, but not sufficient to feed all the 

 stock right through the winter. With 

 the dry grass the cattle became bound 

 and tucked up like greyhounds. For 

 the first two or three days the pears 

 acted as a purgative, after that they 

 kept the bowels, nicely open ; in a few 

 days the bellies commenced to drop, and 

 in from a week to a fortnight the 

 animals looked round and full again, 

 ready to be turned out in the back 

 paddock. He fed the milkers for about 

 four months. 



To start the cows with the new food 

 he added bran and salt, though he 

 thought this was hardly necessary, as it 

 will generally be found that one beast 

 in a mob is ready to taste anything new, 

 and the others soon follow, The cattle 

 became so fond of the pears that they 

 would, in their impatience, pick them up 

 so hot that they would have to drop 

 them again. The cows improved in 

 condition, and their milk was good ; one, 

 in particular, who got more than her 

 share, fattened on the pears. A large- 

 framed cow, that was very weak after 

 calving, and could barely walk, re- 

 covered on this feed, and continued to 

 milk for twelve mouths after. 



Pigs also did well on the boiled pears 

 alone. Mr. Boyce's neighbour saved his 

 pigs by giving them a quantity of the 

 wash from his pot every day. The 

 balance of this wash or juice he poured 

 into a trough for the cows, which drank 

 it readily, although a good lagoon was 

 alongside of them. 



For a boiler he used a 200-gallon square 

 iron tank, with a 17-inch manhole. 

 This was set in a trench in a sloping 

 bank, with a fireplace 3 feet wide by 

 18 inches deep underneath, and a flue 

 2 feet wide by 6 inches up the back ; this 

 gave a good draught, and the tank 

 being half buried retained the heat. 



About 9 inches of water in the boiler is 

 sufficient- Fill up with pears— leaves, 

 stalks, and all— in bunches as large as 

 you like, and put on the lid as nearly 

 steam-tight as you can get it. Make a 

 quick, fierce fire, and the steam will cook 

 the pears right to the top beautifully. 



The pears will soon settle down in the 

 boiler, when more can be added. 



He filled the boiler and fire up in the 

 evening, and next morning found every- 

 thing just right. 



If it is desired to make two feeds of 

 the one boiling, replace the lid, and the 

 contents will keep warm for two days. 



When cooked, the leaves retain their 

 shape, and are easily removed from the 

 tank with an ordinary pitchfork, and 

 can be thrown on the grass for the cattle. 



Boiling or steaming renders the thorns 

 and prickles soft and harmless. 



Lest some may be tempted to cut the 

 top off the tank, he adds that he had 

 tried it, and found that it is necessary 

 to confine the steam, or else cover the 

 pears with boiling water, which means 

 that much more fuel will be required. 

 It appeared to him that the boiler above 

 described is the handiest and cheapest 

 thing for the purpose. 



He found that after steam was up any 

 pears added would cook in thirty 

 minutes, and estimated that where pears 

 are plentiful, and fuel and water handy, 

 one man, with two or more pots, could 

 feed 200 head of cattle. 



Feeding Cows at Singleton.— Mr. J. 

 O'Shea, of Singleton, reported that in 

 1897 dairymen were feeding the prickly- 

 pear in a boiled state to cows, either 

 pure, or, better, mixing a little bran 

 with them, and the cattle were not only 

 living, but giving a very fair share of 

 milk. The pears also made an excellent 

 mess for pigs, and were keeping alive all 

 the pigs in the district. 



Prickly-pear Silage.— Later on, Mr. 

 Boyce, of Lochinvar, again reported to 

 the Department, this time to the effect 

 that he had included twenty loads of 

 prickly-pears in a stack of silage with 

 maize and sorghum. The experiment 

 was an unqualified success, and the 

 cattle liked the pears quite as well as 

 the other constituents of the silage, 

 preferring them in that form to the 

 steamed pears. 



The silage was made in a stack in the 

 open, and pressed with home-made 

 mechanical appliances, and covered 

 with iron. Owing to the drought the 

 stack was only a small one. The base 

 of the stack was 19 ft. x 16 feet 6 in., and 

 only 3 feet high in its compressed state. 

 He estimated that the pears amounted 

 to one-third of the whole stack. In 

 building the stack he put alternate 

 layers of pears and maize and sorghum, 

 four loads of pears in one layer, but 

 never allowed the pears to be nearer 

 than a foot to the edge. 



