MIMOSACEAE 



should help to fix the snail dunes. Fr o s op is gj^ a ^J£-- os 3. offers the 

 same opportunity to make selections for fruits as P. velutina. 



*Prosopis vel uti n a. There can he very little excuse for plant 

 ing this mesquite for erosion control. Along river bottoms it has 

 become sufficiently dense to crowd out all grass and most other 

 vegetation. During heavy rains it is probable the top soil is more 

 readily carried off than it would be if the ground were covered with 

 grass or even weeds, such as Russian Thistle. Ilesquites have 

 steadily spread on grazing land until they occupy even much land on 

 the slopes of hills. Hesquite trees are browsed but many a cow has 

 starved to death in a mesquite thicket. The chief value in the 

 mesquite is the fruit. All kinds of stock grow fat when the beans 

 begin to drop. Occasionally, however, horses die of impacted boweLs 

 from eating the pods. At the time of ripening the beans themselves 

 are too hard to be digested and stock eating the pods easily dis- 

 seminate the seeds. A broad trail of no . $ quite s extends from Texas 

 and Oklahoma, to Las Cruces, Now i'lexico, where stock in early days 

 were driven westward. 



Pro sop is julif lora. It has been stated that this species, 

 which is very closely related to P. velutina, was introduced many 

 years ago into the Hawaiian Islands and hasHoocome a tree of great 

 economic importance. It is probable, however, that the tree of the 

 Eawaiians is P. chilensis, a native of Chile. 



Host everyone who has traveled through mesquite country has 

 noticed the difference in the size and color of the mesquite pods 

 or. different trees. 3ome are very long, thick, juicy and sweet. 

 Since the pods rather than the seeds constitute the food value, it 

 should be possible to obtain good selections. The difficulty is 

 that mesquites do not grow well from cuttings and valuable selec- 

 tions cannot be obtained through seeds. The propagation of these 

 selections is evidently a problem for the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 to undertake. Another problem is the hybridizing of the mesquite 

 with other trees, sue 1 :: as the Carob or possibly some of the Acacias. 



For those who have had a lapse of memory it should be recal- 

 led that the mesquite has been one of the chief sources of food for 

 the Indians for perhaps several hundred years. They use the seeds 

 as well as the pods. tSr. P. M. Gor such of the Wildlife Section of 

 the Forest Service, reports the mesquite beans to be the chief food 

 for quail for long periods in summer, fall and winter. They cat the 

 roods from the faeces of stock which consume the pods. 



