36 THE PRICKLY PEAR AS FOOD FOR STOCK. 



the material in a silo is not very evident. Apparently there is little 

 or nothing to gain, and the expense is considerable. The only way 

 in which this can be made profitable is to mix the chopped pear with 

 some other much drier feed in the silo. 



PEAR THICKETS AND THEIR DESTRUCTION. 



It has been but a few years since the ranchers in the pear sections of 

 Texas were inquiring anxiously for some method which could be suc- 

 cessfully employed in ridding the native pastures of what was consid- 

 ered an absolutely worthless and injurious weed — the prickly pear. 

 It was asserted that the pear, like the mesquite (Prosopis glatidulosd) 

 and guajilla (Acacia fit rlandieri). was spreading rapidly and would soon 

 overrun and greatly injure, if not destroy, large areas of pasture land. 

 But this was before the combination of pear and cotton-seed meal as 

 stock feed was appreciated. To-day the occasion for the destruction 

 of the pear does not exist, and an absolute destruction would be a 

 calamity indeed. In some sections, however, the artificial propagation 

 by cuttings, brought about by the liberal use of the machete, has 

 thickened up the growth of the plants to such an extent as to make it 

 advisable to thin the areas somewhat in order to give the grasses, 

 which are very often impeded in their growth, a better chance, as 

 well as to give stock a freer opportunity to get through the pastures 

 and enable the herds to be worked to better advantage. 



Some ranchers report that they have succeeded in thinning out the 

 thickets in rather a simple way. An effort is made to allow as large 

 an accumulation of grass and weeds upon the fields as possible, pre- 

 paratory to the thinning process. When the vegetation is dead and 

 dry. fire is set to the pastures at a time when it will run to best advan- 

 tage. This is usually after the heavy frosts of early winter. The 

 fire does not kill the pear, as a usual thing, but the spines are singed 

 off from a great deal of it. giving the cattle which are turned in later 

 a chance at the succulent forage. After the fire there is, of course. 

 but little for stock to eat except the pear. Heavy pasturing is prac- 

 ticed and the plants are closely grazed, resulting in the removal of a 

 large amount of stuff, usually without killing many plants. After 

 such treatment it takes several years for the cactus to grow up again 

 so as to influence seriously either the growth of the grass or the han- 

 dling of stock. This practice is resorted to also in order to destroy 

 some of the brush, which often becomes detrimentally thick. Some 

 idea of the extent of brush and pear developments in some sections of 

 Texas can be gained from the statement that it costs 815 to &20 per 

 acre to clear land which it is said was a comparatively open prairie 

 thirty years ago. 



The practice of slashing the pear bunches with a machete, spade, or 

 other instrument in the field is a questionable one in many localities 



