EFFECT OF PEAR UPON STOCK. 33 



During long, dry seasons the water supply along the road becomes 

 very scarce, and teams often are forced to make the entire distance of 

 76 miles without water, on a full ration of pear. Indeed, teamsters 

 have informed the writer that during the winter their oxen drink only 

 about once each week, but that they need water two or three times a 

 week during the summer. 



It is next to impossible to get a very definite notion of how much 

 these people feed their stock. As accurate an estimate as it has been 

 possible to secure allows one-half load of singed pear to 12 head of 

 oxen for one feed, when two feeds a day are given the animals. A 

 load will probably weigh from 1,500 to 2,000 pounds. 



EFFECT OF PEAR UPON STOCK. 



The views of ranchers are so much at variance regarding many 

 points relating to cactus feeding that it is impossible to form a definite 

 opinion regarding many features of the practice. There is a compara- 

 tive unanimity, however, upon many points. There is need of experi- 

 ments for their verification, for popular experiences and opinions are 

 too indefinite and unsatisfactory. 



Stockmen are very generally agreed that pear should be fed very 

 gradually at first, many claiming that a week should elapse before a 

 full ration can be safely fed. The reasons for this, however, will vary 

 with the individual and the locality. Mr. Sinclair has abundant evi- 

 dence that bloat is very easily caused in cattle that are not accustomed 

 to the feed. Really, cattle look as though they were bloated after 

 ever}' feed, for the quantity eaten (125 to 200 pounds a day) is bound 

 to cause a large distention of the stomach; but there appears to be no 

 danger after the animals have become accustomed to eating it. 



Stock fed on a full ration of pear scour more or less all of the time, 

 and the injury from this source is of course very much aggravated 

 if the cattle receive rough treatment. A half ration, with some drier 

 roughage, such as sorghum hay, or even dry grass or browse, appears 

 to produce less serious effects. This condition could not be otherwise 

 with such sloppy feed. It occurs invariably with beet pulp, and the 

 effects are probably very similar. 



The condition of stock which have received pear during the winter 

 appears to be very much better than that of those wintered on good 

 dry -grass pastures. Feeders without exception make this observation. 

 The experience of the Glass Brothers is very conclusive in this regard. 

 In the winter of 1897 their pastures were so short as to necessitate 

 their moving their cattle to rented lands, not, however, very far away. 

 In the herd were 55 pregnant cows, too poor to be moved. These 

 were held on the home pastures and fed pear chopped with machetes, 

 together with 1 to 1^- pounds of cotton-seed meal daily. These ani- 

 mals were turned on grass on the 17th of March, and could have been 



