PEAR FOR WORKING ANIMALS. 31 



ber of Mexican wood choppers in the extreme southwestern part of 

 Texas use no other feed than pear and what grass or browse the country 

 affords. Often the grass and browse are very small in quantity. 

 These people simply scorch the thorns off with brush, although many of 

 them do not even go to this trouble, as they simply slash into the 

 plants with a machete enough to give the animals a start into the 

 clumps. 



Mr. T. A. Coleman finds that oxen can be used with great economy 

 in feeding pear to cattle. His machines are set in a pear thicket, and 

 the distance hauled during the past winter was an average of about 

 one-half mile for the round trip. The pear was hauled to the machine 

 by two four-ox teams, which hauled 36 to 10 loads a day, an average 

 load weighing 1,500 pounds (estimated). The travel per team, accord- 

 ing to this, was about 10 miles per day. The last load cut each day 

 was placed in a trough in a small pen for the work oxen, and they 

 always had all they would eat. They got no other feed and kept in 

 good working condition during the entire feeding period. 



There are hundreds of ox teams in the southwestern part of Texas 

 that work all the year on a ration consisting very largely of pear all 

 of the time, and practically nothing else for months. They belong 

 rnainly to the Mexican population, who freight and haul wood to the 

 towns, ranches, and pumping establishments which are springing up 

 somewhat numerously in that section. Their ration consists of such 

 feed as the country produces. Grass and browse are the main feed 

 when the seasons are good. It is during the dry seasons that the 

 greatest quantity of pear is fed, but the freighter never omits it from 

 his ration for working oxen. Even during the month of May, 1901, 

 when grass was in the best possible condition and there was an abun- 

 dance of it, pear scorched with brush was regularly fed. It is impos- 

 sible to tell how much these animals eat. 



A day spent upon the market plaza at Laredo, Tex. , confirmed the 

 statement which had been often heard regarding the large use made 

 of pear by the Mexican wood choppers. When the men are asked 

 wh^t they feed, the answer invariably is " nopal" (prickly pear). One, 

 of whom special inquiry was made, stated that he was hauling wood 30 

 miles (round trip), making two trips per week. His loads averaged 

 three-fourths of a cord of mesquite wood. His oxen grazed very 

 largely on grass at that time, but the greater part of the year they 

 got little besides nopal, the thorns being singed off over a brush fire. 

 His team was in good working condition. 



The largest amount of freighting in the State of Texas at the pres- 

 ent time is doubtless done below the line of the Texas and Mexican 

 Railway. In this region there is an abundance of pear of good quality. 

 Here, and in fact farther north, especially along the Bio Grande, team- 

 ing is still a business; but it is almost entirely in the hands of the 



