PEAK FOR MAINTAINING CATTLE. 25 



annual plants of short duration, is fraught with serious consequences 

 to the stock industry. A rancher works faithfully a fourth of his life- 

 time to get his herd up to the desired standard of numbers and qualit} T 

 when a drought strikes him and he is obliged to sacrifice possibly his 

 entire herd. He naturally waits for the weather to change from week 

 to week, until his animals get into such a condition that he dares not 

 move them, and they are then in too low a condition physically to be 

 disposed of at anything like what they are worth, to say nothing about 

 what the}" have cost him. In such a plight he loses everything, or 

 sells out at a figure which practically means an entire loss, when it is 

 almost certain that if he could keep his animals alive for a month or 

 two there would be feed again and he would be out of danger. It is 

 this uncertain t}r of the seasons which has often made the grazing of 

 native pasture both hazardous and expensive in the Southwest. The 

 rancher with small means is often caught with his cattle so poor that 

 he can not think of moving them to better pastures, even if he has the 

 means and can find the feed. He waits day after day, hoping for rains 

 which do not come, until his stock begins to die from starvation. 

 Then it is too late to remove them to new pastures, for experience 

 teaches that working or driving starving animals is invariabh^ pro- 

 ductive of tremendous losses. 



It is in an emergency of this kind that the prickly pear and other 

 forms of cactus become a boon to the rancher. It is owing to the 

 existence of the prickly pear that the success of the rancher in south- 

 ern Texas is largely due. A score of ranchers have acknowledged to 

 the writer during the past year that w^ere it not for pear they would 

 have to move their cattle out of the country once every four or five 

 years on account of droughts. Theoreticall}", a rancher can safely 

 stock his pastures to their capacity during the years of poorest pro- 

 duction only, for the weakest link in his monthly chain of feed 

 measures his strength in the stock business. For what matters it if 

 he can accumulate a herd of 500 head of cattle, if a six months' drought 

 causes a loss of 30 or 60 per cent in his herd? 



With plenty of pear or other cacti in his pastures, however, this 

 danger is largely removed. He has in this crop a feed which does not 

 deteriorate if not used for three or four or even ten years; it is as 

 good at one time as another, and can be fed by him at a couple of 

 days' notice under any circumstances, although it is the general belief 

 that it is much more valuable in winter than in summer. 



A brief report of feeders in various portions of southern Texas will 

 be to the point at this juncture. None of these has accurate accounts 

 of his feeding. Everything is pure estimate, almost entirely from 

 memory, but the accounts which follow are based upon statements 

 of responsible feeders, whose estimates are as accurate as could 



