24 THE PRICKLY PEAR AS FOOD FOR STOCK. 



Answers. — (a.) I have it in my pastures. ( b) I have pear in my pastures, (r) Yes. 

 (d) I buy it at 25 cents per load and haul it myself. (e) I buy my pear. It costs 

 me 25 cents per load of 3,000 pounds. I haul it myself. (/) I have pear in my 

 pastures. 



(9) What is your estimate of the value of pear for milk production? 



Answers. — a) I consider pear very valuable as a feed, and it is a good milk pro- 

 ducer. It is very healthful to be fed with cotton-seed meal, etc. (b) [No answer.] 

 (c) It is far ahead of any kind of hay or forage, and mixed with meal or bran 

 nothing can beat it. (d) Is a good milk and butter producer, (e) A very good feed 

 when you have no roughage. (/) It does not pay to buy pear unless hay is scarce 

 and dear. When sorghum hay is only $7.50 per ton, as it is now, hay is cheaper than 

 pear at 25 cents per load when you have to haul and burn it. 



(10) After a crop of pear has been cut. how many years will it take for another 

 crop to grow on the same land? 



Answers. — I a) About two; but this will depend a good deal on the season. Pear 

 burners are discarded by some, for the reason that they destroy the plant, (b) The 

 pear begins to grow the following year, (c) Three years, (d) It takes from three 

 to five years to make good-sized pear, (e) I do not know, but think about two years. 

 (/) About two years. 



It is very difficult to formulate a definite opinion regarding the 

 effect of pear upon the quality of milk. There appears, however, to 

 be a very well-established opinion that it produces blue milk if not fed 

 with concentrated feeds. There seems to be a great diversity of opin- 

 ion regarding the flavor of milk from pear-fed cows. Many maintain 

 stoutly that it produces a slightly bitter taste, which is less noticeable 

 when a good ration of corn or cotton-seed meal is added, while others 

 defy tests that will detect in any way pear milk from any other except 

 by its poorer quality in cases where the amount of pear fed is large 

 and the entire ration is of low nutritive value. Personally the writer 

 has been unable to verify any of these opinions. 



PEAR FOR FATTENING AND MAINTAINING CATTLE. 



Since the early days when teaming was much more extensively prac- 

 ticed than at the present time, the balk of the pear feeding in southern 

 Texas has been done either to maintain stock or to prepare them for 

 the market. While feeding cactus to dairy cows and work oxen is 

 common all over the pear region, the amount fed for these purposes 

 is insignificant compared with that used for maintenance and fattening. 

 By far the greatest amount is fed as an emergency ration, to keep cat- 

 tle alive during a severe and prolonged drought. For this purpose its 

 value can not well be overestimated, for, as has been aptly said by 

 man\' ranchers consulted during the past year, pear often means the 

 difference between live and dead cattle. A drought of from four to 

 seven months, as sometimes occurs, in a country which has no sod to 

 speak of and where a large portion of the grazing is furnished by 



