PREFACE. 



For several }^ears past letters have been coming to this Office regard- 

 ing the forage value of different species of cactus. Some two years 

 ago a number of letters were received in which the writers claimed 

 high feeding value for this class of plants when properly handled. 

 The fact that much land which must be classed as desert is covered 

 with a considerable growth of cactus plants, and the certainty that if 

 these could be shown to have forage value the fact would render use- 

 ful enormous stretches of lands which are now even worse than useless 

 seemed to justify investigating the subject. 



Our first efforts were to collect the experience of those who had 

 used prickly pear and other cacti for feed. The amount of informa- 

 tion secured in this manner was astonishingly large, and being on a 

 subject which had hitherto received practically no attention from 

 investigators in this countiy, much of it was of a nature to create some 

 surprise. The information thus gleaned is here presented as a basis 

 for further work, which is now under way. While the opinions of 

 those who have had experience in feeding cactus are not always justi- 

 fied, they are nevertheless suggestive and are presented in the follow- 

 ing pages because of the value of some of these suggestions. In view' 

 of the large amount of information collected by Doctor Griffiths, it is 

 somewhat remarkable that investigators have not heretofore recog- 

 nized the possibilities evidently existing in the cacti as forage plants. 

 It is shown that this use of them is very old and is quite general over 

 a large extent of territory in this countiy. In this connection it may 

 be remarked that were it not for the spines on this class of plants they 

 would probably have been exterminated long ago, and there is some 

 doubt whether there would be any use for spineless forms in the future. 

 It is practically certain that under no circumstances does the prickly 

 pear possess as much forage value as some enthusiastic feeders claim 

 for it, but the subject is # certainly worthy of the investigations that 

 have been undertaken. The principal lines of investigation now in 

 progress are: Chemical composition of the most useful forms, methods 

 of planting, yield, the frequency with which cacti may be harvested, 

 varieties and their distribution, methods of preparation and feeding, 

 and the value of these plants compared with other forage plants. 



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