MESQUITE, CAROB, AND HONEY LOCUST BEANS. 5 
HONEY LOCUST AND CAROB. 
Xo reference to the use of the honey locust as a cattle food, other 
than a statement that the pods are relished by stock, has been dis- 
covered in the literature. 
Woll, of the University of California, found that calves relish 
carob pods greatly and that 0.4 pound of these pods is practically 
as effective as 0.35 pound of ground barley in increasing body weight 
(16). According to Jaffa and Albro (16), carob pods have been 
used successfully also in feeding steers, for which purpose they 
should be cooked. 
EXPERIMENTAL WORK. 
MESQUITE. 
The fruit of the mesquite tree consists of at least two types of 
food material. The pericarp or pod, which includes the epicarp 
(outer covering), the mesocarp (sugary pulp), and the endocarp 
(seed husks or seed capsules) , contains nearly all of the sugar and most 
of the crude fiber, tannins, etc. The nutrients in this portion are 
wholly available to the digestive tract of animals eating the fruit. 
On the other hand, the seeds, which constitute the rest of the fruit 
and contain most of the protein and fat, pass practically unchanged 
through an animal consuming the natural whole fruit. The ease 
with which the entire seeds pass unchanged through the digestive 
tract is undoubtedly due largely to their smoothness, extreme hard- 
ness, and small size, as well as in part, to the relatively indigestible 
nature of the seed coat. Experiments recently reported by Brown 
indicate that tKe viability of seeds is not impaired by their passage 
through the digestive tracts of sheep (-5). This property of the 
protective seed coat of the mesquite bean to resist digestion probably 
is an important factor in the spreading of the mesquite into new 
territory. 
Undoubtedly much of the nutritive value of the beans is made 
available by grinding the mature fruit. Such an entire bean meal 
may serve as an emergency or supplementary forage for stock. 
There are, however, serious obstacles to the extensive use of the 
beans in this way. Garcia (10) states: "In the (New Mexico) 
station experiment, it was found difficult to grind them after the 
pods became thoroughly dried. The large quantity of sugar they 
contained made them so sticky that they clogged the mill." More 
important is the tendency of the whole bean meal to ferment and 
spoil unless it is kept dry. This would militate against its use as a 
commercial feedings tuff. 
Because of the dissimilarity of the two portions of mesquite beans, 
it is reasonable to assume that the greatest usefulness of each product 
will be found in treating it as a separate commodity. The problem 
of its most complete utilization, then, resolves itself into devising 
means for readily and economically separating the fruit into (a) 
sugary pod and husk material and (b) high protein seed meal. 
The first experimental work was done in the vicinity of San Antonio, 
Tex., and data and samples were submitted by the chamber of 
commerce of that city. An attempt had been made to separate 
the dried fruit of the mesquite in such a way that material rich in 
