8 BULLETIN 208, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
were distributed at the side of the furrow and partially covered by 
pulling the sods back on their bases. No attention was paid to this 
acre of ground after it was planted. The area was fenced, however, 
in order to keep stock out of some varieties which were origmally 
planted in an adjoining acre of ground, but the handling in this respect 
was not at all uniform, for part of the time the cattle were allowed 
access to the field, when the grass and other vegetation on the plat 
were grazed closely, like the other native pastures on the place and in 
the vicinity. 
This plat of ground, besides furnishing information on this particular 
subject, throws important hght on the handling of pastures in general. 
Its irregular, periodical harvesting by dairy cattle, which were herded 
on the acre of ground on two occasions, showed conclusively that this 
acre, besides growing the crop of prickly pear, actually furnished more 
grazing than any other like area of native pasture on the farm. 
This result was due to periodical as contrasted with continuous egraz- 
ing. Of course, an exact quantitative comparison between this plat 
and the remaining native pastures of the farm is obviously impossible, 
except in so far as one is able to judge from the total results of the 
farm pastures as compared with the number of animals fed for single 
days on this acre. 
Under the above conditions, which are the same as those of the 
native cleared pastures of the region except in so far as the periodical 
grazing and the actual planting of the cuttings may affect the growth 
of the pear, there was a very low production as compared with even 
the poorly tilled soil. The growth was of such a character as not 
to warrant harvesting until after it had attamed an age of 5 years 
instead of 3 years in poorly cultivated and 2 years in well-cultivated 
ground. 
At the end of a 5-year period this acre of ground yielded a crop of 
58,920 pounds, which is 29.46 tons, or 5.89 tons per acre per annum. 
The harvesting was done in a manner comparable with other harvest- 
ings discussed elsewhere, leaving small stumps for future growth. 
The distances apart here were the same as in the cultivated plantings. 
Three years later a representative number of rows were again har- 
vested from this area, the growth being, of course, from the old 
stumps left at the previous harvesting. The yield this time was at 
the rate of 9.8 tons to the acre each year. Here, as in all other ex- 
periments thus far conducted, the growth was considerably greater 
from old stumps than from freshly set cuttings. This is simply due— 
to the greater productivity of well-established plants. : 
A few representative rows of this uncultivated acre were harvested 
at the end of the second growing season and reported upon in Bulletin 
124 of the Bureau of Plant Industry. The yield obtained was at the 
rate of 2.83 tons per annum. 
