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Transactions Texas Academy of Science. 
Yuccas, Yolina, Dasylerion, Hesperaloe and the Agaves. Thus far 
practical experience in attempts to utilize various species, have re- 
sulted in choosing out only the Agava lechuguilla as of superior ex- 
cellence. As shown in Dr. Rose’s report — Contr. IT. S. ISTat. Herb., 
vol. V, Yo. 4, p. 242 — the fibre industry in lechuguilla is well de- 
veloped in Yorthern Mexico. It is practically nil north of the 
Rio Grande or limited only to the manufacturing of a few articles 
for local use. The presence of such a vast area of lechuguilla in 
Trans-Pecos Texas — estimated at 20,000 square miles — would seem 
to suggest large possibilities in the development of the fibre indus- 
try at least of the kind carried on in Mexico. 
In the matter of forage value, the region faces the need of hus- 
banding its resources rather than of developing them. After 
having seen the sotol country between Devil’s River and Sanderson 
in winter or in dry midsummer, or from what has been said in this 
paper hitherto, it will surprise one to know that its forage value 
is actually superior to some regions in Western Central Texas or 
in the upper Rio Grande Plain — not naturally, of course, but be- 
cause the better ranges have been so reduced by over-pasturage. A 
cattleman of experience maintains that within a radius of 100 miles 
of Langtry the forage value is equal to the support of one cow to 
each fifteen acres or one sheep to each four acres. Among the 
forage resources counted upon are the grasses and the short- 
lived herbaceous annuals which of course are as variable in their 
occurrence as the rainfall itself, but which come more or less regu- 
larly with the spring and not infrequently appear in great abun- 
dance in the fall and thus carry stock well through the winter. It 
is just the uncertainty of having enough rainfall in March and 
April to start this vegetation that makes the early spring months 
the time of starved weakness and danger for stock. At this season 
permanent vegetation, the young shoots and leaves of shrubs and 
the succulent buds and sometimes the leaves of the Yucca and sotol 
type are the forage standby. 
If the succulent parts of the cacti, Yucca, Agaves and the like 
could be obtained by stock unaided, naturally these water and nu- 
triment yielding forms would cease to exist so plentifully. As a 
matter of fact the Yuccas are attacked when the large, succulent 
and nutritious flower bud is well formed. This, for Yucca trecu- 
leana, happens early in March, and at that time one may observe a 
most amusing behavior on the part of cattle which consist of an 
eager procession of these animals fairly running from plant to 
plant of the Yucca, impatiently thrusting their heads among the 
