COWS FED ON CACTUS. 
GREAT VALUE OF THE PRICKLY PEAR. 
No Use for “Spineless Cactus.” 
Prickly pear is a plant that has many friends, and 
many foes. The early settlers here in Texas made use 
of it to carry their stock through the dry spells, and 
admitted that it was the means of saving their cattle 
many times. But it is 
only lately that anyone 
has thought seriously of 
cultivating it as a farm 
crop, or of depending on 
it as a regular feed, all 
the year round. The edi¬ 
tor of The R.-N. Y. has 
asked me for an article 
giving our experience 
with prickly pear, as a 
practical feed, on a dairy 
farm, that is being run 
for the money there is in 
it. I have delayed writ¬ 
ing this for several 
months, as I wished to 
get some definite data. 
The subject is an old 
one,, pear having been 
fed here for several 
hundred years. Our 
dairymen well know that 
they have a great deal to 
learn yet, but in the 
meantime, we will let The 
R.-N. Y. family have 
what we already know. 
Prickly pear is asso¬ 
ciated in the popular 
imagination with deserts, 
mesquite and chaparral 
brush, cowboys, etc., and 
many men here do not 
like it. When we speak 
of its great value, they 
say we are running down 
the country. Well, when 
we show that we are 
growing a crop that will 
provide roughage for 
one or two cows per 
acre the year round, it 
seems to me we are do¬ 
ing the very opposite. 
In fact, it would be dif¬ 
ficult to find a crop that 
will do more than that. 
And when we consider 
its peculiar advantages, 
I do not know of any 
other that I would trade 
for. I would rather run 
a dairy on prickly pear 
than a silo, any time. 
In many parts of this 
country the native prick¬ 
ly pear is growing in 
vast quantities. There 
are great sections where there are several hundred 
tons of it to the acre. Where this natural growth is 
found it is a very cheap feed. With a gasoline pear 
burner, costing $18, tucked under his arm, and five 
gallons of gasoline, costing here at present 10 cents 
a gallon, one man can in a few hours feed 100 cows 
all they can cat. 
It is an interesting sight to see the pear fed in this 
way. Imagine yourself out in the pasture with the 
prickly pear plants growing in the dry soil, where it 
only rains at long intervals, and comparatively few 
other forms of vegetation succeed. Wc take the pear 
burner, which is a modification of the torch painters 
use in taking old paint off buildings, or plumbers 
use in melting solder. Wc put, say, three gallons 
of gasoline in the reservoir, leaving space for air, 
then pump in air to get a good pressure, let a little 
gasoline run out of the coil to heat it, and change 
the oil to gas. That gives us a strong hot flame 
that removes the thorns in a hurry. The burner 
makes a roaring noise when in operation, and the 
cattle will come in at once in anticipation of a juicy 
feed. We take the thorns off a plant four or five 
feet high, weighing several hundred pounds perhaps, 
in a few minutes. The cows crowd around, shoving 
each other aside, and some bold ones try to get hold 
of a joint before the operator is done with it. In the 
old days, when pear was fed, we would go out in the 
pasture and make .a brush fire, cut what pear was 
close at hand and hold it over the flames with a 
pitchfork, or if we could not afford the luxury of a 
fork, we would cut a light branch from some tree and 
use that. It was slow, hard work, and hot! In 
warm weather it would be about the last job I would 
apply for. All right, though, when the northers are 
blowing. The gasoline burner is rapidly displacing 
the old method, however, 
as it is faster, easier and 
cheaper, when cost of 
labor is considered. The 
cheapest way to feed is 
to burn the thorns off 
the plants as they stand 
and let the cows do the 
harvesting. Some prac¬ 
tice cutting the plants 
down, laying them in 
windrows, then singeing 
the thorns. That saves 
gasoline but increases la¬ 
bor, leaves more thorns 
on the joints and lets the 
feed down in the mud. 
I like to see the feed 
stay on the plant till the 
old cow gets her mouth 
over it, winks her eye at 
you, and twists off a 
juicy morsel. 
Prickly pear, as it is 
commonly called, is bo- 
tanically known as Opun- 
tia. We do not yet 
know how many varieties 
there are, but there may 
be 500, spiny and spine¬ 
less. It is native to this 
country, mostly in the 
Southern States and 
Mexico, although small 
forms arc found in the 
far North. There are 
other forms of cactus 
that may be fed to stock, 
as the Giant cactus, Cer- 
eus giganteus, of Ari¬ 
zona and New Mexico, 
and some of the round- 
jointed forms. The only 
requisite seems to be that 
the plants must not be 
too woody. The best 
plants for forage arc the 
flat-jointed forms, such 
as O. Lindheimerii, 
which is a native of this 
section of Texas. We 
can go out in our pas¬ 
tures (here and collect 
pear for planting in our 
fields that will give us 
better results than any 
fine high-sounding spine¬ 
less we can buy. Some 
of the varieties from 
further south will grow faster, but will not stand 
our Winters. 
There has been a great deal said about “spineless 
cactus.” Spineless is all right probably where it can 
be grown. But the fields would have to be fenced 
against rabbits. There would also be the danger 
of some one leaving the gate open and letting the 
cattle in. Cattle not accustomed to pear would bloat, 
just as they would with any other green feed. Also 
the pear would have to be cut and hauled out of 
SINGEING OFF THE CACTUS SPINES FOR COW FEEDING. Fig. 246. 
A “PASTURE” OF PRICKLY PEAR BEFORE SINGEING. Fig. 247. 
