602 
the field to be fed. On the other hand, the thorny 
varieties would not need to be fenced at all, and the 
cattle can eat off the plants just what they require 
each day as the thorns are singed off. Spineless cac¬ 
tus in this locality is not a success. The Department 
of Agriculture has tried about 30 varieties here. Some 
of them are of very rapid growth with large joints. 
They make beautiful plants, but they prove too tender 
for field cultivation. They might do if we could be 
sure of not having temperatures below, say 20 degrees 
above zero. We occasionally have it down to 12 
degrees- or so. That makes the spineless a risky 
proposition for us. We have found two varieties of 
spineless that are hardy. One is apparently a form 
of O. Cacanapa, and is native of Corpus Christi, Tex., 
a fine-looking little plant, one of the prettiest of them 
all, but it is too small for practical dairymen. The 
other is from the Devil’s River country. It has larger 
joints, but does not make a satisfactory growth here. 
The average man grows corn or cotton or pear for 
what there is in it, and he will find that the more 
thorns he has the better. The ideal pear, to my mind, 
would be fairly erect, rapid growing, with heavy joints, 
no spicules, and spines in great abundance. 
The spicules are the very short thorns, and are 
sometimes difficult to burn off. The spines or long 
thorns seem to add fuel to the flames and help burn 
themselves. I understand there is a variety that will 
burn itself, if one sets a match to it. 
The Department of Agriculture became interested in 
this plant some years ago, and after investigation, de¬ 
cided there was something in it. They established a 
number of stations, the first one on our ranch, followed 
by others in California, New Mexico, Arizona, Florida, 
and Brownsville, Tex. The conditions at the different 
stations vary considerably, and those in charge are 
watching results closely and are doing very valuable 
work. In 1904 the department tried an experiment 
with two milch cows here. They were placed in sepa¬ 
rate pens, and were fed on pear and the best quality 
of sorghum ha}-, besides the necessary concentrates. 
Part of the time one cow got nothing but pear, while 
the other was fed hay. Then they were gradually 
shifted till they got half and half. Then the other 
would get all pear, and so on. The grain feed was 
constant. Careful weights were kept of feed consumed 
and milk furnished. The milk was tested for butter 
fat. At the end of several months we found the pear 
was the better and cheaper of the two feeds. Some 
years ago a learned professor undertook a somewhat 
similar experiment. His conclusion was that pear was 
absolutely worthless. Come to find out he had fed 
only 10 pounds a day. It was the pear the cow did 
not get that caused his failure. In our experiment we 
had the cows eating 150 to 175 pounds daily. It is a 
very heavy, bulky feed, 85 per cent water. 
In these days when life is so complicated and there 
are so many insistent calls on our time, it certainly is 
refreshing to grow a crop that is so tolerant as prickly 
pear. We do not have any rush season of planting. 
If there is moisture in the soil it will root at any 
season of the year. There are no expensive buildings 
to blow down or burn up. It is fed in the field or 
pasture. Cows do the hauling and the manure is 
distributed where it is needed. If one gets sick, or for 
any reason cannot cultivate it, there is no serious loss, 
simply a smaller crop. If not needed this year let it 
alone till required. Next year there is three times as 
much, and it is right there ready to feed any day in 
the year. At Brownsville the department proved a 
crop of 50 tons per acre per year. If you allow a cow 
150 pounds of pear daily that is about 18 tons a year. 
So we can almost claim to furnish roughage for three 
cows per acre per year. We have proved that cows 
will do very well indeed for more than a year with 
pear and grain, no hay. Say that we allow each cow 
150 pounds of pear daily, no hay, that would be 27 tons 
per year per cow. As to the quality of the feed, our 
cows, nearly 100 of them, had no other roughage ex¬ 
cept some hay during a bad spell of weather at Christ¬ 
mas, for about 15 months. There was a very severe 
drought, too dry for grass, in the pastures. It was a 
case with us of feeding pear or closing the dairy. Our 
visitors compliment us on the condition of the cows. 
The doctors of the city prescribe our milk. We get a 
cent a quart above market price for our product. 
On our farm we are up against a serious proposition 
at present. We need six or seven tons per day to 
feed our herd. Practically all our pear has been fed 
off - . We had not realized how little pear we really had, 
nor had we expected to increase our business as much 
as we did. So we have to buy it from our neighbors. 
They will furnish the pear and' haul it to our feed lot 
for $1 per ton. If we singe it on the ground, there is 
more or less loss from the stumps that are too big 
to be eaten. We gather them up and run them through 
the silage cutter. Any way we can plan it, under 
present conditions, we have to handle it far too much 
to suit us. We intend to try silage pits, cutting the 
pear in, thorns and all; feed out of one pit while the 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
other is soaking. We know that will fix the thorns, but 
we have some doubt as to the quality of the silage. 
We think it may be too sour. Owing to the character 
of the feed we believe we can handle it to the best ad¬ 
vantage in a pit. We purpose to boist it with a scoop 
shovel and run it on a track like a hayfork arrange¬ 
ment, over a long feed trough; will try a small pit 
first before going to any great expense. We are plant¬ 
ing all we can l^QW, tftif it will be two or three years 
before we wifl ha‘V,^cj^iUgb to supply our cows. This 
plant ought to have two years to grow when under 
cultivation. It may be that we shall find three-year 
A RAPID GROWING EDIBLE CACTUS. Fig. 248. 
crops more satisfactory. I believe it will be only a 
few years till the value of this plant is realized, and 
all over the Southwest, from San Antonio to the Rio 
Grande,. there will be dairy farms depending on the 
native pear for the bulk of their feed. A dairyman can 
buy cheap land, close to a railroad, with a great crop 
of pear already on it, buy his grain in carload lots and 
ship the butter to the Northern markets. With the 
milking machines, pear and a refrigerating plant a man 
with sufficient capital to start, and enough sense to 
handle machinery can- establish a fine business. 
Texas. wm. Sinclair. 
ALFALFA BACTERIA. 
1 liave been told that if we keep on seeding Alfalfa year 
after year on good soil, regardless of failure, in time wo 
shall lind nodules on the roots and bacteria in the soil. 
This, it is said, can be done without “inoculation.” 
Where do these bacteria come from if we do not start them 
with “pure cultures” or in soil from an old field? J. k. t. 
Your impression that the reseeding of Alfalfa in 
any particular place may, in a manner, obviate the 
necessity of inoculation is entirely in accord with the 
facts. Now, there may be two explanations why 
Alfalfa, or any other legume, may become properly 
inoculated when reseeded; in the first place, a few 
of the bacteria are introduced into the soil with the 
A CACTUS GREENHOUSE FOR TESTING. Fig. 249. 
seed; these are sufficient to produce nodules on a 
few of the plants. These nodules decay and a larger 
or smaller number of bacteria find their way into the 
soil, and, perhaps, multiply there to some extent; 
hence, when the field is reseeded to the same legume 
a sufficiently large number of bacteria may be present 
in the soil to cause a fairly abundant inoculation. In 
the second place, it has been claimed that the bacteria 
producing nodules on the roots of legumes really all 
belong to a single species. When any particular legume 
is grown for some time on any soil these bacteria 
may become specialized, and adapt themselves, so to 
say, to the legume in question, losing thereby the 
power to enter readily into other legumes. This, per¬ 
May 28, 
haps, finds an analogy in the organism producing tuber¬ 
culosis in human beings, domestic animals and birds. 
Considerable differences are found in the organisms 
from the different animals where we know that they 
are undoubtedly derived from the same source. It has 
been claimed, therefore, that by growing a new legume 
on any soil the nodule bacteria present there will grad¬ 
ually adapt themselves to this new legume. The num¬ 
ber thus adapting themsdves may be smaller in the 
first year and naturally much larger in the second 
year, as already indicated; whatever the true explana¬ 
tion, there is no doubt that the reseeding of the legume 
is found sufficient to establish satisfactory inoculation. 
For practical purposes this, however, is too expensive 
and too long-drawn out, and farmers prefer, there¬ 
fore, either to use some inoculating material or to 
introduce a smaller quantity of seed of the desired 
crop with other crops, in order to provide for a 
gradual inoculation without interfering with the regular 
system of cropping. 
I had rather an interesting experience in this direc¬ 
tion within the last two years. I seeded some Soy 
beans on new land, but, in spite of using a commer¬ 
cial culture, failed to secure inoculation, and, on ex¬ 
amining the roots, failed to find any nodules. * The 
crop was harvested, such as it was, and the seed from 
these uninoculated plants were preserved. In the 
following season the same land was used and the seed 
from the uninoculated plants were employed, so that 
no bacteria were introduced from the outside; never¬ 
theless, this second crop on uninoculated land and 
grown from seed produced from uninoculated plants 
was abundantlypnoculated. jacob g. lipman. 
N. J. Exp. Station. 
CULTURE OF THE SOY BEAN. 
Practical Statement of “Do” and “Don’t.” 
Part I. 
There are many factors in growing any successful 
crop. What are the prime factors in growing a big 
crop of Soy beans? There are three: Available mois¬ 
ture at all times (and its corollaries, humus and good 
drainage), lime and good seed. The Soy bean, like 
corn, is a hot weather plant. It makes its greatest 
growth when the soil has least moisture. Unlike Red 
clover and Alfalfa, both root system and top must be 
developed within four months. It makes a greater 
growth from seed to harvest than any other legume 
I will not even except Alfalfa, for Alfalfa has a tre¬ 
mendous root system already developed, in which is 
stored immeasurable vitality and energy, awaiting only 
the first warmth of Spring to show its mature vigor. 
With the Soy bean, the seed is planted in early May, 
and the crop harvested in September. It rs safe to say 
over 400 tons of water is required to produce a ton of 
green Soy bean forage. I am told that 15 tons green 
weight per acre has been grown, and I believe it. 
Think of the weight of water consumed, 6,000 tons, 
by one acre of Soy beans within a period of four 
months, and in the season of least rainfall and greatest 
evaporation. The Soy bean root will not live in a 
swamp or with free water near the surface of the 
land. Such moisture is not available, for the roots 
cannot develop to absorb it. The ideal soil is a thor¬ 
oughly drained loam, well filled with humus to catch 
the rainfall. We must also cultivate and by an earth 
mulch save all the moisture possible. 
Given well-drained soil, with plenty of humus, the 
nitrogen-gathering bacteria will thrive if also there is 
sufficient lime to make the soil sweet. In the East this 
usually means an application of from 1,000 pounds to 
five tons per acre, the lesser amount if quick or caustic 
lime be used. I have purposely omitted to mention 
inoculation. The bacteria in my experience are natur¬ 
ally present in soils that have a fair amount of humus 
The addition of lime causes them to multiply exceed¬ 
ingly. If the soil is materially deficient in humus, 
don’t try to grow Soy beans until you have turned 
under some other green crop, or applied a good 
dressing of manure, and added lime. Of course your 
soil may be of natural limestone formation, or it may 
have been recently limed. Even then an extra dose of 
lime will be a benefit. 
The mammoth or late-maturing varieties may do 
well for the cotton States, but from Virginia northward 
use none but the medium or early kind. I have had 
best results with the Medium Green. It yields heavily 
in forage and “grain,” and the leaves are not dropped 
till the beans are mature. Even when thrashed for the 
beans, the' “straw” has a good feeding value and the 
cattle relish it. The United States Department of 
Agriculture in its pamphlet on the subject discourages 
the use of the Medium Green variety on account of 
the woodiness of the stalks. The stalks must of neces¬ 
sity be woody and tough to support a heavy growth of 
forage and grain. I have grown the Medium Green 
Sov beans for five years. The average height of the 
topmost leaves varies from 40 to 48 inches. Occasion¬ 
ally they will measure 52 inches. I am told that the 
Hollvbrook Yellow (an early variety) is good. I 
shall try a patch experimentally this year, but the main 
crop will be the old stand-by—the Medium Green. 
Some seed has been saved each year, and I feel sure 
that what I have now is more productive than its pro¬ 
genitors bought five years ago. henry w. healy. 
(Continued next week.) 
