22 
THE SPINELESS CACTUS : 
earth separated by spaces, from which it is not 
necessary to remove the native vegetation. A 
little manure is placed in the bottom of the hole, 
the cutting is placed on top and some earth is heaped 
up at the base. After that one need only heap 
up the earth the second year and again the third. 
There is no need of weeding as the cactus defends 
itself against foreign plants. The total expense 
of establishing and maintaining a plantation would 
not much exceed 100 to 150 francs per hectare— 
(about two acres—$10.00 to $15.00 per acre.) 
Even if the cactus yielded no product of direct 
utility, yet it would, on account of its great hardi¬ 
ness and rapidity of increase, perform a very dis¬ 
tinct function in preventing the rain from carrying 
away superficial layers of soil from barren slopes 
which the rain waters would surely carry to the 
sea where would be wasted uselessly this most 
precious portion of the earth’s crust, the portion 
most rich in elements of fertility. Moreover the 
cactus facilitates the penetration of the earth by 
waters which reappear below in the form of springs. 
It is impossible to repeat too often that, in such 
countries as Tunis and Algiers where frequently 
torrential rains are separated by long seasons of 
drouth, too great effort cannot be made to re¬ 
tain in the ground as much as possible of this 
water which ordinarily trickles away without bene¬ 
fit to agriculture over the numerous barren slopes. 
It is not necessary to wait until it forms into rivu¬ 
lets before trying to catch it. It is much sooner 
than this, when the water has as yet formed merely 
liquid threads which the tiniest obstacle can 
divert that the effort should be made to make it 
penetrate the soil. The cactus, planted on cleared 
strips, worked out according to the contour of the 
surface, may be advantageously employed to 
this end. 
But, as we have just said, the cactus does afford 
products of great importance in the feeding of 
stock. The Journal Tropicale D’Agriculture has 
insisted upon this point and has been quite right 
in so doing. 
In Tunis the stalks destined for stock can be 
harvested as early as the fourth year and that too 
without any expense in the maintenance of the 
plantation. Moreover this yield may continue 
almost fixed for a very long time as has been 
observed in the case of cactus plantations as much 
as fifty years old yet still vigorous anti nroductive. 
Finally this food can be used during the period 
when green food is most scarce, i. e., from July 
to November in North Africa. 
This brief review of the services of the cactus 
is sufficient to prove that it is invaluable to dry 
regions. And yet, in spite of all its advantages, 
its area of culture is not in accord with the use 
which might be made of it. This state of affairs 
is perhaps due to some difficulties which could 
probably be overcome, which are presented by the 
attempt to employ the varieties actually known. 
The varieties of cactus, truly very numerous 
but not thoroughly studied may be grouped from 
the agricultural point of view into two groups: 
(1) The varieties with thorns (Ivermous en Nessara, 
of the Algcriens; Fiendi Roumi, des Tunisiens) and 
the varieties without thorns (Hendi Ameles of 
the Tunisiens). This is a distinction based solely 
on the presence or absence of thorns on all parts 
of the plant. The stalks (raquettes ) of the thorny 
cactus are used only with great difficulty as a 
food for stock. It sometimes happens, however, 
that stock will eat them when pressed by hunger 
or by the necessity of finding juicy food in the 
warm days of spring. But the cropping of this 
food is rendered difficult on account of the thorns 
which, moreover, are sometimes the cause of serious 
inflammation of the digestive organs. 
In order to obviate this inconvenience one may 
expose the stalks to a quick fire; the thorns burn 
readily. Nevertheless the fact remains that when 
the stalks are intended to be used in the stock 
barns, as in mixing with other foods, the gathering 
and feeding of them is managed only with great 
difficulty and not without entailing some risk of 
injury to the workmen who handle them. More¬ 
over it has been observed in Texas that in burning 
the thorns slight blisters arc produced which 
result in a change in the food substance of the 
stalk which is capable of causing grave gastric 
troubles in the animals that consume the food 
thus treated. 
The fruits of the thorned cactus present the same 
difficulties as the stalks. One may eliminate the 
thorns from the fruits also by means of a quick 
fire. The gathering of the fruits which often grow 
high is particularly difficult and requires consid¬ 
erable labor. This fruit must be consumed immed¬ 
iately as it begins to ferment a short time after it 
is detached from the stock: Fermentation is the 
more rapid perhaps because the season of maturity 
is that of great heat. They mature, in fact, during 
the summer season, beginning at the end of July 
and lasting not much more than two months. 
And at the time of the most abundant production 
of fruit the scarcity of fodder has not as yet begun 
to make its sad results so cruelly apparent. 
The cactus without spines does not present 
certain of the difficulties of the foregoing varieties. 
But, on the other hand, in order to establish a 
plantation, it is necessary to enclose the field in 
order to keep the spineless plants from being de¬ 
voured by stock, whence arises an expense 
quite large in comparison with the other expenses 
of establishing a plantation. Moreover, it lias 
been observed, at least in North America, that 
the yield of fruits from the thornless cactus was 
less than that of the spined variety. One fre¬ 
quently sees a spined and a spineless cactus growing 
side by side, the former bearing 12 to 15 fruits 
to each leaf, the latter only 3 or 4. 
