New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 
421 
A partial examination of the nitrogen-free extract shows the plant 
to contain 
Top. Stump. 
Invert sugar 2 . 80 
Sucrose 5.92 3.60 
Starch ' 9.96 17.10 
An examination of the large amount of mucilaginous substance 
present (particularly in the stump) showed it to be due to pectosic 
products, but no determination of the amount was made. The high 
per cent of ash led me to make a partial ash analysis, with results as 
follows : 
Top. Stump . 
Phosphoric acid, P 3 O 5 1 . 10 . 20 
Potash, K 3 13.88 16.72 
Soda, Na 2 10.56 13.64 
Lime,CaO 37.28 35.12 
Magnesia, MgO 4.20 4.01 
We find it very deficient in phosphates, the bases being combined 
largely with organic acids or as carbonates. 
The deficiency of nitrogenous matter (albuminoids) and the phos- 
phates so essential for growing animals could be supplied readily with 
cottonseed meal and wheat bran. From the nature of the plant it 
seems that a machine so constructed as to thoroughly crush the plant 
would have advantages over one cutting the cactus into small pieces. 
By mixing the meal with the cactus while crushing, I should expect to 
secure the best results in feeding. 
Prickly Comfrey. 
June 25 there was received from Dr. Henry Foster, of Clifton 
Springs, a quantity of prickly comfrey for examination. On a previous 
visit at Dr. Foster's farm, where five acres of the plant were being 
grown for soiling, he informed me that he secured five crops each 
season and that he expected the produce from these five acres would 
furnish one-half of the fodder, other than grain, for his herd of fifty 
cows from May until October. He was then feeding two rations per 
day of corn ensilage and two of comfrey with mixed grains. The field 
certainly presented a most luxuriant growth of foliage at the time of 
my visit. 
Under date of September 21 Dr. Foster wrote me as follows: 
