The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1914-01-23
THE TEXAS PRICELY PEAR CACTUS
EXPERIMENTS AT BROWNSVILLE
PROVE PEAR GOOD cow FEED.
Can Be Cultivated at Very Little cost
and When Once Planteo, Grows n
definiteIy-Texas Good Field

tanning the value OF the prlckly peal
cactus as a feed for dairy COWS the
dairy division of the bureau of animal
industry in cooperation with the Oh
flee of farm management of the pp-
reau of plant industry conducted a
series OF experiments, 1911-lSl5' az
Brownsville, Texas.
Following is summary OF results
obtained:
Prickly pear was found to be very
palatable, and when judiciously Tea
was in no way detrimental to the COW
or her product during the two years
trial.
the mosS satisfactory amount was
sixty to one hundred pounds o. the
pear per COW per day depending upon
the~Bize of the COW and upon the ylela
of milk. Larger quantities of the pear
caused a very laxative condition OF
the bowels. Chemical analysis SHOW
ed that the pear was low in protein
high in mineral matter, and contained
from 81 to SO per cent of water Feed
ing trials indicated that the pear
should be used with some dry teeu
containing a large amount of protelq,
and that the pear on account Oh It's
high mineral contents is good feed
to give with ration deficient in MIN
eral matter, like cotton seed hulls.
When compared with other com
mon roughages in Southern Texas the
pear was found to have the following
relative value for the production OF
milk Sat:
One pound sorghum hay, equal te
10.1 pounds of pear. =
One pound sorghum silage, equal tt
3.3 pounds of pear.
One pound cotton seed hulls, eQua
to 8S pounds of pear.
By substituting sixty to seVenty-ftv'
pounds of pear for portion OF tn
dry roughage the percentage OF ia
in the milk was decreased forey-twt
hundredths per cent on an average
It also decreased somewhat the tota
amount of fat and the percentage o
solids not fat, but increased the tota
yield of milk. Like pasture grass, tn
pear produced a higher colored butte
than did the dry feed. The flavor C
the milk and butter was not impaire
In any way
A good daily maintenance ration &c
grade Jersey rows when dry wa
found to be as follows:
Four to six pounds sorghum hay.
One pound cotton seed meal
Sixty to one hundred pounds of pea
Cows that were fed no roughage e.
cept pear, drank no water far day
at time and then only few swa
lows; those fed one hundred and fit
pounds per day drank an average
five pounds daily; those fed sevent
five pounds drank thirty pounds daily
those on dry feed drank sixty-nir
pounds per day on an average Fro
these results it appears that pear
valuable feed when there is sea
city of stock water
Under farm conditions the cost
! establishing a field of pears will
: Sc or 81 per acre. When once esta
lished and properly cared for, t
field of pear will last indefinitely, t
young growth springing from the
stumps as soon as the pear is harve
ed. In Southern Texas no irrigaoi
is necessary, but shallow cultivati
sufficient to keep out weeds and gra
. should be given.
The average yield at Brownsvil
Texas, under very favorable con
tons, two years from planting, "
- eighty-fiye tons per acre per We
10 The growth from old stumps Is c.
siderably greater amounting in c
test to over two hundred tons /
acre for the two years growth TIL,
yields were made under good dry-la
cultivation. At San Antonio the vi
of native spring cactus was twer
three tons per acre without irrigati
q but with fair cultivation. At Chi
~ the yield of spineless cactus was alb
= twenty-five tons per acre without
- rigation, but with expert cultivati