Estancia news-herald. [volume] (Estancia, Torrance County, N.M.) 1912-19??, 1914-04-23
TREE CACTUS IS
GOOD COW FEED

w. D. 1dTidDu VIII HOS d loi III
in the foothills west of Estancia,
is the pioneer cactus feeder in
this country, and his experience
during the past winter demon
strates that those who own lands
upon which the tree cactus flour
ishes have valuable resource Of
which they nave been heretofore
ignorant.
1t has been generally known
for years that the cactus con-
tained valuable food constituents,
but the problem of getting rid Of
the spines has been considered
an insurmountable difficulty in
utilizing the cactus on practical
scale, and the experiments by
Luther Burbank in producing a
spineless cactus have therefore
been watched with great interest,
and it has been generally con-
sidered that the successful out
come of his experiments promised
the only hope of making the
cactus an asset instead of nui-
sance.
Mr. Garland, however, has
demonstrated on a practical
scale that the tree cactus in its
natural state is a resource not to
be despised in those localities
where it fourishes, and that it is
not improbably worth while to
propagate it as feed crop.
Early last fall his attention
was attracted by one Of his cows
which he found had discovered
the knack of getting at the cac-
tus pods without suffering great
inconvenience from the thorns.
This set him to thinking, and
by little experimenting he
found that it was no great task
to cut the new growth and re-
move the spines by SINCE
ing, and that when thus treated
the cows ate it eagerly, consum-
ing every bit of the last years
growth. He also found that it is
a strong feed, producing more
milk and butter than any other
forage he had ever used.
Having satisfied himself that
it was all right as a feed, he
commenced about the first Of
December feeding the cactus and
nothing else to five milch cows.
He continued this through the
entire winter until a few weeks
ago, when grazing became suffi-
cient to support the stock, and
says he has never used a more
satisfactory feed.
AS to the work of preparing
and feeding the cactus, he says it
is not difficult or laborious task
and compared with the labor of
raising and harvesting regular
forage crops, it is no task at all.
He timed himself frequently and
found that it required an aver
age of thirty minutes to cut and
SINCE enough cactus to feed the
cows for one day. Thus it will
be seen that to feed five cows
during the months of December,
January, February and March,
121 days, he put in only trifie
over one weeks labor, or six
days of ten hours each.
Mr.. Garland's method is to cut
the new growth, handle it with
a pitchfork, with which it is held
over small fire made Of brush
and twigs. He says it takes very
little fire to do the business. The
spines burn off almost in a flash,
and the feed is ready-and the
COWS were always ready for it
Of course Mr.. Garland is for
tunately situated for cactus feed
ing. The plant grows thickly or
and around his place, and every
where there is plenty of dry
sticks and brush. His cows soor
learned to follow him and stant
around the fire waiting unit
breakfast was ready. he gen
orally cut below the last year.
growth, more or less, and fount
that if stinted a little in thei
feed, the cows would eat some O
the two-year- old growth but thi
is somewhat tough and woody
and if they had plenty they re
jected it.
Mr.. Garland has found furthe
that the cactus seed is fin
chicken feed. He soon observed