Excerpt from The Prickly Pear as a Farm Crop
NO attempts have been made hitherto to cultivate prickly pear as a regular crop in this country. The nearest approach to it was made by some of the old mission fathers of California, who im ported cuttings, probably from Mexico, and planted them in hedges, where thev served the double purpose of barriers against stock and as food for man. That they received any appreciable degree of cultivation. However, is very doubtful. They were probably grown in much the same manner that the so-called cultivated prickly pears are grown in Mexico to-day.
An extended use has been made of the native crop at various times for the past fifty years or more in southern Texas. But it has mainly been spasmodic, lasting only until the drought was broken, ex cept for sheep and goats. Which are fed on it regularly. And in the case Of the few dairymen who have made it a practice to feed it for a portion of each vear. In short, the prickly pear has been con sidered an emergency feed, to be used only when other feeds fail. Even enthusiastic pear feeders in Texas thought that the results to be obtained from planting and cultivating an experimental tract would only be very interesting. There was little expectation that the plants would respond to cultivation as they have done. The facts presented in this paper, however, Show that the prickly pear will produce, under proper cultural methods similar to those used for the common staple crops, yields of roughage superior to some of the standard agricultural (crops of the region, especially when an off year occurs. It has proved itself under cultivation not onlv an emergency feed but an insurance against famine, as well as a plant which can be grown and depended upon regularly as a farm crop.
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