persons of responsibility report that the working horse does well on mesquite and that hogs have fattened satisfactorily on grass and mesquite beans."[1]
- ↑ The following information is furnished by Mr. N. R. Powell, Pettus, Bee County, Texas:
"About six years ago one thousand pounds of mesquite beans were gathered and ground with the hulls and were then pressed by the Beeville Oil Mill into cakes the same size as cottonseed cake. Some of these cakes were kept two years and fed to cattle, which seemed to do them as much good as cottonseed cake. The difference between mesquite beans and cotton seed is that the former does not have to be ground as it breaks up easily.
"Some seasons, it is stated by Mr. Powell, as much as a trainload of mesquite beans are produced by him. This is when a dry spring and summer occur. A good bearing mesquite tree will produce from fifty to one hundred and fifty pounds. Mr. Powell states that he thinks the value of mesquite beans in southwest Texas, if properly cared for, would be more than one million dollars annually." (Letter, Rex E. Willard, Assistant Agriculturist, Brownsville, Texas, February 11, 1914.)
"However, the mesquite grows more on the flats than it does in the mountains; but it does grow to some extent in the foothills; and when there is a good crop of beans, these furnish a great amount of feed for hogs and also cattle and horses. When the mesquite beans get ripe along in August, and where they are very thick, you can see the cattle and horses grazing on them a great deal all over the ranges; and especially if the grass is short, which occurs in a dry year, a great many animals get their sustenance from these beans. Mesquite beans have an exceptionally high value as feed for all classes of stock, and they are looked upon as very fattening. I know of several cases where swine were turned out on the sand hills during August and September, and though they secured practically nothing else but the beans and what little grass they could get, they have been fattened sufficiently for market. There are other places in the mountains where they turn the hogs out just as they would cattle, and give them absolutely no feed, other than what they get themselves. The hogs range through the canyons and in the brush. I have seen a great many hogs gathered along before Christmas from places like this, and they were in as high finish as any you would find that had been fed in the lot. These are usually fattened on acorns.
"In some places where the mesquite bushes are exceptionally thick the people, especially the natives, gather them and feed to their horses and cattle. I have used mesquite beans to feed to horses myself on trips over the country when we had no grain, and I find that they are not only relished by the animals, but they are very good feed." (Letter from W. H. Simpson, Professor of Animal Husbandry, New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, State College, New Mexico, June 3, 1913.)
"In the western and southwestern sections of the state the mesquite bean affords during some years a large proportion of the feed supply of the horses and cattle of those sections." (Letter from John C. Burns. Professor of Animal Husbandry, Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, College Station, Texas, June 6, 1912.)
