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Show :L----V:"'S' TROOPS MA Y USE CACTUS FOR WATER In the pursuit of Villa and his bandits through the arid regions of northern Mexico the United States troops traversed a region whose only vegetation vege-tation is the barbed and forbidding cactus. To any but a cowboy or a trained plainsman of the Southwest, inhabitants themselves of the "cactus belt," this plant seemingly has no more value than the veriest weed, but it may well be that it may prove of great value to the troops in the absence of water, fodder, or even food for human beings. In the punitive expedition there are many cow punchers of the "cactus belt" serving as scouts, and in the cowboy and the Indian of the Southwest South-west the lowly cactus has its greatest admirer, for-they for-they know what a game struggle for life this plant has to make against an unlaved desert soil. Even their ponies and cattle and the poor beasts of the desert know of these uses of the cactus for water and fodder, says the New York Herald. There are some thousand varieties of this monstrous mon-strous vegetable family, not counting the 300 varieties va-rieties of the agave, or century plant incorrectly included by many in northern Mexico. The varieties va-rieties of the yucca palm and all other forms of vegetation known to the arid region have the same faculty of sucking up from the soil every drop of the all too little moisture in it and storing it up in their tough and leathery leaves and roots. Of the many varieties perhaps the most remarkable remark-able is that member of the family known to those schooled in desert craft as the "water barrel." This plant is shaped somewhat like, a beer keg and is about the same size. Through all the years of Its growth It has been sopping up what moisture the famished earth contained and retaining it. It is the sole reliance of desert dwellers In time of drought, and the troops, far from water holes and with water wa-ter scarce, may yet be obliged to drink from it The "water barrel" is tapped by slicing off the top with a sword or machete and pounding the pulp until the water contained in It wells up Into the saucer thus formed. The pulp itself is pure and the water stored in it is likewise pure and refreshing. re-freshing. Not all the water-bearing cacti are as gracious to famishing man, however, as the "water barrel," for most of them have protected themselves against the maraudings of those who would drink and live by imparting a bitter taste to the waer they contain. con-tain. The "peyote" especially, which abounds in the plains and deserts of Arizona, has a trick of discouraging depredations upon it, for its plump and juicy pulp secretes a bitter and poisonous juice. In the last dozen years scientists have interested themselves in the study of the cactus for its possibilities possi-bilities as food, fodder and economic by-products. Dr. Leon E. Landone, foremost in the study of this desert plant, several years ago conducted extensive experiments in Los Angeles to ascertain the value of the thornless cactus as an article of food for human beings. In an effort to prove his contention conten-tion that it contains food properties sufficient to enable a man to work 18 hours a day, he and his two secretaries for two weeks lived oil a daily diet of the leaves and fruit of the cactus, the former being served green or fried and the latter either raw or cooked. While the "cactus squad" survived sur-vived the experience and professer to have enjoyed en-joyed their novel diet, It is a fact that the cactus never has attained the popularity of a filet mlgnon In the whole vegetable kingdom probably there is not another plant family having so many differentiations dif-ferentiations of form as the cacti. For it Is possible pos-sible to find among them species that crawl and creep like vines, other than stand erect in a single unbending stalk, like a green living monument of the desert; still others that are rooted to the spot with their highest growth close to the ground and bearing almost no resemblance to usual forms of vegetation, and others, again, that branch out In thick unblooming branches. |