arily furnish forage for live stock,
but in a season of drought when other feed is scarce and cattle are
starving they will risk having their mouths pricked by thorns in order
to get something to eat and will browse on mescal, yucca and cactus and
find some nourishment in the unusual diet, enough, at least, to keep
them from dying. The plants mentioned are not nearly as plentiful now
as they once were. Because of the prolonged droughts that prevail in
the range country and the overstocking of the range these plants are in
danger of being exterminated and, if the conditions do not soon change,
of becoming extinct.

The saguaro, or giant cactus, is one of nature's rare and curious
productions. It is a large, round, fluted column that is from one to
two feet thick and sometimes sixty feet high. The trunk is nearly of
an even thickness from top to bottom but, if there is any difference,
it is a trifle thicker in the middle. It usually stands alone as a
single perpendicular column, but is also found bunched in groups. If
it has any branches they are apt to start at right angles from about
the middle of the tree and curve upward, paralleling the trunk, which
form gives it the appearance of a mammoth candelabrum.

The single saguaro pillar bears a striking resemblance to a Corinthian
column. As everything in art is an attempt to imitate something in
nature, is it possible that Grecian architecture borrowed its notable
pattern from the Gila valley?

Southern Arizona is the natural home and exclusive habitat of this most
singular and interesting plant and is, perhaps, the only thing growing
anywhere that could have suggested the design. Wherever it grows, it
is a conspicuous object on the landscape and has been appropriately
named "The Sentinel of the Desert."

Its mammoth body is supported by a skeleton of wooden ribs, which are
held in position by a mesh of tough fibers that is filled with a green
pulp. Rows of thorns extend its entire length which are resinous and,
if ignited, burn with a bright flame. They are sometimes set on fire
and have been used by the Apaches for making signals. The cactus tree,
like the eastern forest tree, is often found bored full of round, holes
that are made by the Gila woodpecker. When the tree dies its pulp
dries up and blows away and there remains standing only a spectral
figure composed of white slats and fiber that looks ghostly in the
distance.

Its fruit is delicious and h