John G. Allen's field notes filed 25th September 1911 in Block C-25 in eastern Loving County calls for 2 cat-claw stakes and 2 mesquite stakes. I'm not sure what a cat-claw stake is. Some kind of desert cactus or ??? Any other desert surveyors know what this means?
Cat Claw is a tree with hooked thorns along the limbs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senegalia_greggii
Google Acacia greggii
It's mean. I've drug deer through them in South Texas and wished I hadn't when I got done. Think of a locust, only mad, with the thorns that break off so easy, but don't come out. Almost like a porcupine quill.
If it has thorns, at least 10 varieties grow in Texas...
Bill93, post: 343590, member: 87 wrote: Google Acacia greggii
yikes
Why the heck are they making stakes out of it? Well, never mind. Scarcity and necessity I suppose. Apparently it grows in the vicinity because in addition to calls for cat claw stakes, there are also calls for cat claw bearing "trees" marked "x".
Kuchler Plant Associations:
K059 Trans-Pecos shrub savanna
Andy Nold, post: 343649, member: 7 wrote: Why the heck are they making stakes out of it? Well, never mind. Scarcity and necessity I suppose. Apparently it grows in the vicinity because in addition to calls for cat claw stakes, there are also calls for cat claw bearing "trees" marked "x".
By "stake" what was probably meant was about a 2 in. x 24 in. length of cat claw acacia wood. In Central Texas, stakes were usually cedar (Juniperus asheii, a highly rot-resistant species), but elsewhere whatever was at hand was used, regardless of whether it was rot-resistant or not. In other parts of Texas, you will see calls for "hackberry stake" and "china stake", both of which were probably bug dust in less than ten or fifteen years.
Locally are the "Devil's Walking stick" that has thousands of spinney thorns from ground to top of a 5ft plant and a "Locust shrub" that has thorns nearly 3in long hidden under near every leaf.
Both are extremely sharp and will penetrate to the bone quickly.