Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-06-13
CTo be continued.l
ARlzoNA's BIG CACTUS FARM
Supplies Most of the Botanical Gar
dens of the World.

uens OF the World.
A mile south of Phoenix, close 10 the
usually dry channel of Salt River, is
one Of the oldest farms in America
says the Los Angeles Times. 1t is
planted to nothing but cactus. of every
form found within Arizona. Each kind
is cultivated under the same conditions
prevailing upon its native heath. to as
great an extent as is possible, and
most of them thrive well under the hot
skies of Southern Arizona, cared for
by experts
The main owner of the farm is DR..
k. Z. KunZ, college-bred German
scientist who has taken up the study
of cacd and their cousins as his life
work. A physician, he has particular
ly studied the plants for the POSSIBLE
ity of securing products valuable in
medicine. And the unitarian side has
appealed to him in other ways, and he
knows the plants wherefrom come
good fruit, those that bear good water
for the thirsty desert traveller and
those useful to the architecture of the
aboriginal house builder.
Arizona has become the source of
supply for cactus for most of the bo-
tanical gardens of the world, and this
demand for plants has increased till a
lucrative industry has arisen from
what would seem to the initiated one
of the most unpromising floral fields of
the world
The most prominent of the cacti of
the garden is the saguaro. 1t is one
of the landmarks of the desert. Its
large white flowers cover the end of
every branch in April and May, fol-
lowed by greeniSh-yellow fruit,
which when it bursts discIoses a scar
let pulp filled with black seeds. This
is very nutritious.
Another species Of far greater use, if
not attraction, is cereus thurberi or
playa of the natives. which was
named after the late DR.. George Thur
Der, editor of the American Agricul-
turist of New York. Its northern linn
it is 115 miles from Phoenix in south
westerly direction and extends into So
nora southwark The flower is white.
nocturnal and smaller than that Of the
SaguaO.
The fruit of this species is of deli
cious taste and for months is the sup
port of tribes of Indians, who then
feast upon it. The pulp is also dried
for future use and sirup, as we'll as
an intoxicating liquor, is made from
the fresh fruit. The Yaquis, Papagoes
and Pimas largely subsist on the fruit
Of this cactus. The stems Of this cac-
tus grow from six 10 twenty feet high.
Perhaps the queerest cactus of all
America is eereus greggii of Arizona,
known to Mexicans as jara Matraca.
Unlike any other cactus, it has very
large tuber in place of fibrous roots
and it resembles a great sugar beet be-
low the surface, weighing from two to
fourteen pounds. The stems are not
more than two to four feet high, as
thick as a finger and covered with
very short spines. The tuber is me-
dicinal, used externally in Mexico. 1t
is the Arizona night-blooming cereus,
sr"agrant, the flower white and large as
a saucer.
Engelmanns hedgehog cereus, known
as echinocerus engelmanni, grows in
clumps of from two TO twenty joints,
having very large brownish white
spines, from one to one and a half
feet in height Its brilliant rose-colored
flowers, very fragrant, appear in April
and by the latter part of May are fol-
lowed by crimson edible berry of the
size and flavor of a large strawberry.
"Opintia" is the prickly pear family,
Of which we have many specimens of
various colors. The flat-jointed bear
in some cases fine fruit. while the
round-branched. often twisted like a
rope, have q woody fruit unfit for food.
These are met with on the desert ta-
bleland and mountains. But most of
these are seen together cultivated on
the cactus farm near Phoenix.