Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1908-01-23
BURBANK ON CACTUS
Startling Statements Made About
His Thornless Variety.
GOOD PRODUCER OF MILK.

California Horticulturst Says Cows
Prefer Cactus to Any Other Kind OF
Fodder-Believes Improved Species
Will Be Most Important OF Plants
For Arid Regions.
At the irrigation congress held in
Sacramento, Cal, recently Luther Bur
bank, the horticultural expert of Call
fornia, gave a talk on cacd, says the
Florists Review. Among other things
he said:
"One-third of the earths surface is
desert. Nearly the whole of Australia,
except a narrow rim along the coast,
has been found to be almost useless
for any purpose except sheep raising.
The cactus which was introduced
there and also into South America was
one of the poorest varieties and was
taken there probably for ornament
on account of Its large and luxuriant
thorns, and 1t has since taken posses
sion of those countries. 1t is destruc-
tive to sheep, often getting into their
eyes, and when once introduced on the
land 1t costs more than the value of
the land to eradicate it.
Fifteen years ago l was examining
and studying forest plants for dry re-
gions to see what improvement could
be made upon them, and it struck me
that the cactus, If the thorns could be
taken off, would be one of the best for
desert culture. l found by raising
them from seed that ninety-nine out of
a hundred would be thorny, but once
In awhile one would be found that had
few or no thorns. | carefully saved
the seeds from these, and after grow
ing thousands and thousands of seed
lings l finally produced one that was
absolutely thornless.
"Now. as | wished to get a cactus
that would produce a great amount of
nourishment, of course my first object
was to get 1t thornless and next to get
a variety that would produce the
greatest quantity OF forage per acre.
That has been well accomplished. l
have u cactus that, set out in rows 3
by feet produces 200 tons of food
per acre. Twenty tons per acre from
beets, carrots, turnips or cabbages is
considered a good crop. Some of the
older cacti will produce as much as
hundred tons.
"The cactus is not as nutritious as the
beet, but there is much more water in
it. BY analysis some cact produce 2h
per cent of starch, while others pro-
duce but the one-twentieth of l per
cent, showing the difference in con-
stituents. My object is to combine this
great productiveness with great nutri-
ton, and when that is done my opinion
is that the cactus will be the most i'm
portant plant that there is on earth to-
day for arid regions. l have taken the
wild Colorado cacti, planted them
thickly in n small bed and given them
no water; then l have planted four or
Eve of my improved cacti in the same
bed, and the improved cacti starved
the others almost to death. With the
same treatment they will grow three
or four feet in height, be in perfect
vigor and often weigh five to seven
pounds each, while the Colorado wild
cacti are drying up for lack of mois-
ture. The ability of the improved cacti
to root deeper from their greater indi-
vtdual growth gives them the oppor-
tunity to strike deeper and take the
moisture up, while the common wild
cacti cannot reach 1t and hence starve
to death.
Every animal that eats vegetation
of any kind is very fond of the cactus.
and for that reason it has thorns. 9th
erwise 1t would have been either out
of existence o. 1t would have taken
some other means to protect itself.
Cows relish cactus and when used to
it prefer 1t to any other kind of fod
der. 1t produces good milk and is used
in the Hawaiian Islands and northern
Africa for that purpose extensively.
If people only knew what cactus is
and knew the benefits to be derived
by planting the improved sorts, 1t
would soon prove to be the greatest
thing ever known for reclaiming arid
soil naturally"