The Ketchikan miner., 1908-08-15
THE THORNLESS CACTUS IS A
 MARVEL.

1 VI
 When Luther Burbank first an- nounced to the world that he had pro- iuced new fodder plant which would revolutionize stock raising and create new era in agriculture, an interest," d world-believing thoroughly in Burbank and his work, ,-listened for a moment praised the wizard for the thousandth time and then forgot. But only for day. The wonders of the Burbank thornless cactus had not been half told and the intelligent press of the country-dailies, weeklies and monthly magazines-took up the story with accustomed zeal and enter prise and are still telling it today. No wonder the improved thornless cactus is dubbed Burbank's greatest triumph. 1 This new creation in plant life means more to the farmer and stock raiser than any production of the past cen- tury. A fodder which will grow with out irrigation and which hourishes ike the green bay tree when given nodicum of water, which will yield -four to eight times as much in feed- ing value per acre as alfalfa, which is superior to alfalfa in many respects md which may be cut great the year, around may we'll excite the deepest and most abiding interest among the practical ranchers of the great vest.
 A vegetable that bears fruit it is. A plant that is relished by every an. imal from a canary bird to an ele- phant. A feed superior in some or all respects to any now in use. An ex cellent substitute for sorphum hay, for dairy stock. A wholesome focdi for man. These are but few of the. virtues of the Burbank thornless cac- tus that have come to be generally known and recognized. But the un-- olding marvels of the Burbank cac-- tus are intending. The fexper-- ments which have been conducted by the company which secured from Luther Burbank the exclusive right to propagate and distribute these plants, and tests made by governments fexperts have established many hither- to unknown truths about the cactus. One of the most startling of these is that the improved, thornless, Bur- bank plant not only grows much faster than the wild cactus but it produces many times more rapidly. The wild | oft fc '0,f r1p leach season but these new leaves do mot bud and reproduce the same sea- son. The Burbank cactus produces new generation every six weekss Nothing like this is known in the an imal or vegetable kingdoms!
 To make this point, plain: On the company's farm at Indio, California, in the sunbaked Coachella valley, the leaf or slab thrust into the ground buds and reproduces new leaves with buds on them in six weeks! A single slab frequently produces twelve to twe enty young green leaves in two months to ten weeks This is such ans astounding rate of reproduction that the scot es of visitors to the Indio nur- sery every week go away amazed Another wonderful thing about the Burbank thornless cactus is the e. tinacity with which it clings to fs
 n u indiff, renoe it displays to the bufetings of fate. A young green slab t rown out on the desert soil at India, msed to the fierce rays of the r)p- ical SUI :, without drop of moisture save what it could seize from the ai wa, after six weeks of such neglect, thrust d few inches into the ground. It immediately grew gieen again, hudded and reproduced. Plants acci- dentaly blown over, nntilated or : upronted. showed no cnncern nor ir- jury whatever, no arrest of growth, nor deterioration in quality. One slab was cut up into strips and the Estris planted separately. Each .sec- Ition of this leaf went right ahead 2 growing ard prospering. Several hundred ot the leaves were set out in the sunbaked soil and left alone for ten weeks without drop of water. They all budded and reproduced just the saIue.