Bisbee daily review., 1909-07-04

tniS town tu tHe top oi ms NhN VI negie Institution has set uD sort ot botanical workshop. the business or which is to make a study of desert plants. The object of the inyestiga tion is to find out how such plants manage to get along with almost nc water.
 This is a kind of knowledge that will be very valuable when applied. so far
 as may be practicable. fin the raising of ordinary crops in parts of the west where rainfall Is deficient But. incl dentally, efforts are being made toI find uses for some of these plants of the desert-especially for certain cacti, which. it is believed. can be made to yield marketable products. Priekiy Pear Fruit.
 There is. for example. one kind of prickly pear (growing wild in Arizona | and New Mexico.l the fruit of which | has juice of brilliant red color. This
 fruit is already utilized to consider | able extent for preserves. But it is 1 thought that the juice might have i'm | portant commercial value as vege table coloring. its hue. when the fluid is concentrated, being as rich as that | of cochineal.
 ! A number of species of prfckly | pears yield edible fruits, which are I largely consumed in Mexico, and | which might easily be grown in the | southern part of the United States | and particularly in the southwest Ex ! periments with some of these were | made not long ago by Dr. Leon F.
 Landons. who lived for a number of I days on the friuts and leaves. the
 latter being eaten as greens and fried
 like eggplant.
 | Of such cactus fruits there are good many kinds, produced by a cor | responding number of distinct species of plants related more or less nearly | to the common prickly pear. All oi them are known in Mexico. in gen | eral way as "tunas," but, according to variety. they bear different names,
 such as "cardona,'' amarillo, "blan ca" "palo altena,'' "afayuca, and
 ''ranchera." These, indeed. are only a few out of many.
 | Mexican Cultivation.
 II Such cacti in Mexico are cultivated .i simply by planting cuttings in the U ground and surrounding them with a Il fence to kep out animals. They rare ]. ly receive any further attention. be
 yond gathering the annual crop. The
 fruits, however, are utilized for a
 number of different purposes, some
 of them being eaten raw, while other
 are employed in the manufacture c
 tuna honey and tuna cheese. which are marketable products. .i To make tuna honey, the juice O
 the fruits is boiled in kettles until i
 reaches the consistency of molasse5
 and then is poured into woodeI , troughs to cool. after which 1t , 1 stored in bottles and earthen jugs. Be
 ing (thanks to the boiling) a steril'
 product, tightly sealed, and rich Il 5 sugar. it will keep indefinitely. O
 course, it does not taste like honey
 but is Of about the same consistenc,
 as ruufd honey and might appropr
 ately be called cactus molasses.
 One of the most highly prizet
 friuts of this kind is the cardona. Dl
 David Griffiths, of the governmen plant bureau, says that he himsel once ate 200 cardonas in a day. Thi was to find out whether they wer
 wholesome or not. Even such quar
 tity did not disagree with him at all 5 But it should be realized that tn pulp of the cardona, which is the oni
 part eaten. is nearly all water. Tn
 fruit, in fact. frequently serves tn
 natives as both food and drink in tn
 arid regions of the southwest.
 Thin Walls Hold Juice. In the structure of the cardora tn . walls of the cells that hold the juic f are very thin, so that there is only i ,Cnall amount of fiber. By pressin .- the pulp in muslin bags practically a Y of it can be forced through, separa n ing out the seeds. Perhaps the grea 9 Lest objection to these cactus fruit e lies in the plentifulness of their seed Q but persons accustomed to eatin r them raw do not seem to mind. Whe i. the pulp Is taken in the manner abov Il described, 1t is separated in ;h n field, and carried in earthen jars { l. the factory by the pickers.
 r. Sometimes "a fermented drink i F. made from the pulp. For this purpos a. it Is boiled for two or three hour IT strained. and set away to cool. Tn D. longer it stands the more intoxicatin Il it is Or. if preferred. the boiling D. continued until the liquid Is reduce E. to the consistency of paste, whic n is sold in the Mexican markets as $ sweetmeat There are othef produc g, made from the pulr, or from the juic
 one of them being the tuna cheese
 aforementioned, which is put up ft ,e sale in neat little bricks. covered wit te tinfoil a
 ia How Desert Piants Store Water. rt The problem of storing a supply 10 water for their own use, and of pr m venting it's evaporation, has bee Id solved by the desert riants in mar Id most ingenious ways. Perhaps Il to most noteworthy example is the s Id called "water-barrel.- which. of abo'
 the size and shape of an ordtnal lg beer keg. is in fact nothing more n' s, less than a living water tank. l of whole interior is composed of stora. ID cells so admirably arranged that Il re pulp which they form contains som IS thing like 96 per cent of pure wate se The water, indeed, is of excelleI n- quality. and access to it Is easily o n- tained by cutting off with a macne Id the top of the barrel" which Is co in cred all over with formidable spik m TO STAMP OUT CONSUMPTION CDRT\CETEl I'll JuIv S-Tl