The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-08-02

will be Interested to Know that IL -
already with us, and that, too. without
breeding or selecting. The United
States Bureau OF Plant Industry, wo
are told by David Grifiths. In . re-
cent bulletin Of the Department OF
Agriculture, has been studying the
matter since 1907; and has collected
and introduced about rs spineless
species or varieties, 10 or IL of which
are somewhat promising. 1t Is pre-
pairing to send out free for experiment
1000 to 5000 cuttings--but only to
growers who dwell In the area where
the plant will live. This ter
ritory is comparatively restricted. IL
must be borne in mind also, we are
reminded by The Plant World (Tuc-
son. Ariz., Aprii). that a spineless cac-
tus will not necessarily remain spine-
less. Unfavorable conditions, such as
alkaline soil, heat or drought may be
expected to develop the tiny spines
that most of them possess. Further.
says the paper named above:
"It 10 essential to remember that
these plants can not be put out to
shift for themselves; they must be
farmed like any other crop, tho owing
TO their resistance. they permit moro
latitude in their treatment than most
other plants. -. The prickly-pear
plants, as they now exist, are adapted
to a region having considerable rain
fall, but too irregularly distributed for
ordinary crops. -. They are the camels
Of the vegetable world. They must
have water, but they can get along for
long periods without II. What Is most
needed In the spineless prickly pears
to-day is greater hardness, but this
quality can not be bred into them In
| two or three years. 1t might be pos
sible, by careful breeding and pelec-
tion, in decade or more to increase
the hardness of the rapid-growing
prickly pears, so as to 80. push the
limit OF their cultivation to the north
ward very materially. But this will
take much patient toll and many years
OF experimentation.
There are two ways OF attacking
Il
the problem. One may depend upon
selection alone. To gain hardiness by
this method one would be obliged 70
discard the present spineless species
entirely and work with the hardy spiny
natives, for It can not be expected
| that the spineless forms can be SO i'm
proved within themselves as to with
/ eto ~
they do now. The other way is TO
hybridize the present spineless forms
with some hardy plant possessing as
many desirable characters as possible.
| -. The slight variation that ocurs In
vegetatiye propagation renders this
method of Improvement practically
useless. The method Of Improvement
by seed-selection requires several gen
i erations OF plants; but when 1t is re-
| membered that cacti can be grown
from seed only with difiiculty and that
several years are required to grow q
generation to the stage Of seed-pro.
duction. the magnitude OF the task
Of improving cacti is easily seen. II
must be remembered that neither OF
the parents is really spineless, even
the socalled 'spineless one having
some spines and strong tendency to
revert to more spiny condition. 1t
takes long time to breed the spines
off entirely, or even practically. but to
produce hardy rapid-growing plant
should not be so difficult, provided
ones conception OF hardness IL not
too exacting. The prediction is ven
tured that If any Improvement is made
In the hardness Of rapid-growing var
icties 1t will be through the spiny
| plants and not the spineless ones"
Meanwhile the daily press Is quite
busy with the spineless cactus. The
writer quotes an advertisement offering
plants for dollar each. and some for
eisn botanists. not being able TO dis
tingmsh between American science
and American journalistic enterprise.
are commenting unfavorably on the
formor. In a stiil more extrayagant
statement "propagahng company
is said to have acquired possession Of
specimens of variety valued at
$1,000 EACH This u certainly. as
President Lincoln would have said,
interesting IL true" and We need not
be surprised that the thousand-dolla
spineless Is called q "wonder-piant"
In the promoters description. The
Bureau Of Plant Industry is more
modest. Says the writer Of the article
from which we have been quoting: