The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1909-05-27
PROF. LUTHER BURBANK'S TRI
UMP.

Luther Burbank, who has illumined
the world with floral sunshine and
made men glad because OF the fruits
and vegetables he has coaxed from
the earth with scientific genius and
that have spread his name and fame
throughout the nations is about to
commercialize his greatest Triumph
What the California plant wonder
worker proposes to do seems to many
impossible, but viewed in the light OF
his past achievements, almost any
thing may be expected from this ere
alive king of the farm and garden OF
Santa Rosa. He proposes to feed man
and beast on cactus plants. Think or
the agony an animal must suffer in
biting into the ~steel-like, r~azor-edged,
needle-pointed thorns Of a healthy
Arizona sand desert cactus. Imagine
your faithful Jersey COW chewing into
a cud a mess of freshly picked, spine
covered cacti without kicking over
the milk pail and breaking down the
pasture fence.
But Danish the shivers! Mr.. Bur
bank thought it all over a long time
e and now he Is about prepared to
flood the market Of the world with a
SplneIeSS, LlOIulcSS, llulI p'dl ms, bN
tritious cactus that will prove a diet
airy boon to mankind and will tickle
the palates Of pigs, cattle, sheep and
horses.
Our ancestors never dreamed of the
wireless telegraph or the horseless
carriage, but both are here. We OF
the. present generation never dreamed
of the thornless cactus, but it's here.
The scientific magic of Luther Bur
bank developed it and will produce 1t
as a commodity.
This civilizing Of the savage desert
plant Is the result of a long expert
mentation by Mr.. Burbank at Santa
Rosa, and his success In the under
taking, which he regards as his
greatest triumph" will make foreign
missionaries turn green with envy. III
they only had q Burbank to reorgan-
ize and revolutionize the heather!
What Mr.. Burbank has done / to pro-
duce from the cactus plant a plant des-
tined to be of inestimable value as
forage and also as a food. At a model
nursery established for the propaga-
ton of his discovery in the Salton Sea
district of California there are now
1900 of these growing, fiourishing
plants. AS a result of his long and
patient labors he has produced sew
eral varieties, which, reproducing
from the leaves broken off and thrust
into the ground, will yield through
succeeding generations a limitless
supply of food and fodder.
Interesting facts concerning the new
cactus announced from the California
home of the plant-life magician In
clude the following:
The thornless cactus plant three
years old is six feet high, six feet In
circumference and weighs 500 pounds.
An acre Of ground planted with 1t will
yield 200 tons of forage and from ten
to twenty tons of fruit, which work
ers for Mr.. Burbank pronounce more
delicious than oranges, peaches, ap-
pies or pears.
Four tons of cactus fodder equal in
food value one ton OF alfalfa, and the
conclusion from this Is that an acre
of land will produce our times as
much cactus as alfalfa, twelve and
cne-half tons of alfalfa to the acre
being considered an excellent crop.
The cactus plant is Of further value
because 1t can be grown on land that
will not produce alfalfa. Mr.. Burbank
estimated that 5000, 600, 900 acres of
unproductive soil throughout the
world may be utilized to yield the new
plant.
Fruit from the cactus will have
great commercial and economic value.
The fruit may be canned, picked, pre-
served. made into syrups, or find a
ready market in the fresh state, and
the leaves of the plant may be eaten
by man, boiled as green's, fried like
an egg plant or eaten as a salad. Mr..
Burbank and his aids have eaten the
products of the plant in every style
and know that they are good.
For human beings the product OF