The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1910-05-30
suasANk,s Latest PRODUCTS.
Something New In Potatoes His New
est Achievement.

est Achievement
Recent experiments OF the "Wia-
ard" are replete with interest. says
recent article in the Pathfinder. for
they have attaiped truly remarkable
results. He has returned. In one case.
to the love Of his youth-the Irish po-
tato. Just as Bryant In later years in
The Ages" returned to the same
theme that made him famous In his
boyhood's poem, "Thanatopsis." and
as Byron returned In Don Juan to
the same sort Of satire that gave him
prominence in his early English
Bards," so Burbank has sought to de-
velop again something fine from the
Irish potato. His method has not
been to take the ordinary potato and
develop from that. AS If fearing some
faint might be there not easily eradi-
Gated. he sent to South America and
got specimens in their original Wild
form from high up In the Gillian
Andes where the aboriginal grows on
the Drinks Of abysmal craters Of ex-
tinct volcanoes. These he crossed
with his own highly cultivated types.
| In the result could be seen the strug-
| gle Of the savage with the civilized
nature, but by process Of selection
and continued crossing he has OBJ
tanned new variety which is prac-
tically as sweet as almost any sweet
potato that grows. Who would have
dreamed OF such thing few gene
rations ago?
1t may be that II the chief forester's
Attempts to preserve our wooded lands
and have replanted those once covered
with forests fail. then men will rise
up to cali Luther Burbank blessed In
some future age when the lands have
been denuded of their growth and 4
consequent drying up Of rivers follows
at one season and nntamed floods rave
| through the land at others. carrying
houses, crops and land itself with
them. Then will the people cry aloud
| for trees, trees that will take root
speedily and hold the soil together,
| yet increase its porosity SO that fall
ing rains will soak in and be held In
stead OF rushing down the sun-baked
surface. Many of the varieties of fast
growing trees that Burbank has pro-
duced, not the least Of which is the
Paradox walnut, hybrid resultant OF
a cross of the Persian and California
walnut trees, and the Royal black wal
nut, a hybrid from the California and
American walnuts. Both are swift OF
growth and In few years tower
higher than the ordinary walnut trees,
but they have fine hard grain that
takes a high polish.
i Canadian bananas ought to be good
claims who knows that the Florida
/. variety willis under the slightest frost.
Yet Canadian bananas seem q possf-
bility. One of Bnrbank's original
ideas is that OF training tropical
plants so they will become hardy
enough to thrive in cold climates and
he says he will succeed, that his plan
tains which he is experimenting with
are slowly evolving to the desired
hardihood. 1t may be that the time
will come when Canadians and Alas
kans will pluck the orange, the lemon
and the lime from their own groves at
home, grow peach trees whose BIOS
som will be invulnerable to the at
tacks of frost. ami make beds in the
early spring for flowers that now
flourish only in the torrid zone.
Men in the West who have benefited
from the results OF Mr.. Burbanks
work bless him for what he has done
in transforming the opuntia, COM
monty known ais the prickly pear or
cactus This plant thrives In soil that
would kill almost any other growth;
1t is succulent and nourishing; hence,
II cattle could only eat 1t, 1t would be
great boon In regions where there is
little water and poor grazing. But In
its wild state, the cactus is too priekly
and when the cattle do eat 1t. death
frequently results. although ranchmen
SINCE the plants to rid them of their
spines. Burbank has bred spiHeless
: variety which is more Juicy and many
times more nourishing than the wild
cactus. Instead OF mere 20 tons to
the acre-the farm crop of the wild
plaintiffs specimens yield 200 tons on
good soil. Thep prove to be excellent
fodder and are palatable to man. He
is still at work upon this plant and
has all but produced seedless variety
J which contains about IA per cent OF
sugar and 2R per cent Of fat. 1t has
! a peculiar taste and mucilaginous con.
sistency and makes an excellent des-
sert dish. The Juice of the leaf ant
fruit have been found to act as O
good preservative against bad wealth
er when used in whitewash.
II These are but samples OF the work
this man is doing He Is pushing ever
on and on. corssing and recrossing
varieties, producing the very things
that his active imagination sees long