Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-07-20
HE TALKS PRICKERS OFF
THISTLES IN THE FIELDS

You need not worry. III see that you
get all You need to eat and drink. Ill
see that nobody hurts you.
Now, as everybody knows. the cactus
has tllorns to prevent ii from being eaten
by animals. That is the projection nature
has EiVen IL. Burbank gradually won the
confidence OF The cactuses he had planted
mt Santa Rosa, and ii is an actual fact
that after he had done so he went to
them and said: You don't need to grow
thorns amy more. III look after you.
Haven't l fed YOU? Haven't i given you
everything YOU wanted. Now. l won't let
amy one eat YOU. SO don't bother to grow
any thorns.'
THE cactuses had confidence in him
and through the power of suggestion they
actually hogan To grow without thorns.
Now. OF course. this was not brought
about Immediately. 1t required several
Years for Burbank to win the ontidence
of the cactus plants and believe 1t was
fully IL Years before the present type OF
thornlesS cactus was produced. That it Is
81 reality no one can dispute. Already
they are being raised in large numbers by
the Thornless Cactus Farming company
at Indigo. Cal. and are being distributed
all over the southwest. Once he had pro-
duced 81 few plants without thorns and
'spineless' succeeding generations were
safe.
THE 3-year-old thornless cactus plant
stands six feet high. is six feet In circum-
ference and weighs 500 pounds. An acre
of such plants yields 200 tons for forage
| each year and 10 to ~ pounds of delicious
fruit. which many people declare are bet
ter than oranges. -Four tons OF cactus
fodder is equivalent in feeding value to
one ton OF alfalfa; thus 2O tons of cac-
| tus are equal to 10 tons OF alfalfa. Hence
ii follows that one acre Of land will pro-
duce as much fodder. actual feeding value.
\ In fhoYp1aSa cortlS aS fOrr and q half
acres OF alfalfa, for Il crop OF 1914 tons OF
alfalfa to the acre Is exceptionally good.
AS tine cactus can be grown almost every
where. even in deserts, millions OF acres
of arid land can be reclaimed and made
productive. Thus 1T will be seen how pow
erful the value of suggestion really is.
"ln the same way-by getting It's conf
dence and talking to it-Burbank pro-
duced the thornless thistle. In fact. L
heard him talk to a thistle. In his low.
softly modulated voice. he told the plant
he would take care of 1t and that 1t
| didn't need tllorns to protect 1t any more.
Well. hundreds OF thistles are now grow
ing without thornS on his farm at Santa
Rosa.
"Naturally, Burbank begins talking to a
very young plant. gaining its confidence
by feeding it properly. A plant, like q
child. responds more readily to it's en-
vironnlent in it's earliest days. The change
may not come in the first generation. or
even i'm the second. 1t may not show at
al for many generations. but patience and
constant attention will finally reap the re-
ward.
when Burbank told me of his methods
i'm cultivating new forms of plant life and
modifying others. 1 asked him why he had
not admitted it before. He replied that
il he had done so he would nave lost the
financial backing OF certain capitalists
and in addition would have been scoffed at
by scientists all over the country. Bur-
bank Is an intensely practical man and
ne works with practical scientists. How
over he is also a believer In the occult"