Arizona republican., 1911-09-25
MAKE THE WASTE BLOOM Plant It With Cactus, Say
 Authorities BURBANK SAYS, GET FRUIT
Some Peculiarities of the Variety of Cactus Called Spineless, Showing Pro duction of Real Kind Not Miraculous.

| | Phoenix. whose business in life is | preventing consumption and raising | cactus, in which letter Mrs. Yetter l says:
 Having returned from my summer ' in san Diego. l again take up my work-the study and prevention of | tuberculosis.
 | While in San Diego I visited the | Associated Charities. They have there
 the Talent Workers. That is a free | clinic, with a trained nurse at the | head and substitute nurses who visit | the poor of their city. The doctors give their time. whichever ones are
 at leisure, an hour or two at a time each day. There is also a clinic for
 the study and prevention of tuber-
 culosis. These are features which we | of Phoenix should have.
 We formed a society here about two years ago. called the Maricopa | County Association for the Study and
 Prevention of Tuberculosis; but its members, so far as I can see, have | done nothing in the way of giving | lectures or literature, and here We | need it more than any other place, for so many more come here than to ] California. l have brought home with me literature showing what San | Diego is doing. Why shall not Phoe- nix get busy? I am always willing to get out and do what l can, for | one"
 Changing to the other subject in | which Mrs Yetter is interested. it | become aware of the productivity in | fruit, as well as forage, of some of | the varieties of really "spineless' | cactus originated by Burbank, or by | othcrs-since this is one field where | there is neither the encouragement
 nor the embargo of the patent office
 on the productive activities of man 1 kind-have conceived the idea that | southern if not northern Arizona is | one of the most advantageous fields | for the production of cactus forage | and fruit on a commercial scale. | On this subject. and the naturally
 related one of some of the natural
 history of that genus of plant, Mir | Burbank, in his very interesting lt-
 tie pamphlet on "Opuntias," issued
 early this year. says:
 | "Old half-thOrnless ones have been grown for ages. For more than fifty | years I have been quite familiar with | 'thornless cactus of many species and varieties. Tn fact. one of the | first pets which I had in earliest | childhood was a thOrnless cactus, one
 Of the beautiful epiphyllums The | phyllOcactus and many of the cereus | family are also thornless, not a trace | to be found on any part of the plants | or fruit. Thus the somewhat in
 definite popular name of 'spineless | cactus has been used by persons un- acquainted with these facts; for be
 it known that a thornless cactus is
 TO more of a novelty than a thorn | less watermelon.
 But among the cacti which grow
 to an immense size with great rapid ity and which can be readily cul- | tivated in garden, field, or desert, no perfectly thornless ones were known and very little interest was taken in
 the cacti of any kind, either thorny l or thornless, as to their agricultural
 or horticultural value until some six
 teen years ago, when the work of i'm prOvement was taken up on my ex- pertinent farms and improved, per fectly smooth. rapid growing vari- l cites produced and made known. Some of the best growers among
 these will produce five to ten times
 as much weight of food as will the wild thorny ones (which some ignOr-
 ant or unprincipled dealers have rec commended for cultivation) under eX- actly the same conditions
 These wonderful results were not l unexpected, as the genus Opuntia is
 surprisingly variable one even in the wild state. The best bOtanists-
 even those who have made the Opun-
 tia a special study-declare it to be one of the most difficult genera to | classify, as new forms are constantly appearing and the older ones so together
 The facts without doubt are that l their ancestors had leaves like other vegetation and were as thOrnless as
 an apple tree, but in ages past were stranded in a region which was grad | ually turning to desert. perhaps. by ! the slow evaporation of some great l inland sea or lake. Being thus stran- | ded, the plants which could adapt | themselves to the heat and drouth | which, as the years passed by be- l came each season more and more
 severe, survived at first by dropping
 the leaves, thus preventing too much
 evaporation, leaving the fat, smooth
 stems ony to perform the function of | leaves.
 The Opuntias. even to this day,
 always shoot out very numerous | rudimentary leaves, which persist a
 few days or weeks and then, having
 no function. to perform, drop off.
 These rudimentary leaves, which all ways appear for a time on the young