The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1912-10-18

Or, to put II another way; IN these
days when forest conservation is an
acute issue. Luther Burbank has given
MS shortcut to reforestration--has
email led MS to make good a lumber
shortage, due to our own wanton reck-
lessness-and to do all of this. not a
generation from now, but in the mere
spar of dozen years.
q Yet the question is asked: "What
has he done that is practicalf"
/ Soineless Cactus
! There are three billion acres of
desert in the world.
Barren, arid desert on which the
highest form of vegetable life is the
worthless, spiny cactus.
| 1t took the imagination of a Bur-
bank to conceive a way to transform
these three billion acres into produc-
tivity.
he did it not by finding new plants
which would thrive on desert soil and
under desert conditions.
He did it by making the common
cactus which already grows there pro
duce n rich, juicy fruit-and then by
making the cactus thornless, he added
a great forage crop livestock food)
after the fruit is picked.
He so transformed the cactus that it
grows thornless and covers itself with
beautiful, highly colored, pear.shaped
fruit-as juicy as a ripe watermelon,
with flavor between that and the
Bartlett pear-grows them on its ma
tive desert.
Under favorable conditions, corn pro-
duces on the basis of about owe ton
and a half of food per acre.
Alfalfa, that wonder crop, itself, pro
duces as high as five tons of food per
acre.
The Burbank cactus has shown that
, it will produce as high as two thou
, sand tons of food per acre-or, in
money, it can produce $1,000 worth OF
denatured alcohol per acre as against
$50 value from an acre of Indian corn
If, merely by improving the common
potato, Burbank has created an actua
wealth equal to that of STANDARD Oil
what estimate can be made of the
value of this new Burbank food cac
tus, with three billion acres of unpro
3 ductive land to plant it TOT
t His Careless Work.
. In the size of type in which thi
1 article is set, it would take humble
$ plant experiments and Improvement
: which Luther Burbank has mad
in the past forty years.
Not to describe them-but merely t.
give their names i'm one-line headings
!. There could be mentioned the chest
nut seeding, bearing n crop of nut
after six months growth from seed
as against ten to fifteen years OF a
ordinary tree.
Or the evolution of the prune result
' ing in increasing the crop of one Stat
from sixty.fve to two hundred millio
pounds, and enabling the United State
to sell fifty million pounds year
foreign countries instead of buyin
thirty.fve million pounds from them.
OR the Burbank tomato, asparagu
squash, each as wonderful in its way o
the Burbank potato was thirty-fy
years ago.
Or the crimson winter rhubarb, cal
ed the " mortgage litter by its grow
ers, ready fully six months earlier tina
any other rhuharb, and of a flavor an
texture that makes it yield thousan
dollars an acre the first year aftC
pianting-with an always eager ma
ket.
z bank white blackberry, or-the Burban
thornlcss blackberry, or the Burban
forage grasses, hays peas, beans, oat
rye, all of which have just as practices
money meaning ms the Burbank p
tato or the Burbank cactus have.
And my ideas of Burbank, sal
the casual inquirer, have always bee
associated with such things as his Sha
nj
, teresting, and valuable, but offerlT
from Il money standpoint nothing pra
: ticall,'
Compared with the Burbank potat
the beautiful Burbank Rose seems q
, most frivolity.
r Yet one florist on Long Island, Ne
: York, SAYS that he has sold from t
new varieties which he has produce
, according to Burbank's advice ON h
: bridizing, over one hundred thousaI
o dollars worth of pants and flowers.
!. Practically Secret.
0 Here is Luther Burbank-his wo
and methods practically secret.
!. Here is world impatiently waltz
to be informed.
Here is the work of forty years rea'
for widespread dissemination.
The Carnegie Institution at Washin
ton. recognizing the universal value
Luther Burbank 3 records, made an q
preparation of one hundred thousa
= dollars in 1905 for the purpose of co
n piling them for scientific purposes 1
h elusively.
Y But the scientific part of Mr.. b.
N bank + work, important and INTEREST,"
q as il is, is not what the farmer needs.
Il What the farmer needs is praetis
q results-and definite instructions
u how TO apply them,
:, Ii Is the difference between natl
~ MATES and accounting-between
q patent Office blue'prints for manufi
=, ing-between theory and practice.
z, What the Carnegie Institution wa
ed would have delayed the more pr
d teal achievement OF getting FARM
~ everywhere using the burbank metho
30 Luther Burbank, independent
u the Carnegie Institution, decided
49,. tabulaie. analyge aud classify and
=" plain the eopleus notes which he has
o. ways taken Of al his experiments
las the forty years Of bic work.
.fa. IA hn tlia NOT LA Ii NAY IA IutfF