The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-03-19
TRIBUTE TO WIZARD BURBANK;
SPINELESS CACTUS IN HAWAII

= never be completed owing to lack o,
funds
The experiments of MIR Burbank I'm
plant life cover a very broad field.
! and are the results of nearly forty
years of experimentation. Let me
I briefly call attention to some Of his
best-known creations
Mr. Hayes here went into brief de-
scription of berries, flowers, nuts,
vegetables etc, of which Mr.. Bur
bank by selection and naturalization
| had created new varieties OF the
! spineless cactus he said in part:
'No more important thing has re-
Gently occurred in agriculture than
the successful production Of the rapid
growing edible, spineless cactus by
Luther Burbank After sixteen years
of expensive and costly experimental
ton he has produced a new and most
! valuable cattle food for the world.
/ Mr. Burbank does not claim to have
discovered the spineless cactus. Some
varieties of this plant have been
| known for years, but without eXcep-
ton they have been non-edible by
any animal For many years it has
been the custom in Africa, as well as
in those parts of America where IT
abounds, to feed to cattle certain
varieties of the prickly pear cactus
after the spines have been burned
off. This burning of uourse, greatly
increases the cost of living. The food
value of this spiney cactus for stock
has been known by cattiemen, who
have grown and ued it for some years
Mr.. William Sinclair, a successful
cattle grower of Texas, writes:
1--WE find it very poor policy to
put the slightest limit on the
/ amount of cactus our COWS get.
The more they can eat the better
they thrive and the more milk they
give. There is nothing that sets
them back more than a shortage
of cactus. If We happen to be
short of milk the cause is almost
invariably traced to the shortage
of cactus.
81. Won Tempsky, manager of thu
Haleakala ranch, Makawao, Maui, Ha
waii says:
"On this ranch we have one
paddock of 1900 acres covered
very thickly with cactus or prick
ly pear; there is also a slight
> growth of Bermuda grass grow
s ing. In this paddock are pastured
e all the year round 400 head of cat
# tie and about 700 hogs. The cat
h tie only get water when it rains;
that is during the months of De
d cember and January, the other
Y ten months they subsist entirely
and solely on the fruit and young
t leaves of the cactus which they
S help themselves to. 1t is a re-
" markable fact that during the dry
l. months of the year we get more
) fat cattle per cent from that pad
: dock than from any of the others.
|, I consider cattle fed on cactus,
/ like these are to have as fine
|, favored beef as any have tast-
e ed in San Francisco or New Zea.
Y land.
- The great desirability of the rapi
growing and edible spineless cactu
: for cattle food has been recognize
e all over the world. Inspired by tn
o work of Mr.. Burbank and by the e,
9 periments made by the French Co
:. eminent in Algiers, the United States
$ through the Department of Agricu
n ture, was several years ago moved
t take up the matter of securing spine
/ less cactus. Experts were sent
f foreign countries, and the world wa
r searched that a cactus might be foun
e spineless, or nearly spineless, whic
e would have sufficient nutriment to b
0 valuable as a cattle fodder. From tn
= plants so collected the Department @
: Agriculture has been able to produc
+ cactus sufficiently free from spine
+ and nutritive enough to be of som
( value for the cattle business. But t.
f day, in spite of all It's organizatio
/ and its wealth, the Department c
= Agriculture has not obtained a cactu
. that is in any respect the equal of tn
y cactus produced by Mr.. Burbank sin
s gle handed.
S "Of all stock food, the Burbank I'm
e proved Spineless cactus is by far tn
y most prolific. Three to five times a
D is produced to the acre as alfalfa
, and it is very much the cheapes
a fodder to plant, harvest, and cultivate
2 requiring no irrigation, replanting, 0
. storage barns, as it can be cut an
, time as needed
f 1T is adapted to almost any sol
} where the temperature does not g
= below 10 degrees above zero, and