Bisbee daily review., 1914-01-18
THE SP|NELESS
 CACTUS PLANT
Not a Hardy Growth, Says Professor = Unsuited to Colder Areas of Arizona - Advice Extended

ten by the Botanist os the Arlz5na Agricultural Experiment. Statiun. Prof. J. J. Thornber. to . farmer who asks about the praciicability Of the spineless cactus as an Arizona farm cfor:
 Dear Sir: The Rusi1ess Farmer. a Taner published at 'i'roplco. Cal. has referred to my department for ans wer to your letter t,ncs,iing tborn- .ess prickly pear, asking whether they can be grown successfully. where they may be secured and what will Dc their cost. l may say as regards the , last two questions 'Eat they may bc purchased from Luther Burbank
 Santa Rosa. Cal, or 1 least they may be purchased through him. and the cost will vary from 75 cents to si per slab or lobe. It is cutie likely that in
 larger quantities they can be pur- chased for less than this. This de- partment has answered many letters of this nature during the past year. and in every case has recommended to prospective buyers of spineless
 cacti that they purchase the cacti only in very small lots, three or four or half dozen plants. or else that they refrain from buying any plants at all on account of the nnfavorable conditions to the growth in Arizona.
 The spineless cactus should not bc grown in Arizona except in the very warmest parts, namely. the country
 about Yuma. Parker, Casa Crande,
 Phoenix. Florence and Mesa. With
 more than 10 degrees of frost it suf- fers severe injury. and last winter at Tucson with degrees a' o,e zero the plants were frozen down to the
 ground and even killed outright.
 While the freeze was much lower than the average, we can count it as oertsin that in tho future 70 shall have freezes just ss severe as this one and with large area planted to spineless cacti the loss must cer- tainly be serious. This experiment station has experimental for several years in a small way with different varieties of cacu, md in every in stance without successful results
 Even the hardier varieties as sold by
 Mir. Burbank have not endured with ont more or less injury in tempera- . lures of 10 to 12 degrees above zero,
 and even with 10 degrees above zero. which is about the minimum for our . average cold snaps, these plants are , often quite badly injured frequently being frozen back one-half. In the : summer season at Tucson they suffer [ in June and July from extreme high
 temperatures, 1O5 to 112 degrees Fah' 7 renheit. particularly when they are 8 growing with limited irrigation and Q cultivation. iWth these temperatures X if they are given good irrigation they
 are enabled to get along very nicely '- When, however. the irrigation is more n than it should be. which is no. easy } to explain, they suffer from rottiua r of at the roots and then even lars,
 plants have to be reset. It is very n difficult, therefore. to control tho | r advantage for these plants. I hay, r compared the growth of the hardiei
 Burbank spine'ess cacti with that O 7 an introduced Mexican species whicl $ is growing more or less throughou
 Arizona towns, tliat is, in Mexican d homes. and l find that the Mexican O species is both harder as concerns n frost and also as concerns heat an, e aridity and that at the same time | IL makes a more rapid growth. Thi IS latter plant is spineless like the Bu, g bank varieties and resembles yer Ia much some of the Burbank cacti. It 'e flowers are smaller than those oi tn D. ordinary native prickly pears, whr le the fruits are nearly round. and whe lg mature, yellowish or green in colol -h Last winter this species, however le froze down, about one half, but mad 10 splendid growth during the past sun
 mer again so that it is now nearl DO where it was year ago.
 Of In light of the above, cannot a, p- wise Arizona farmers and stockmen {
 
 purchase the Burbank spineless cac
 for growing for forage purposes, no
 for growing to sell again since q 's net consider the plant hardy enoue hh to be well adapted to our climati ~ conditions. In the more salubriou " California climate, where the usn n mers are cool and the winters warn a. and particularly where there is col ,e siderable moisture in the atmospher It's with moderate irrigation these planl re make phenomenal growths. The er have never been able. however, { De make any such growth as this an El where in Arizona where I have see 'n- spineless cacti make even approx 'k' mately good growth was in Yum !" Ariz.. in deep alluvial soil with a
 abundance of irrigation. In fact the
 were irrigated about the same as O f. dinary garden vegetagles. They d ,s, not seem to suffer from rotting ,,d the roots either. which reason 1 a or not able to explain. Even under thei ., IcOnd itionq thpv do not <o.o.o.o