90 THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 



SPINELESS CACTUS TO BLOOM ON SAHARA. 



Burbank's Plant Will Grow on a Tin Roof and Will Supply Food 



and Water. 



The desert of Sahara will blossom, if not like a rose, at least with 

 the spineless cactus. Of this Cretein Riedel, of San Francisco, who 

 is here, is intirely confident. 



Luther Burbank, the horticultural wizard, who, in a sense, created 

 the spineless cactus, is a personal friend of Mr. Riedel, who has been 

 making horticultural experiments of his own. Coincident with his 

 arrival here comes the announcement that a company with several 

 million dollars capital is being formed in California to exploit Bur- 

 bank's discoveries. 



A spineless cactus will grow on a tin roof, Riedel says. With it 

 lie proposes to transform the Sahara into a tropical garden. Said 

 Riedel, in the rooms of the American Chamber of Commerce to- 

 day : 



"The French Government is making experiments to reclaim des- 

 ert land on Mayotte, a small island off the coast of Madagascar. 

 But the experiments were undertaken with the inferior kind of cac- 

 tus. I propose to introduce into the Sahara the spineless cactus, 

 which is not only food for cattle, but water for man, animals and 

 plants, for 94 per cent, of this cactus is water. Heretofore animals 

 could not eat cactus because of its thorns. The fruit of the spineless 

 cactus is palatable even to humans. 



"The discovery of this plant marks a new era. One acre yields 

 300 tons of the spineless cactus, and after it gets a good hold on a 

 soil, however arid, trees can be planted and will grow there. I have 

 just come from Berlin. The German Colonial OfTice will begin ex- 

 periments with the spineless cactus in South Africa next spring. 

 Absolutely, there is no reason why this cactus should not reclaim 

 every tropical desert for civilization." 



Mr. Riedel is going to London soon to interest the British Govern- 

 ment in the Burbank cactus. 



(Copyright, 1909, by the Press Publishing Company, New York.) 



