Burbank's Gardens 

 most no pollen. But the few grains that Burbank 

 has been able to obtain enabled him to revolutionize 

 the whole plum shipping industry. An odd result 

 of using the bitter Simoni in a crossing with Dela- 

 ware, itself a Simoni hybrid, is the Bartlett plum, 

 with almost the exact fragrance and flavor of a 

 Bartlett pear. 



Of all of Burbank's recent work — ^his Burbank 

 potato, his Shasta daisy, his red California poppy, 

 his famous score of new plums and berries have 

 long been established — the most interesting, per- 

 haps, is his work with "spineless cactus." And 

 much — much too much, indeed, taking into account 

 the paucity of information on which a considerable 

 part of this writing was based — has been written 

 about it, some of this writing not being very compli- 

 mentary. For adopting the postulate that Burbank 

 claims to be the creator of spineless cactus it has 

 not been difficult, on the basis of the common knowl- 

 edge of most botanists and horticulturalists that sev- 

 eral kinds of cactus plants are quite thornless, and 

 that the German, French, and Italians have known 

 for a long time, various kinds of spineless or "near- 

 spineless" cactus of much the same kind as Bur- 

 bank's, to make Burbank out an imposter in all 

 things and an unredeemed charlatan by habit and 

 principle. 



But although Burbank's spineless and spicule- 

 less Opuntia cactus is really of his own origination, 

 through repeated crossings and selections, it is less 

 the "dehorning" than the notable improvement in 

 kind and amount of the food content of the cactus 

 that Burbank makes his special claim in connection 

 with cactus improvement. He has produced a kind 

 of spineless and spiculeless Opuntia that grows 

 like Jack's beanstalk as regards rapidity. "By actual 

 weight," writes Burbank, "my new Opuntias pro- 

 duced the first year, six months from single rooted 

 leaves, an average of 47% lbs. per plant, on one- 

 fourth acre, yielding at the distance planted (2%x 

 5 ft.) at the rate of ninety tons of forage per acre. 

 This forage can be fed to stock at any season 

 throughout the whole vear when most needed, and 

 will be just as available in the most drouthy as in 

 the rainiest season. For arid regions it is a forage 

 that should be invaluable." These are Burbank's 

 own claims for his "spineless cactus," and the 

 claims of others for him may be disregarded. 



This brief account of the Burbank gardens can, 

 of course, enter on no cataloguing of the things 

 that are in them. They are manv and they are 

 amazing. But this must be said: They are things 



187 



