WIZARD OF THE GARDEN 107 



until at the end of three years of effort he had the white black- 

 berry, which after all was merely to satisfy his curiosity. 



Ten years were required to produce a cactus that was 

 without thorns and spines, 3'et in the production of this species, 

 which shows no disposition to revert to its former armored 

 state, the western desert country may become a paradise for 

 the herds of the rancher. Not onl}^ have these cacti become 

 easily edible for stock, but in the processes this desert plant 

 has increased in nutritive qualities as a plant, while the fruit 

 which it bears is of a flavor to appeal to the palate of a Lucul- 

 lus. 



In the consideration of the cactus Mr. Burbank had sought 

 the reason of the thorns. The habitat of the plant being the 

 barren desert sands, where scant nourishment was to be found 

 for itself, and where, on the other hand, the herbivorous 

 creatures that might have need of sustenance might so prey 

 upon it as to destroy the species, the plant had need of its 

 prickly weapons of defense. Putting the plant into an envi- 

 ronment where no natural protection was demanded for it, 

 nature was brought to understand that she need not waste 

 her strength upon the growth of a useless armor. For this 

 armor will remain useless when the ranchman once takes the 

 plant under his selfish protectorate. 



Burbank's hybrid English walnut is regarded as one of 

 his most extraordinary accomplishments in the development 

 of a food to the best advantages of the needs of man. The 

 English walnut long has been one of the most valuable of after 

 dinner nuts. Those who have not cared for it as a food, ordi- 

 narily have found objection to its bitterness. When Mr. 

 Burbank undertook to improve the nut his object was to 

 eliminate the hard husk in the kernel, thus destroying the 

 bitter after taste, to increase the size of the fruit, and inci- 

 dentally to make the shell thinner. All of this was done to 

 the point of making the shell so thin that the birds broke into 

 the kernels, necessitating the breeding back to a stronger 

 shell. And, above all, he brought the walnut tree to a rapidity 

 of growth and bearing in which it leads any other known tree 

 in the temperate zones of the world. This tree at six months 

 old has borne nuts. 



