AUGUST 1, 1915 



647 



T conjirafiilate the Grou-er on keepiiii;: an 

 fditoiial eye on its advertising- ])a;ies as 

 well as on tlio reading-matter. Mr. Kiddor 

 now must shoulder the responsibility, and it 

 is up to him to give us unbiased proof of 

 what lie claims as possible with the new 

 creation in the way of spineless cactus. 



SIMNKI.KSS CACTUS BURBANK, AND THK OTIIKR 



KIND, ETC. 



Mr. A. I. Root: — Your notes on spineless ractus 

 interest nu- very much, espeoinlly the ignorance most 

 V riters display in regard to it. They seem to name 

 all spineless cactus " Burbank." Now, Mr. Bur- 

 bank has originated (or claims to have originated) 

 several varieties of cactus that make an enormous 

 growth of sl.ibs and fruit at Santa Rosa, CaL, where 

 they have rich adobe land and an annual rainfall of 

 nboiit 25 inches; but the same varieties of cactus 

 hardly grow at all here in Fresno Co. with or with- 

 out irrigation; but the government cactus (or, rath- 

 er, the cactus imported by the United States and 

 propagated at Chico, Cal., and distributed free) 

 grows here very nicely, and I have growing on very 

 poor I.^nd about 2500 slabs. I was at Santa Kosa 

 at Mr. Burbank's place, and saw a growth of 'JOO 

 tons per acre (not a whole acre), and I saw tlie 

 fruitage of 'JO tons ptr acre (not a whole acre). 



I strongly suspect that Mr. Burbank highly fer- 

 tilized the alreudi/ rich land. In fact, I saw while 

 powder on the ground, and it was not alkali either. 

 I have spent con.siderable time and probably $50 in 

 money inve^.tigating and buying spineless cactus. 

 Many varieties are worthless. Some varieties are 

 valuable only for fruit, which carries a high per- 

 centage of sugar, and other varietie.s produce slabs 

 at a great rate. It has about the feeding value of 

 pie-melon, and stock will live over famine timis on 

 cactus; and since it can be grown and allowed to 

 accumulate from year to year on the land until 1000 

 tons or more has accumulated on the acre, it is 

 reasonable to figure that when famine or dry years 

 come along, as they hare done and will do again, 

 the cactus will be valuable to save the stock from 

 starving to death, as they often do in the West and 

 Southwest. I have seen the chickens peck the slabs 

 all to pieces when green feed was scarce. 



I have seen plants produce here in Fresno Co., 

 at Mr. .T. C. McCubbin's of Reedley, Cal., at the rate 

 of lit tons of slabs per acre (Chico or United 

 States varieties). I think it is worth $1.00 per ton 

 as a dry-year feed-over ration; and 1000 tons can 

 be a<cuinulaied on an acre in five years with very 



little Inlior, irrigation, or care, and will need re- 

 ptnntin;: nl iUit once in fifty years. 'I'lie land get* 

 richer and ricluT where cactus grows. 'I'liiis, it 

 seems to me to have some real value. The Miller 

 & Luz Co. planted 80,000 slabs for this very 

 purpose. The cactus at Mr. McCubbin's was not 

 irri'iotrd nor mibirriuated, and the rainfall was 

 11 inches. Poor land will grow cactus; but rich 

 loani! grows better, and yields better cacti. 1 

 have read and studied all the literature to be 

 found in the library of the University of 

 California ou the subject, and I have seen it 

 growing under all conditions I could find, and am 

 experimenting with it, and still hope to tind it of 

 value. I can tell you a great deal more about cac- 

 tus if it is interesting to you. 



Selma, Cal.. June 27. O. S. Davis. 



We are very thankful to get the above 

 information right from headquarters, or, 

 rather, from near where Burbank brought 

 about his wonderful results. It seems to 

 me tliat a dollar a ton is a rather low price 

 for cow feed compared with timothy hay 

 and alfalfa — say from $15 to $25 a ton. On 

 page 515, June 15, I copy from a govern- 

 ment bulletin the statement that an acre of 

 prickly pear is worth more than six times 

 the value of sorghum for feeding purposes. 

 According to this a ton of sorghum is not 

 of very much value, say just as it is cut 

 for cattle feed. It seems to me there is a 

 discrepancy there somewhere. Also notice 

 %vhat friend Borcher says about these for 

 feed on page 557, July 1. I am also plea.sed 

 to note from the above that the chickens will 

 take it as green feed. I am sure this is 

 going to be quite an item in its favor in 

 Florida. 



7.a/ff.— To-day is July 26; and the cac- 

 tus mentioned above, planted about July 1, 

 has now eight little slabs started (one al- 

 most as large as my hand) and it is gi'ow- 

 ing rapidly every day. I expect to give 

 you some pictures of it, illustrating how 

 rapidly this spineless cactus grows when 

 it once gets a start. 



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TEMPERANCE 



A LI.TTKi; FKO^f TlIK flOVERXOK OF KANSAS 



HIM.SELF IX KEGAi;U TO rROIIIBITION 



IN THAT ST.VrE. 



No doubt our leadeis have been pained to 

 «;ee statements in our daily papers to (lie 

 otToct that Kan.'^as is '"Hard up" financially, 

 etc., in eonsecjuence of their "puritanic 

 prohibition law." Before submitting to our 

 readers the positive statement of the gov- 

 ernor him.self, we give below a letter from 

 our untiring and iiuleratigable proliil)ition 

 friend Minnie J. Kllet : 



East Akron, Ohio, July 22, 1915. 

 ily Dear Brother Root: 



X few weeks ago one of the liquor-license commis- 

 sioners of this county told me that the governor of 

 Kansas had said that all his state could do to save 

 herself was to go back to license and regulation. I 

 told him one of us was grossly misinformed in re- 

 gard to (lov. Cappi^r's attitude, and that that week's 

 Unior) fiitjnal had a splendid article, e.xcerpts from 

 tlio governor's speech before Kansas bankers. T lold 

 our comrnissioner that, and he set it down as "mis- 

 (lUPlation of a temperanie paper that always makes 

 thiugs too big." I wrote to Gov. Capper that night, 

 and on ar.olher sheet I'm sending you the e.xact 

 copy of that letter. 



Yours for God's glory through the highest good of 

 all for whom he died. ' Minnie J. Ellet. 



