262 GARDENING WITH BRAINS 2 



Fairchild, the government's official plant im- 

 porter, and many others. 



The result of Burbank's hybridizing experi- 

 ments, followed up and supplemented by the 

 usual methods of rigid selection, was "a gigantic 

 cactus, overtopping all its known ancestors in 

 size, and surpassing them all in succulence of 

 flesh, producing fruit of unpredicted excellence 

 in almost unbelievable quantity, and having a 

 surface as smooth as the palm of your hand.'* 



Not a single one of the opuntias received by 

 him from any source was altogether without 

 spines and spicules, and "no such variety has 

 yet been reported, although the authorities of 

 the Agricultural Department of Washington 

 scoured the earth to find such a variety." 



In some of the South Sea Islands there are 

 opuntias with soft, hairlike spines, but these are 

 too tender for our climate. 



"There are regions in Mexico and Hawaii," 

 Burbank further relates, "where the cattle feed 

 habitually on wild species of opuntias, even 

 though this involves the habitual ingestion of 

 millions of spines and spicules with which the 

 slabs are protected, resulting quite often in 

 sickness or death of the animals." 



Far preferable besides being hardy in our 

 arid regions of the Southwest are the Burbank 

 hybrid opuntias. These are opuntias "fulfilling 

 every specification of spineless forage plants of 

 reasonable hardiness, great adaptability as to 



