LUTHER BURBANK 
employed may be made applicable, as well, to the 
improvement of other plants. 
It suffices, here, to say that, beginning with his 
simple observation and reading the history of the 
cactus from its present-day appearance, he was 
able to see outlined before him the method by 
which a plant yielding rich food and forage has 
been produced, which, more than any other plant, 
promises to solve the present-day problem of 
higher living costs. 
“But, Mr. Burbank,” asked a visitor at the Santa 
Rosa Experiment Farm, “do you mean that the 
cactus foresaw the coming of an enemy which was 
to destroy it? Is it believable that a plant, like 
a nation expecting war, could armor itself in 
advance of the necessity? And if the cactus did 
not know that an enemy was later to destroy it, 
would it not have been destroyed by the enemy 
before it had the opportunity of preparing a means 
of defense?” 
Let us look into the history of the plant as it 
revealed itself to Mr. Burbank and see the answer 
to these questions. 
The likelihood is that parts of Nevada, Arizona, 
Utah and Northern Mexico were once a great 
inland sea—that the deserts now there were the 
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