AND HIS PLANT SCHOOL 137 



the plant school shows how rapidly they improve under 

 cultivation and how readily they adapt themselves to more 

 fertile soils. Plant children are, indeed, like other children 

 in this respect. 



"But won't they run wild and grow thorns again if they 

 are planted on desert land?" asks one. 



"Oh, no!" says Burbank; "their character is fixed by 

 continued selection, as the characters of other new plants 

 have been fixed. The little plants must, of course, have 

 cattle kept from them until they are large enough just the 

 same as any young plant must be protected." 



If turned loose on the desert to grow wild, perhaps, in 

 defending themselves as their most ancient ancestors did, 

 they might in a thousand years of fighting, grow spines 

 again, but never while under the cultivation of man. 



As children differ in their talents, so Opuntia's people 

 vary in usefulness. Some are good for their fruit, others 

 for forage, while some are useful for both. The greatest 

 usefulness, perhaps, and one that cannot now be fully ap- 

 preciated in its far-reaching benefits, is that of forage for 

 all kinds of cattle and poultry, and especially for cows. 

 The increase in both quality and quantity of milk is very 

 marked when Opuntia has been fed. It promises now to 

 become one of the most important food producers of the 

 age, and yet the work with it has only begun. If you should 

 visit the plant school, you would see thousands growing 

 under the watchful care of the teacher for further develop- 



