102 LUTHER BURBANK 



But possibly it will appear in the end that no 

 other series of experiments that I have under- 

 taken can be compared in importance to the pro- 

 duction of the race of spineless giants which 

 tower to almost treelike proportions, and grow 

 with such rapidity as to produce on good agri- 

 cultural land from one hundred and fifty to three 

 hundred tons of new forage to the acre by the 

 third season after planting, besides nearly one- 

 third as much fruit, yet which are as tender and 

 succulent as grass, affording forage of fine 

 quality in unprecedented quantity, and which 

 can send their roots far into the earth and gain 

 a supply of water for their sustenance from sub- 

 terranean sources in regions where the surface of 

 the country is that of the desert; and economiz- 

 ing this for long seasons of drought which may 



follow. 



HEREDITARY TRAITS 



These new races of spineless cactus are of 

 many varieties, in token of their varied ancestry. 



In producing them I followed my usual 

 custom of securing material from every available 

 source. 



The main supply came, naturally, from the 

 arid regions of the Southwest, the original home 

 of the cactus. But I received also plants from 

 Minnesota, Montana, Dakota, New England, 



