THE CACTUS 127 



ing Opuntias were developed was in some re- 

 spects the most painful, arduous, and difficult 

 of all my long series of plant developments ; and 

 that there is reason to believe that its results will 

 ultimately vie with the results of any other single 

 experiment in economic importance. 



Here is a new species of spineless giant cactus 

 which towers to almost treelike proportions, and 

 grows with such rapidity as to produce, on good 

 agricultural land, from one hundred and fifty to 

 three hundred tons of forage to the acre by the 

 third season after planting, besides nearly one- 

 third as much fruit. 



THE COMMERCIAL POSSIBILITIES OF CACTUS 

 AS CATTLE FOOD 



The right of introduction of certain of the 

 first of my spineless cactus productions in the 

 Southern Hemisphere was sold to Mr. John M. 

 Hutland, of Australia. 



Mr. Rutland had come to Santa Rosa to ob- 

 serve my experiments, and desired to take back 

 with him the Spineless Cactus along with certain 

 other of my new products, including the first of 

 the Plumcots. 



He very gladly paid one thousand dollars for 

 a single slab of the most important of the new 

 Opuntias, and somewhat smaller sums for slabs 



