THE NEW EARTH 



ever any vegetation will live. He chose cacti 

 from various portions of the globe, thornless 

 and with thorns, bred them together in a well- 

 nigh interminable succession of blendings and 

 crossings, planted the seedlings from the crosses 

 by the tens of thousands, and from these thou- 

 sands made selection. Year by year he repeated 

 the process, in order to secure precisely what 

 he wished, always selecting those which came 

 nearest his ideal. While, in 1906, he has not 

 gotten the cactus in shape to give to the world 

 as it will be given, free of all cost, still further 

 work being under way upon it, he has demon- 

 strated beyond all question that the thornless, 

 edible cactus, not only rich in food in the juicy 

 leaves, but with a fruit delicious to the taste 

 and also highly nutritious, has come to the 

 world to stay, to help redeem the desert, to be 

 no more a foe to man, but his constant and 

 never-failing helper. 



This cactus is one of the greatest of all Mr. 

 Burbank's great works. It will grow in any 

 latitude — the temperate zones, the tropics, the 

 arctics. It is food for man and food for beast. 

 It is to work the transformation of the desert. 



Take these four great enterprises, — national 



250 



