The Spineless Cactus 



How to Judge Novelties Look to Their Source 



The greatest inconvenience and injus- 

 tice is not misunderstanding, prejudice, 

 envy, jealousy, ignorance or ingratitude, 

 but that purchasers are so often deceived 

 by various unscrupulous dealers who, 

 taking advantage of the name "Burbank," 

 hoist on the public green carnations, 

 hardy bananas, half wild, thorny cactus, 

 for Burbank thornless ones, blue roses, 

 seedless watermelons, cigars, soap, real 

 estate, magazine articles, obtaining money 

 or positions under false statements of 

 having been in my employ, and a thou- 

 sand other similar schemes; and by out- 

 rageous misrepresentations or the change 

 or addition of a word or two from the cor- 



rect descriptions, deceiving purchasers, 

 even when a genuine product of real 

 value may happen to be offered. 



Wise planters procure their cuttings 

 and plants from the original source. Tons 

 of so-called "thornless" cactus cuttings 

 have been sold to unsuspecting customers 

 as "BurbankV or "just as good as Bur- 

 bank's" by a few dealers who well know 

 that they are not in any respect what 

 they claim for them. 



History of the Spineless Cactus 



by Luther Burbank 



For more than fifty years I have been 

 quite familiar with "thornless cactus" of 

 many species and varieties. In fact, one 

 of the first pets which I had in earliest 

 childhood was a thornless cactus, one of 

 the beautiful Epiphyllums. 



The Phyllocactus and many of the 

 Cereus family are also thornless, not a 

 trace to be found on any part of the plants 

 or fruit. Thus the somewhat indefinite 

 popular name of "spineless cactus" has 

 been used by persons unacquainted with 

 these facts, for be it known that "thorn- 

 less cactus" is no more of a novelty than 

 a "thornless" watermelon. 



But among the Cacti, which grow to an 

 immense size with great rapidity and 

 which can be readily cultivated in garden, 

 field or desert, no perfectly thornless ones 



were known and very little interest taken 

 in the cacti of any kind, either thorny or 

 thornless, as to their agricultural or hor- 

 ticultural value until some seventeen 

 years ago when the work of improvement 

 was taken up on my experiment farms, 

 and improved perfectly smooth, rapid- 

 growing varieties had been produced and 

 made known. 



Some of the best growers among these 

 will produce five to ten times as much 

 weight of food as will the wild thorny 

 ones (which some ignorant or unprinci- 

 pled dealers have recommended for cul- 

 tivation), under exactly the same condi- 

 tions. These wonderful results were not 

 unexpected as the genus Opuntia is a 

 surprisingly variable one, even in the 

 wild state. 



