Of Easy Culture and Rapid Growth 



Burbank's Spineless Cactus Always Grown 

 from Cuttings, Never by Seeds 



Everybody knows that Baldwin apples, 

 Bartlett pears and our favorite peaches, 

 plums and cherries can not be raised from 

 seeds; just the same laws hold true with 

 the improved Opuntias, but fortunately 

 they can be raised from cuttings in any 

 quantity with the utmost ease more 

 truly they raise themselves, for when 

 broken from the parent plant, the cuttings 

 attend to rooting without further atten- 

 tion, whether planted right end up, bot- 

 tom up, sideways or not at all. 



Best results are generally secured by 

 planting the lower half of the cuttings 

 below the surface of well-prepared, dry, 

 warm soil or sand. 



No form of plant life perhaps responds 

 more readily to kindly treatment than the 

 Opuntia. This is demonstrated in the 

 faster, heavier and generally better 

 growth possible through a moderate 

 amount of cultivation, the keeping down 

 of grass and weeds, during the earlier 

 periods of growth. Larger yields of finer 

 fruit and more and tenderer pads are the 



result of proper treatment. It is but natu- 

 ral that under distressing conditions, due 

 to the lack of proper care, some varieties, 

 especially fruiting varieties, may develop 

 a few short spines on the edge of a slab 

 or rarely one here and there, but these 

 generally will be found, if at all, to be soft 

 and cottony and so insignificant as to be 

 harmless. What spines do appear as a 

 general thing will drop off as the plant 

 grows older. 



People who are not acquainted with the 

 cactus often mistake the numerous point- 

 ed leaflets on the undeveloped slabs for 

 spines. These, having no function to per- 

 form, soon drop off. They are as different 

 from spines as blossoms are from leaves. 



The leaves of these new Giant cactus 

 varieties should be shrunken slightly or 

 wilted at least (except in absolutely dry 

 deserts or in very warm summer weath- 

 er). Meantime, an earlier and more rapid 

 growth will be secured by plowing and 

 harrowing the land as for any other crop. 



Comparative Value of Cactus Forage 



There is not any particular price for 

 cactus forage, simply because there is not 

 any for sale. And yet the question is 

 often asked, what it is worth? The best 

 answer that we can give is that where 



one acre of land will produce enough feed 

 for one cow, the cactus plant will grow 

 enough feed for four. In other words, it 

 is four times the feeding value in quan- 

 tity and quality of alfalfa. 



Is man also to redeem the desert for civiliza- 

 tion? The French will test Burbank's spineless 

 cactus on Sahara and the desert islands of 

 Mayotte, off Madagascar, and the English and 

 Germans will try its virtues in their South 

 African possessions. Burbank's creation is de- 

 clared to be palatable not only to cattle, but to 



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man, and it thrives on areas that are hopelessly 

 arid, provided there be plenty of heat and light. 

 It would be an almost crowning achievement if, 

 by his genius, man, after these thousands of 

 years wre able to announce the doom of the 

 desert. "Journal," Portland, Ore. 



