How to grow the Burbank Spineless Cactus 



Full Cultural Directions 



WHAT TO PLANT CUTTINGS OR 



SEEDS 



Cactus should always be raised from 

 cuttings, never under any circumstances 

 from seed, as it always runs back to the 

 thorny kind when grown from seed, but 

 never when grown from cuttings. It has 

 been proved time and time again in thou- 

 sands and thousands of cases that the 

 new spineless cactus does not run back to 

 the thorny state any more than a Baldwin 

 apple can change to a Ben Davis or a 

 Bartlett pear to a wild pear. 



WHERE TO PLANT 



These new spineless cacti can be plant- 

 ed in any part of the earth where the ther- 

 mometer does not go lower than 15 de- 

 grees above zero and where the rainfall is 

 not over 40 or 60 inches. In localities 

 where the rainfall is continuous and heavy 

 the cactus sometimes suffers from decay 

 of the leaves. It is not in any way par- 

 ticular as to soil, growing in any soil in 

 which any other plant will grow if it is 

 not too wet. Good agricultural land, like 

 corn land or vineyard land, is especially 

 good, and will, of course, produce a larger 

 crop than poorer land. Temperature and 

 moisture are the two important matters to 

 look after; soil is of little consequence 

 compared with these. 



WHEN TO PLANT 



Cactus should never be planted, trans- 

 planted or moved during rainy winter 

 weather, which is just the time to plant 

 nearly all other trees and plants. If 

 planted at this season they very promptly 

 decay, especially if it happens to be cold 

 at the same time that it is damp. The 

 two together are death to the cactus when 

 moved at such seasons and under such 

 conditions. The best months for planting 

 are the warm dry months extending in 

 Central California from April to Novem- 

 ber. The actual seasonal conditions gov- 

 ern always. Planting after November is 

 satisfactory when there is little rainfall, 

 and much sunshine and the land is dry. 



HOW TO PLANT 



The cuttings consist of slabs, sometimes 

 called leaves. These weigh from two to 

 five pounds, according to variety. It is al- 

 ways best to plant a whole slab. While 

 those that are divided will sometimes 

 grow fairly well, it is not economy to 

 divide them. Better results are always 

 obtained by planting whole slabs. As be- 

 fore stated, this must be done during the 

 warm months. Every slab, if properly 



CACTUS ERA INEVITABLE 



"The cactus area is just opening. Ten or 

 twenty years hence, many well-informed men be- 

 lieve the cactus will have supplanted and dis- 

 placed alfalfa throughout a great erea of the 

 civilized world. Why? .Because the cactus will 

 grow with little or no irrigation, upon any kind 

 of soil, with infinitely less attention than alfalfa 

 must have, and will produce far greater results 

 in yield of fodder. 



"The romance and marvel of the Burbank Cac- 

 tus would fill a large book. The story of the 

 sixteen years of patient effort employed by that 

 wonder-worker, Luther Burbank, justly calls for 

 a place in literature. 



"Imagine, if you please, a man collecting the 

 cacti of the world, selecting from all of these 

 varieties the best, then growing millions of seed- 

 lings, crossing and recrossing them, selecting and 

 reselecting and, finally, after sixteen years tri- 



22 



umphantly evolving from this patient, laborious 

 process and from millions of discarded cacti, 

 seven plants which were not only free from 

 spines, but which possessed the growing and feed- 

 ing values for which he had so long striven. 

 This, in a nutshell, is what Luther Burbank did 

 with the cactus. Sometimes out of 100,000 seed- 

 lings he destroyed 99,999. The remaining in- 

 dividual he watched and tended as carefully as a 

 mother her nursing babe. Patience, infinite pa- 

 tience, had to be added to the Burbank genius, 

 the truly Spineless Cactus. 



"Of those anxious ones who have endeavored 

 to detract from the merit of this, the greatest 

 of the Burbank triumphs, we will say nothing. 

 The Burbank Thornless Cactus speaks for itself. 

 It will, by its wonder-working accomplishments, 

 best answer all critics, whether malicious or igno- 

 rant." Ex. 



