LUTHER BURBANK 



It is not that the cactus can perform its life 

 functions without water any better than can 

 another plant. It is only that the cactus has 

 learned how to seek a water supply in the depths, 

 and to conserve it after it has been found. 



What the cactus does then, essentially, is to 

 bring water from the depths of the parched earth, 

 and to store it in its flat slabs, along with nutritious 

 matter, so that these constitute both food and drink 

 for the animal that eats them. 



It is obvious that a plant that has such charac- 

 teristics, now that it has been robbed of the spines 

 that were hitherto its greatest drawback, and quad- 

 rupled in productiveness — with a good prospect of 

 increasing it one thousand per cent — constitutes a 

 forage plant that is in a class quite by itself. 



The importance of this forage plant is already 

 widely appreciated, but it will be more and more 

 fully understood as the years go by. 

 Enormous Productivity of the New Opuntias 



Not only is the quality of forage produced by 

 the new species of Opuntias of a character to 

 recommend it most highly, but the quantity of 

 forage produced by a given acreage is altogether 

 without precedent. Moreover, being available 

 throughout the year in a succulent form, it is 

 peculiarly valuable for feeding milch cows, pro- 

 ducing a greatly increased flow of milk. 



[224] 



