LUTHER BURBANK 



The plants grow rapidly from cutting, and only 

 a few months are required to produce a growth 

 that begins to present forage possibilities. 



Of course it will be better to allow the plants 

 to grow for two or three years, and thus attain 

 large size, before slabs are cut away. But after 

 that the new growth may be removed from time 

 to time as required, and the plant will be a con- 

 stant forage producer for a century at least. 



The different varieties of new spineless Opun- 

 tias vary a good deal as to size, but all are plants 

 that on good land attain a growth of six or ten 

 feet during a few seasons, and some of them grow 

 much larger. 



There is a good deal of difference also as to 

 size and weight of the individual pads or slabs. 

 Many of these weigh eight or nine pounds, al- 

 though the average is from two to six poimds for 

 the improved varieties. Some of them weigh as 

 high as eighteen to twenty-two pounds, but these 

 are exceptional. But the varieties having largest 

 slabs do not usually produce by any means the 

 greatest amount of food. One of the new varieties 

 of the gigantic Tuna type has produced a slab four 

 and one-half feet in length. This, of course, is 

 something quite out of the ordinary; but slabs 

 from twelve to eighteen inches in length are by 

 no means unusual. 



[226] 



