THE NEW OPUNTIAS 



interest to note, however, in this connection 

 that, working along the line of inducing con- 

 densed nutrition, Mr. Burbank may produce, 

 by breeding and selection, a cactus having all 

 other desired characteristics and as rich in fat, 

 starch and protein as the richest legume. This 

 is but a logical and natural development ; he 

 has followed similar tests in other lines to suc- 

 cessful ends. 



But the first thing to be done was to 

 develop from the wild cactus a thornless, 

 spiculess, fast -growing cactus, suitable the 

 world over for a forage plant for animals and 

 producing excellent food for man. This has 

 been accomplished. 



If you stand some summer day before a 

 field of alfalfa, or timothy, or any other hay- 

 producing grass or grain, consisting of say a 

 hundred acres, you may look for a harvest in 

 normal years of from a hundred and fifty to 

 two hundred tons, — perhaps, with copious irri- 

 gation in the case of alfalfa, as high as five 

 hundred tons, though this would be a rather 

 liberal figure for a good many regions without 

 an unusual amount of water. If you could 

 stand before a hundred acres of the new thorn- 



391 



