THE NEW OPUNTIAS 



conditions owing to various causes, chief among 

 them being the lack of data as to the cactus 

 from which to work. 



However, taking 10 per cent as the amount 

 of carbohydrates in the cacti analyzed, al- 

 though it was not known how much of this 

 would be fermentable to form alcohol, it was 

 shown that on an estimated yield of 73,000 

 pounds of wild cacti per acre per year, 360 

 pounds of carbohybrates would be produced 

 equivalent to 521 gallons of alcohol, worth, at 

 the price quoted, $208.40. The bulletin issued 

 by the college sets forth that this yield, 36^ 

 tons per acre, of the wild cactus is probably 

 too high. 



Mr. Burbank, as noted, has created a cactus 

 out of this wild cactus with a demonstrated 

 yield under indifferent conditions of ninety, 

 tons per acre. This, too, for the first year, the 

 very lowest output. Under the most favor- 

 able conditions, a yield of fully one hundred 

 and seventy-five^ tons per acre seems assured, 

 this with soil and climate exactly adapted to 

 the production of the cactus at its highest. 

 This, on the basis of the experiments at the 

 New Mexico College, would mean for the 



397 



