28 
THE SPINELESS CACTUS : 
CACTUS A POSSIBLE SOURCE OF WEALTH. 
[From The Sacramento (Cal.) Bee.] 
The demand for ethyl alcohol for industrial uses 
is expected to be very large, now fhat the heavy 
internal revenue tax has been removed on that 
product when made unfit for drinking purposes 
by the addition of a little methyl or wood alcohol 
and benzine. This denatured alcohol, as it is 
termed, may be used for fuel purposes and for 
lighting, as in Europe. It. serves to run automo¬ 
biles and engines of all kinds, and in the manufac¬ 
tures has a hundred uses. The extent to which 
it may be employed in this country will depend 
largely on the cost of making it as compared with 
gasoline, and estimates are current that under the 
requirements imposed by Congress it can scarcely 
be retailed at less than 40 cents a gallon. 
Ethyl alcohol may be made from many sub¬ 
stances, and one of them is the common cactus of 
the deserts. A bulletin issued by the New Mexico 
Agricultural Experiment Station gives some in¬ 
teresting particulars in this regard. It relates the 
experience of a man in New Mexico who cultivated 
cactus for a number of years, to see what results 
could be had. He estimated that if the plant were 
cultivated on 1,000 acres without harvesting for 
three years, 100 tons could be obtained indefinitely 
from that area every day in the year, making 
73,000 pounds per acre annually. 
That the millions of acres of desert land overgrown 
with cactus may be made a source of large revenue 
seems almost incredible, but stranger things have 
happened. Unless Burbank be badly mistaken, 
the spineless cactus is destined to to become one 
of the most useful of plants, furnishing abundance of 
food for man and beast in regions which have been 
regarded as too sterile and desolate for any 
form of stock-raising or farming. And the profi¬ 
table conversion of the common form of the plant 
into alcohol seems even better assured. 
TO LOCATE A CACTI GARDEN. 
Government Expert is Here and may Recommend 
Riverside for Cactus Experiment Station— 
To Develop Spineless Cacti. 
] From The Riverside Press.] 
David Griffith, who is connected with the National 
Department of Agriculture, is in the city with a 
view to possibly locating here a cacti experiment 
station. It is the purpose of the government to 
locate in California an experiment station to de¬ 
velop the prickly pear into a plant of commercial 
value as a feed for stock. The government has 
already established stations at San Antonio, Tex., 
Organ Mountains, N. M., and a third near Tucson. 
Mr. Griffiths will make tests of the thornless 
cacti developed by Burbank. Mr. Griffith says 
that all spineless cacti are less hardy than the 
thorny varieties and it is to breed a hardy variety 
that he will bend his energies.* 
CACTUS CULTURE AN INDUSTRY. 
[George P. Hall in The Fruit World.] 
“When the laws are perfected so the trust will 
not have the advantage, the raising of cactus will 
be an industry of no small magnitude, and the 
spineless will have the decided preference, in all 
cactus-growing sections of our State, and a well- 
stocked cactus farm is one of the probabilities of 
the future, and he who owns one will be envied 
by the large landed proprietor and 1 lis daughters 
will be asking “who landed him?” 
*This was accomplished on my grounds several years ago, 
but there is still room for improvement. 
IMPORTANT BUT NEGLECTED PLANTS. 
“The Opuntias are very important and much 
neglected fruiting plants.” 
DAVID G. FAIRCHILD, 
U. S. Gov’t Plant Explorer. 
CHARACTERISTIC OPUNTIAS. 
[From Forest and Stream.] 
“There are many species of the Opuntia in Mexico, 
not less than a hundred, I should think. Some 
of these have almost no spines on the leaves. (It 
is by taking advantage of some extreme form like 
this that Burbank has produced the spineless cac¬ 
tus. ) Others have the tufts of spines so far apart 
that a goat or a deer may insert his muzzle between 
and get a good bite, though a cow could not. Others 
have soft spines, especially when the leaf is new. 
There are other very large cactuses —those, 
for example, known as the saguaro, the pitahaya 
and the sina—which do not provide good drink¬ 
ing water because their juice is very bitter and 
even nauseating; and it is interesting to note 
that these cacti, so unpleasant to the taste, 
are but slightly protected by the spines, while on 
the other hand the visnaga and their agreeable 
tasting allies possess an almost impenetrable 
armor of hooked and rigid spines.” 
BURBANK CACTUS IS A GOOD FODDER. 
[From Tlie Berkeley (Cal.) Independent.] 
Berkeley, Feb. 8.—Experiments just completed 
by M. E. Jaffa, head of the department of nutrition 
and foods at the University, show that the new 
species of thornless cactus has properties as fodder 
for cattle which will equal many of the desert 
grasses. The tests were made at the request of 
Luther Burbank, the originator of the new species 
of plant, and have proved to the full the great 
importance of the new plant as a fodder for cattle 
in the waste lands. Professor Jaffa’s report on 
the experiment has just been completed, and will 
be forwarded to Burbank in a few days. 
A short time ago five species of the plant were 
sent to the agricultural station here to determine 
the food value. The series of experiments carried 
on by Prof. Jaffa show that the new plant carries 
nutritive powers which equal three-quarters of 
that of alfalfa. 
SUCCESS DUE TO THE WILD OPUNTIAS. 
[From Bulletin No. 74, U.S. Bureau Animal Industry.] 
“It is owing to the existence of the prickly pear 
that the success of the rancher in southern Texas 
is largely due. lie has in this croji a feed which 
does not deteriorate if not used for three or even 
ten years; it is as good at one time as another 
and can be fed by him in a couple of days notice 
under any circumstances, although it is the general 
beliel that it is much more valuable in winter than 
in summer.” 
“As nearly as can be estimated eighty acres of 
good prickly pear lias furnished a full ration for 
an average of eight hundred head of cattle for a 
period of six months.” 
“Hogs fatten very rapidly on cactus but the 
spines must be carefully removed.” 
“No manner of feeding cactus yet devised, 
without greater care than the feeder is usually 
willing to bestow upon the work, does away en¬ 
tirely with the evil effects of the spines.” 
