THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN. PORTLAND. APRIL 5, 1909.
3
EblBlyf CACTUS TMAZT TTZOMlSES '7S
07' ACRCS .ATMD FURNISH FOOD FOR-, .I TJ
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AVEGKTABLB that grows fruit
This la the evolution of the thorn
leas cactus Produced by that
wizard of plant life. I,uthcr Burbank. of
Santa Kosa. Cal. The thornless cactus
lie regards as his greatest triumph. 1
believes It will prove one of the greatest
blessings modern science has given to
mankind. He believes it will do a great
deal to solve the problem of food for
livestock anil that it will prove of In
estimable value as a hygienic food 'for
man.
The (hornless cactus is a proved suc
cess. At a mode nursery, established
for the purpose of propagating this new
and wonderful plant, near lndio. in the
Sal ton Sea district, there are now l?O0
growing flourishing plants. Hy Spring
of l-XW there wilt be half a million plants,
and the distribution or them to satisfy
the demand throughout the country will
thfn begin. Within IS months it is con
fidently expected, many thousands of
acres adjacent to ios Angeles will be
planted In thornlcss cactus. Within five
years, the cactus enthusiasts prophesy,
all the land now planted -to wheat or
barley or alfalfa will be growing1 thorn
leas cactus.
Those critics mho have accused Mr.
Burbank of claiming to have produced
something already in existence do not
know whereof they speak. Mr. Burbank
does not assert that he produced the
thornlcss or spineless cactus; he con
cedes that IwolAted Individual plants
t ithout thorns wore found In Arizona,
In Texas. In Southern California. Aus
tralia and various parts of the world.
What he has produced is a t hornless
cactus which is of inestimable value as
forage and as food for man and which
will come true, that is. thornless, from
graft.
In other words, he has. hy 12 years of
patient, laborious experiment at Inn and
selection, produced several varieties of
cactus which. reproducing from the
leaves broken off and thrust Into the
ground, will come true, that is, spine
less, through succeeding generations,
and will yield an almost unh.'lievahle.
amount of food ami fodder. Here are
tome figures:
The 3-year-old thornlcss cactus plant
stands six feet high, is six feet in di
ameter and weighs .VW pounds. An acre
of such plants will yiM tons of for
age each year and 10 to : tons of deli
cious fruit, which, workers on Mr. Pur
bank's experimental farm declare. Is bet
ter than apples, oranges, peaches or
pears.
( actus as Forage and I'rutt.
Pour tons of cactus fodder is equivalent
In fecdlnr value to one ton of alfalfa:
hence 2rt tons of cactus equals 50 tons of
alfalfa. It follows, then, that if Mr.
Fwrhank production is all that Is
claimed for it, one acre of land will pro
duce as much fodder, actual feeding val
ue. In thornless caetus, as would four
acres of alfalfa, for a crop of 124 tons
of alfalfa to the acre is exceptionally
good.
Moreover, the cactus may be gTown on
land which will not grow alfalfa. Some
varieties of the thornless plant are ex
pected to grow with no Irrigation what
ever: others will require a little water.
Hurbank believes that three billion acres
of unproductive soil throughout the world
may be made productive by the thorn
less cactus.
Hut this Is not all. The 10 to 20 tons of
fruit which may he taken from the cac
t 'is plant per acre per year has A de
cided commercial and economic value.
The fruit may be pickled, canned, pre
served or used for the making of syrups.
It will find a ready market in the fresh
state, and is expected to supplant many
popular fruits In the fancy of epicures.
Th leaves of the cactus plant may be
us-ed with advantage and keen enjoy
ment as a food for man. Boiled as
greens, fried as egg .plant, or served as
lettuce or a salad, it is said to be de
lectable. The claim is made that the leaf of the
thornless cactus is of more food value
than any other vegetable that grows, be
cause it supplies In greater quantity than
any other the organic minerals and salts
mar-ganese. Iron, potassium, magnesium
and sodium which are needed to build up
the nerve cells.
Value in Mineral Salts.
Among Burbank's assistants in the
propagation of the thornless cactus is
Lr. K. N". Doud. of I,os Angeles, who has
charge of the Thornless Cactus Farming
Company, to which Burbank has entrust
ed all his perfected plants, together with
the responsibility of propagating each
variety and eventually distributing them
to the world. Dr. Doud is an enthusiast
on the subject of the cactus's food value.
He has made a careful study of its prop
erties, and by chemical analysis has prov
en that It is rich In those organic salts
which he says are so sadly needed in the
daily diet of the average human being.
"Most of the diseases of the flesh." said'
Dr. Doud. "are due to the excessive acid
ity of the body. The acids which are
taken into the system in such large quan
tities tear down and destroy the cells. It
has been proved that the salts four in
meats and medicines will not neutralize
th acid in the nerve cells though It will
In the blood. The cactus contains 4 to 5
per cent of these priceless organic salts.
"Another remarkable peculiarity about
the spineless cactus, as Professor Bur
bank has developed ft, is that the fruit is
absolutely starch less. What this means
to man and beast any student of dietetics
will understand.
"An acre of thornless cactus will sup
port five to ten dairy cows. Hogs and
sheep do splendidly upon it. Cactus will
take the place of alfalfa. While, because
of the large percentage of water it con
tains, we have to allow four tons of cac
tus to equal one of alfalfa In feeding
value, yet we must at the same time ad
mit that In other respects the four tons
of cactus will contain more real nutriment
for the cow or horse than one ton of al
falfa. Probably no more convincing state
ment may be made In regard to this than
that the Government experts have found
the thornless cactus superior to sorghum
hay for dairy cattle'
Perfecting the Individual.
Dr. Doud spoke interestingly of Profes
sor Burbank's work and of his philosophy.
"Professor Burbank," said he, "believes
that In human life and plant life, the ef
forts of the philanthropist and the scien
tist should be devoted to the perfecting of
the Individual. He holds that any effort
toward raising the masses Is lost unless
It is directly applied to the individual. I
have known Professor Burbank to grow
a thousand young trees and destroy
of them because he could not afford to
devote his time to caring for them. Philo
sophically, he concluded it a wiser thing
to take the one tree out of the thousand
which more nearly approached perfection
and toll with It, to the end that the per
fect thing for which he was striving
might be attained.
"It was thus with his experiments with
the cactus. Out of thousands and thou
sands of plants. Professor Burbank, after
years of painstaking experimentation, se
lected only a few. The remainder he de
stroyed. The propagation of the superior
individual; that Is his theory and his rule
of action.
"Professor Burbank believes that sci
ence may achieve the triumph of manipu
lating the organic forces of nature just as
it has done with the unorganized forces.
Steam and electricity are the best exam
ples of what has been done in the latter
direction. The perfected fruits and plants
of the last generation are but forecasts i
of what may be done In the former.
"The great pressure of the present age
Is to get food for man and beast from the
soil. In & few years the matter of lum
ber supply may supersede this In impor
tance, but there Is no question that today
the greatest problem is that of cheap and
plentiful supply of foodstuffs and feed.
There are. Professor Burbank estimates.
3.000,000,000 acres of unproductive land In
the world today unproductive largely for
lack of moisture. He believes that even
tually the thornless cactus will be grow
able on this waste soil. The desert is the
home of the cactus. It will take the
moisture from the air where no rain falls.
It will grow where no other vegetation
grows. It may be made to grow in many
climates and under innumerable climatic
conditions."
Professor Burbank Is still experimenting
with the cactus, though he has perfected
no less than seven varieties. He hopes
to get a plant which will grow In colder
climates, even in Minnesota. Wisconsin
and North Dakota. Some of the farie
ties he has already produce? will stand
5 to 10 degrees of freezing. ,
What Has Been Done on a Desert.
The Thornless Cactus Farming Com
pany of Los Angeles, which has charge
of the work of propagating the perfected
species, produces some interesting figures
on the rapidity of growth of the plant.
The single leaf of the cactus, dried and
thrust Into the ground, will In three
months produce five to ten slabs or leaves,
and each of these slabs will grow three to
five more in another two months. Bach of
these leaves will weigh two to three
pounds. In the case of the opuntias, one
of the best of the Burbank productions,
the .plant Is all practically food and drink
from root to tip, and Is greatly relished
by all herbivorous animals from the
canary bird to the elephant. Each year
the productiveness of the plant increases.
It multiplies with amazing rapidity, as
witnessed by the fact that the 1300 plants
now flourishing at lndio are expected to
produce nearly half a million plants by
next Spring. In the Bast, where the
Winter cold Is severe enough to kill the
plant If left out of doors, the leaves may
be cut off and stored and planted again
in the Spring, yielding an average crop
of 75 tons per acre. It is one of the pe
culiarities of the thornless cactus that
the leaf must be dried before being
planted.
.While some have seen fit to scoff at the
latest Burbank triumph, there can be no
argument that it Is the greatest of all
bus marvelous accomplishments. The
thornless cactus, if it has not yet arrived.
Is rapidly arriving. The United States
Government has conducted extensive ex
periments and has cordially indorsed tha
plant as a potent agent In the reclama
tion of the desert and in the solutffm of
cheap and abundant food for livestock.
Xot Purchasable Today.
Today the thornless cactus Is practically
unpurchasable. Professor Burbank sold
five leaves to an Australian company for
Jiooo each, with tho proceeds of which
sale he has built his new bungalow at
tfanta Rosa. His old home Is now called
the pumping station, because It Is here
that his historians manage to entice him
awav from his work a couple of hours a
day to get from him the Information
they must have to complete the several
t books about his life and work now being
prepared. A few leaves were sold In thla
country at JoOO each. But the plant Is
not on the market and will not be till
next Spring, 199. when !t is expected
thre will be sufficient plants to satisfy
the immediate demand. Then the thorn
less cactus will take its place among th
great fruitgrowing plants of the world.
Already numerous companies and colonic
are being organized to grow this remark
able production. The La Prosperldad
Colony Association, the Los Angeles or
ganization which is preparing to settle)
500.000 acres of the richest land in Lower
California, expects to set aside a large;
tract of land to the growing of thornless
cactus. Ranchers, cattle -raisers and
farmers are putting in their applications
for a supply of the plants at $2 apieea
when the distribution shall begin next
Spring. Professor Burbank and Dr. Doud
expect the next three years to demon
strate all and more than has been
claimed for this, the greatest of all th
Burbank triumphs.
Ios Angeles. March 30.
Overheating in Automobiles Due to Carelessness
BY K. A. GRANT, M. E.
NO DETAIL of an automobile has been
given more careful attention and
more thought by designers than the cool
ing system, and It is not making too
strong a statement to say that nowa
days In ninety-nine cases-out of a hun
dred, when the motor of a car overheats,
it is due to the carelessness of the op
erator rather than any Inherent defect
in the cooling system.
The cooling problem has been studied,
not only by automobile designers, but by
the manufacturers of radiators as well.
Occasionally an automobile is found
which does not cool, because of some
fundamental defect In the system, but
this now is an exception In a modern
motor car.
Probably not more than 20 per cent of
the heat-units generated perform actual
work In driving the car, while of the re
maining 80. perhaps 50 per cent have to
be taken up by the cooling system, leav
ing only 30 per cent to go out from the
exhaust; in other words, more than dou
ble the amount of horsepower is ab
sorbed by the radiator than Is used In
driving the car.
Assuming, then, that an engine is prop
erly designed, let us Investigate the
causes of overheating. A gasoline motor
obtains its power from tho Ignition of
a charge of air and gasoline vapor, or,
in other words, there is too little air and
too much gasoline, the result is the mix
ture ignites slowly and burns not only
during the power stroke, but also during
the exhaust stroke. The hot gases are
therefore carried back and expelled
through the exhaust, with the result that
the cylinder walls become overheated,
causing the water to boll. Tho remedy
In this case is to decrease the quantity
of gasoline until a perfect mixture re
sults. Another common cause of overheating
may be due either to the quantity or
quality of lubricating oil. It is unfor
tunate, but nevertheless true, that there
Is much poor oil put upon the market.
Many an oil that will lubricate efficiently
when the engine is workln-g under a
light load may prove worthless and pos
cess little lubricating value when under
a full load. In other words, the tem
perature that the cylinder obtains limits
the value of the lubricating qualities of
the oil.
If, therefore, a motor when cool gives
Its full amount of power, and this power
gradually falls oft when run for some
time with throttle. In ninety-nine times
out of a hundred the trouble Is due to
the quality or the quantity of the oil
Poor circulation Is due either to a de
fective pump or to some stoppage in tna
water system, and this may also be re
sponsible for overheating. While pump
troubles were common four or five years
back, the modern centrifugal pump Is
productive of very little annoyance.
In my estimation, the automobile of to
day is thoroughly standard, and when
trouble arises it Is due to lack of Intelli
gent care rather than any inherent defect
in the car itself. From The Circle.
Gone.
She wnt away from me, and never mon
Will her light foot fall on my lonely floor:
The nerfume of her presence lingers yet
Kaeh day, each hour forbids me to forest
Her err My throne, now that her reign 1
o'er.
Oh, to call back my word?: Oh. to restore
The old ways! Oh, to be ust a of yore!
Oh, bitter days! Oh. night of vain regret!
She went iway!
Today I stand before another's door
To see If he will come, for dollars four
A week, and be my cook. Ay. but I'll bet
Hhe cannot wear old Midget's coronet
Or make the kind of pies she made before
Sh wnt away!
V Cleveland leader.