Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/182

 148 THE TOURIST'S CALIFORNIA Forty years ago, some time before he left Massa- chusetts for a climate more convivial to his work, the botanist-magician took upon himself the re- generation of the wild South American potato, antecedent of all its kind. From the wizened red- dish tuber he evolved one that was large and white-skinned. Thirty of them filled a barley- sack. This creation, according to governmental reports, "has added $17,000,000 a year to the value of the agricultural output of the United States." Not content with this benefaction, he matured with painstaking science a species of the prunus domestica whose size and perfection has enabled the State of his adoption to produce three times its former crop of prunes, emphasising the dictionary's secondary definition : " A plum is a large fortune." % After years of experimenting in which he was as- sisted by his brother, formerly a professor in the University of California, this foster father of the fruits and flowers has rendered edible the pear and fleshy leaves of the desert cactus, whose reservoirs of liquid have hitherto been denied to man and beast because of hostile thorns. The fruit of the spineless cactus has been compared in its juiciness to the watermelon, in its flavour to the united fla- vours of the mango, peach and strawberry. The nutrition of its hinged, silken leaves surpasses that of other fodder for cattle.