38 BOAEID OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



and the Indian Territory, a type of orange which we believe 

 will grow in those localities. The orange is not adapted, as 

 of course you all know, to a cold climate. This fruit will 

 not appear on the Boston market tomorrow. It is not even 

 an orange of commerce, but it is an orange which is edible, 

 which produces a marmalade which is first rate, which pro- 

 duces the finest preserves I have ever seen, and which pro- 

 duces equal to the best lemonade which you get from acid 

 fruits. But that is not the whole thing. We have the apple 

 here at home, but in this district to which this orange is adapta- 

 ble they do not have it. To the people of Georgia, Alabama, 

 and the 'Carolinas, and all through the northern belt of the 

 southern states where they lack an acid fruit, and where they 

 have to buy apples from the north, if they have them at all, 

 oranges there such as I have described, will come as a great 

 boon. 



The Department has spent a great deal of time and money 

 in the importation of valuable productions of other lands. 

 Since Secretary Wilson entered the Department we have had 

 men who have made that their business. There was not origi- 

 nally an office for the importation of plants from other coun- 

 tries for introduction into this country, but now we have men 

 scouring all parts of the earth for the purpose of getting hold 

 of productions of value which can be transplanted here. Many 

 of the most valuable fruits which we have were originally 



'&' 



brousfht from abroad. These have been secured and broug^ht 



» 



over at various times during the last two centuries. Com- 

 paratively recently several valuable things have been obtained. 

 Take Durand wheat, which is a good illustration. You might 

 say that it would be strange that we should find in benighted 

 Russia a wheat which would be valuable to us, but the so- 

 called Durand wheat, which is essentially a Russian wheat, 

 was not imported into this country until lately. The Depart- 

 ment sent agents to Rvissia to study the industry over there, 

 to study into the methods of its cultivation, etc., before it was 

 sent over here. Now the Durand w'heat is very hard. It 

 differs quite a little from our wheat here. It yields more 

 heavily as a whole, and contains more gluten, and, all things 

 considered, it has quite a number of points which make it more 

 valuable than our present wheat. It seemed to be doubtful, for 

 certain reasons, whether we would succeed in importing the 



