Seed Distrihution hv Departmicnt of Agriculture. 29.^ 



in the value of the land devoted to its culture; durum wheat, 

 worth over $10,000,000 annually; and various varieties of wheat, 

 oats and barlev. One c>f the most striking of the introductions 

 made by the Department of Agriculture is the Washington or 

 Naval orange so extensively grown in California These are but 

 a few of the introductions that for one reason or another it has 

 been possible to locate; there are undoubtedly many other var 

 ieties that were sent out and found their way into culture without 

 any record of the fact being kept. 



Not only did the distribution do a great deal ot good in the 

 past but it is still doing good. It must not be forgotten that 

 there are two lines of seed distribution being carried on by the 

 Department of Agriculture, the one of vegetable and flower seeds 

 through members of Congress, the other the introduction and 

 distribution of new varieties through the Office of Seed and Plant 

 Distribution. The latter is a continuation of the original intent 

 of the bill, while the former exists for no reason save that some 

 members of Congress believe that their political interests are 

 served by sending seeds to their constituents. It is possible 

 that a friendly eye might see some good in the annual distribu 

 tion of more than a million pounds of common garden seeds, and 

 that here and there some one may be found who would not have 

 lived as near to nature and so much in his garden if he had not 

 received these seeds, but the good done, if any, is so small in 

 proportion to the cost, and in proportion to what could be done 

 with the same amount of money in legitimate lines of seed intro- 

 duction that on the whole we must regard this distribution 

 through members of Congress as useless, and a waste of the 

 public funds. 



While there is no doubt that much good can be and is being 

 done through the distribution of seeds and plants, it is appar- 

 ently hopeless to expect any good from a distribution through 

 members of Congress. The pressure on the administrative offi- 

 cers to increase the numbers of packets sent out will be so strong 

 that it would be impossible to confine the distribution to new and 

 rare varieties. These cannot be had in sufficient quantities, 

 and if they could the cost would be prohibitive. When the writer 

 was in charge of this work he presented to the Chief of the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry a plan looking to the gradual replacing of the 

 quotas of vegetable and flower seeds by smaller quotas of forage 



