15-1: ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



spring of 1919. Barley is a very important crop in the rotation in 

 the States of tlie northern Mississippi Valley, as well as a very 

 valuable crop for stoclc feeding. Active measures were taken in Wis- 

 consin and Minnesota, especially, to emphasize the value of barley 

 to the farmers of those States and thus encourage continued pro- 

 duction. 



RICE. 



In California the commercial acreage of varieties introduced and 

 improved by the Bureau of Plant Industrv represented over 20 per 

 cent of the total area of 106,220 acres in*^ 1918. In 1919 this per- 

 centage is believed to be still larger. 



GRAIN SORGHUMS. 



Owing to the importance of the grain sorghums as drought-re- 

 sistant crops, and in view of the long-continued droughts which have 

 occurred in the western portions of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas 

 during the past two or three years, another campaign was carried on 

 in those States in the spring of 1919 to emphasize the value of these 

 crops. The resulting acreage, while below that of 1918 because of 

 the enormous increase in wheat, is slightly larger than that of 1917 

 and more than a million acres larger than that of 191G. 



WINTER FLAX. 



Under the sui)ervision of a specialist, commercial sowings of win- 

 ter flax were made for the first time in Arizona and southern Cali- 

 fornia in February and March, 1919. These have now been inspected 

 and harvested wnder supervision, and the seed either has been re- 

 served for seeding an increased acreage next winter or arrange- 

 ments have been made for shipping it to an oil mill, where its quality 

 for oil production will be determined. 



HARD FIBERS FOR BINDER TWINE AND CORDAGE. 



The continued uncertainty of supply and the threatened shortage 

 of henecjuen from Yucatan have caused serious anxiety lest there 

 might not be enough binder twine to harvest the increasing crops of 

 grain in this country. Investigations have been continued, there- 

 fore, with a view to finding new sources of supplj^ or new regions 

 where binder-twine fibers may be produced. 



Field investigations have been conducted in southern Florida, 

 Cuba, Haiti, Santo Domingo, Porto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. 



Henequen AND SISAL. — Tlic couditions in extreme southern Florida 

 and on the larger keys arc regarded as suitable for the production of 

 sisal and henequen fibers, provided the cost of land and of labor there 

 is not too high to pennit successful cojnpetition with other regions 

 where these fibers are produced. A large conuiiercial plantation is 

 now being established by private capital in that region. 



Henequen has been cultivated successfully for several years in 

 Cuba, and the plantations are being increased there, but thus far they 

 produce scarcely enough fiber to supply the cordage mills on that 

 island. 



In the liepublics of Haiti aiul Santo Domingo it was found iliat 

 most of the plants heretofore referred to as sisal or henequen vane 

 other species of aga\'es or furcraeas, which had been misidentifi(>(l. 

 Conditions are regarded as favorable for the production of binder- 



