35G ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The experiment of budding standard varieties of western peaches, 

 primes, apricots, phims, ahnonds, and cherries upon the newly intro- 

 duced Chinese peach {Amygdahts davldiana), which is in common 

 use in China as a stock for all kind of stone fruits, was so very 

 satisfactory (with the exception of cherries) that it was thought 

 advisable to plant a test orchard of 10 plants each of all of the 

 varieties budded (cherries again excepted), in order to further deter- 

 mine the resistance of this stock to disease, drought, and other 

 adverse climatic conditions, and also its congeniality to the varieties 

 used. Plants of this new stock suffered less from the extreme cold 

 during the past winter in Iowa than any of a number of other 

 peach varieties tested, and in southwestern Texas and in the Colo- 

 rado Desert of California grafted plants of it are doing remarkably 

 well. 



Considerable interest is being shown in the carob tree, or St. John's 

 bread, the pods of which contain 40 per cent of sugar and 7 per cent 

 of protein, promising to be of great commercial value as a stock 

 food in sections where it can be successfully grown, Carob trees 

 are growing well in California, from Chico southward, and also in 

 southern Florida, showing comparatively little injury from a tem- 

 perature of 18° F. last winter. 



A rather small, sweet red cherry, introduced from central China 

 and propagated for distribution at the Chico garden, ripened fruit 

 in ten days to two weeks earlier than the earliest cherries cultivated 

 in that section. Several of the introductions of the Chinese jujube 

 (Zizyphus) have borne fruit and give evidence of being of com- 

 mercial importance in the warmer portions of the semiarid South- 

 west. It is expected that several introductions of apricots, plums, 

 peaches, and nectarines, previously propagated and planted at the 

 garden, will fruit in the spring of 1911. A Chinese bramble {Rubus 

 rosaef alius) gives promise or considerable importance, primarily 

 from the fact that it ripened its fruit in April, at a time when 

 standard varieties were just in bloom. The Feijoa seUowiana, a new 

 fruit belonging to the guava family, originally introduced from 

 Brazil, giving promise of commercial value, is now being investigated 

 at the garden. 



Plant-introduction garden, Brownsville, Tex. — In the work of 

 the past 3^ear at Brownsville in the testing of numerous forage 

 plants and a wide collection of newly introduced fruits and other 

 plants it has become evident that a thorough and efficient system of 

 underdrainage will be necessary in order to prevent the accumula- 

 tion of alkali in the upper strata of soil, and a comprehensive 

 drainage sj'stem which will be of interest to the farmers of southern 

 Texas will be installed during the coming year. Owing to this fact 

 many of the plants which otherwise might be expected to do well 

 at Brownsville have not been given a fair chance. Certain especially 

 hardy forms, however, such as the bamboos, have been successful. 

 As windbreaks form an important factor in the agriculture of this 

 section of the country, the discovery of the use of the imported 

 oriental bamboos as windbreaks is worthy of special mention. 



Plant-introduction garden, Miami, Fla. — The work of the 

 Bureau in Florida has been reorganized and devoted to general field 

 work throughout the State in promoting the cultivation and propa- 



