BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 163 



Napier grass were sent to several points throughout the Gulf States 

 to test its adaptability to that section, where it is expected it should 

 prove valuable as a winter silage. 



EARLY OATS. 



The value of early oats, particularly of improved strains, has 

 again been demonstrated in the corn belt. The Albion, a white 

 strain of Kherson developed by this bureau in cooperation with the 

 Iowa station, is now extensively grown in Iowa and adjoining States. 



WINTER FLAX. 



Preliminary experiments with winter flax at many stations in 

 the Pacific Southwest in 1917 and 1918 have given exceptionally 

 promising results. Damont (C. I. No. 3), a pure-line selection of a 

 northern variety, has been especially good. If needed, a consider- 

 able acreage in "the irrigated valleys of the Southwest could be de- 

 voted to the winter production of flax. 



FIG CAPRIFICATION. 



The fig insect {Blastoyhaga psenes) has been successfully colonized 

 on two caprifig trees in southern Georgia, located as a result of a 

 survey of fig trees in this region. The mamme caprifigs passed 

 through the winter of 1917-18 uninjured, and the insect multiplied 

 abundantly in the spring crop, or profichi. Caprifigs from one of 

 these trees were successfully used to caprify the crop of a large seed- 

 ling fig tree of the Smyrna type, causing a crop to set for the first 

 time in the history of the tree. From published reports and field 

 investigations it appears that there are many such fig trees, of large 

 bearing capacity, which regularly fail to set a crop. The reason 

 seems to be that these trees are chance seedlings of the Smyrna type, 

 requiring pollenization through the agency of the Blastophaga in 

 order to mature a crop. Common or " mule " figs are also improved 

 by the same process (caprification). The greater firmness and in- 

 creased sugar content of caprified figs should assist in producing a 

 fruit crop suitable for marketing in a fresh state. Breeding by 

 selection of seedlings from caprified figs may be expected to develop 

 types better adapted to the relatively humid climate of the South 

 Atlantic and Gulf States. 



PROPAGATION OF THE BLUEBERRY. 



Important progress has been made in the domestication and im- 

 provement of the blueberry. Several bushes that produce berries 

 three-fourths of an inch or more in diameter have been selected from 

 about 20.000 hybrids that have fruited thus far in the testing planta- 

 tion at Whitesbog, near Brown Mills, N. J. Only such plants are 

 selected for propagation and distribution as possess fruit with small 

 seeds and delicious flavor, as well as other desirable qualities, such as 

 color, productiveness, and hardiness. 



THE CAMPHOR INDUSTRY. 



During the past year much attention has been given to the develop- 

 ment of labor-saving machinery for use on the camphor plantations 



