78 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



PROGRESS IN PLANT INTRODUCTION. 



The striking fact that the vast majority of valuable varieties of 

 our cultivated crop plants have originated by chance and been dis- 

 covered by private individuals seems to warrant the encouragement 

 throughout the country of private testing gardens as well as official 

 ones, in M'hicli newly introduced plants can be grown and closely 

 Avatched by intelligent and interested people. It is not deemed expe- 

 dient as a policy to support these testing gardens with Federal funds, 

 but to supply the plant material which is propagated in extensive 

 propagating gardens, and in this way encourage the building up of 

 permanent collections and arboreta which shall be supported by 

 State appropriations or private endowments. 



In order to encourage those thoroughly interested in the testing 

 of new plants and their use in the creation of new varieties, plant in- 

 troducers are sent out to visit the various gardens and bona fide pri- 

 vate experimenters. They arrange for the placing of the valuable 

 plants, interpret the results, suggest new and promising fields of 

 investigation, and report on the demands for foreign plants with 

 which to work. 



In addition to the State experiment stations, permanent places for 

 the testing of long-lived perennial plants have been found in city 

 parks, the grounds around many public institutions, and the farms 

 connected with the Indian reservations. By this method a wider 

 circle of experts and amateurs is being reached than would be possi- 

 ble by the building up of a few large collections, in that it brings to 

 their own gardens new plants upon which they can experiment and 

 which they can breed with our native species. 



An agricultural explorer has during the year explored the cold dry 

 regions of Chinese Turkestan and crossed the Tien Shan Range into 

 Siberia and obtained wild apples, pears, bush cherries, and other 

 fruits and forage plants which can not fail to be of value to the 

 breeders of hard}" plants in the Northwest. 



CONGRESSIONAL SEED DISTRIBUTION. 



Seeds and plants were distributed upon congressional order as in 

 former years. Between six and seven hundred tons of vegetable and 

 flower seeds, put up in approximately 60,000,000 packets, were dis- 

 tributed the past season. Of this quantity about 10 per cent was 

 flower seed and 90 per cent vegetable seed. Approximately one-third 

 of the total quantity was procured from surplus stocks, and the 

 remainder was grown under contract for the department during the 

 current season. In every case seed was secured on competitive bids, 

 and no seed was accepted for distribution unless it was found after 

 repeated tests to be of satisfactory purity and vitality. Every lot 



