276 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



South Cakolina testing garden. — With the close of the season 

 last year active cooperation in the growing of Hungarian paprika in 

 Florence County, S. C, was withdrawn. Attention is now being 

 given to various sorts of pungent peppers in order to develop the 

 cultivation of Cayenne types. Fifteen acres of experimental peppers 

 are now being grown, about six of the most promising varieties 

 obtained being under observation. 



Florida testing garden.^ — In the work of the Florida testing gar- 

 den the culture of plants yielding volatile oils has come to occupy an 

 important place, conditions found in that State seeming to favor their 

 development. Several native plants seem to give unusual promise, 

 especially the horse mint {Monarda punctata) characteristic of the 

 sandy lands common in Florida. This plant yields an oil rich in the 

 valuable constituent thymol, now a rather important imported article. 

 It is hoped that Monarda growing in Florida may become profitable 

 and that a home supply of its products may result. Several other 

 oil-yielding plants, including the rose geranium and bergamot mint, 

 give distinct promise for the future. 



Wisconsin testing garden. — During the past year the number of 

 varieties under test at the garden in Wisconsin has been more than 

 doubled. The common fireweed, which develops in stubble fields in 

 neglected places, has been found to grow well under cultivation and 

 to yield a good quantity of a volatile oil containing a large propor- 

 tion of limonene, a substance which it is hoped may find extensive use 

 in the paint and varnish industry. 



SPECIAL PROBLEMS. 



Camphor investigations. — During the past year the camphor work 

 at Orange City, Fla., has met with a severe check from the heavy 

 frosts of the winter. Well-established trees seem to have been little 

 damaged, but nursery stock and field plantings not yet well estab- 

 lished suffered more serious losses. The outcome seems to indicate 

 that this danger may be in large share eliminated by changing some- 

 what the method of handling the young plants. The efforts of the 

 year have been concentrated on getting the hedges planted and a fac- 

 tory equipped in order to permit the harvesting of an experimental 

 crop at as early a date as possible. 



Perfumery and volatile-oil investigations. — In conjunction with 

 the cultural tests of volatile-oil plants at the Virginia, Florida, and 

 Wisconsin testing gardens, the physiological conditions governing the 

 constitution of volatile oils have been under investigation, the results 

 obtained having in part been reported in a publication on this subject. 

 In response to demands made upon the office fixed oils, such as China 

 wood oil (tung oil), the oil from pecans, and oils from soy beans (40 

 varieties), from the sunflower, and from a number of other plants 

 are being studied with promising prospects of success. AVork is also 

 being done on the fixed oil occurring in the waste raisin seeds of the 

 California fruit industry, the object being to determine the value of 

 this product. 



Hop investigations. — During the past year the hop investigations 

 have been continued both in the field and the laboratory. The hop- 



