BUBEAU OF PLANT INDUSTEY. 333 



FOREIGN SEED AND PLANT INTRODUCTION. 



The Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction has remained 

 during the past year under the direction of Mr. David Fairchild, 

 agricultural explorer, assisted by Mr. P. H. Dorsett, plant intro- 

 ducer; Mr. Frank N. Meyer, agricultural explorer in the field; Mr. 

 Peter Bisset, plant introducer; Mr. G. W. Oliver, plant propagator; 

 Mr. Steven C. Stuntz and Mr. H. C. Skeels, botanical assistants ; Mr. 

 E. A. Young, scientific assistant; Mr. R. L. Beagles, Mr. J. A. Ran- 

 kin, Mr. E. C. Green, Mr. Edward Simmonds, and Mr. Roy Mann, 

 superintendents of plant-introduction gardens; Mr. H. F. Schultz, 

 in charge subtropical introductions; and Mr. Edward Goucher, Mr. 

 John H. Allison, Mr. W. H. F. Gomme, and Mr. Henry Klopfer, 

 propagators. 



This office has so perfected its machinery of rapid plant introduc- 

 tion and extended its network of correspondence throughout the world 

 that it is now in a position to obtain with unusual dispatch living 

 plant material on the request of plant breeders and experimenters, 

 and, through the hearty cooperation of the pathologists and ento- 

 mologists of the department, introduce it free from dangerous pests 

 or parasitic fungi and get it into the hands of the experimenter in 

 the form of well-grown plants with every possible chance of living 

 in their favor. 



The extent of cooperation with other offices of the bureau is shown 

 by the number of successful experiments which other offices are 

 carrying on with this introduced material. It is difficult to give 

 any adequate idea of the large and growing corps of volunteer ex- 

 perimenters which is being interested in the careful and fascinating 

 work of finding uses for the newly introduced plants and determin- 

 ing their climatic and soil requirements. Some of the most impor- 

 tant observations in regard to the establishment of these new plants 

 are coming from skillful and observant amateurs, and by the pub- 

 lication of its mimeographed bulletin of new introductions this office 

 is stimulating a taste for this preliminary testing of new things that 

 is sure to yield useful results. 



Notwithstanding the fact that a closer discrimination has been 

 exercised, the number of plant introductions during the year 

 amounted to 3,045, or about 10 introductions for every working day. 



Agricultural explorations in central Asia. — During the year 

 Mr. F. N. Meyer has finished the most difficult piece of agricultural 

 exploration work of a pioneer character that has yet been under- 

 taken by the department. He has spent seven months in the desert 

 region of eastern or Chinese Turkestan, which lies between the 

 Karakoram Range of the northern Himalayas and the great Tien 

 Shan Range of western Mongolia. On foot or in native carts he 

 has gone from oasis to oasis of this desert region studying the native 

 fruits and grains. This has been accomplished with much difficulty, 

 but he has made so careful a survey of the possibilities of the area 

 that it will probably be unnecessary to go over this ground again. 

 Mr. Meyer crossed the Tien Shan Range^ passed through Kuldja 

 and along the northern sIojdcs of the Altai Mountains, and worked 

 his way into northern Siberia, where he will collect seeds of forage 

 crops and grains. 



