148 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Blueberry culture. — The cooperative work of the blueberry plan- 

 tation at Whitesbog, N. J., has been continued with highly satisfac- 

 tory results, and initial plantings at the cranberry station at East 

 Wareham, Mass., have been made in cooperation with the Massachu- 

 setts Agricultural Experiment Station. Blueberries thrive best in 

 soils so acid as to be considered worthless for ordinary agricultural 

 purposes. Blueberry culture, therefore, offers a profitable mdustry 

 to individual landowners in districts in which general agricultural 

 conditions are especially hard and unpromising and suggests the 

 possibility of further utilization of acid lands by means of other 

 special crops. 



Sisal fiber. — The conditions relating to henequen (Yucatan sisal), 

 from the fiber of which more than 80 per cent of the binder twine 

 is made, continue to be unsatisfactory. The extraordinary increase 

 in the price of the fiber and the constant apprehension lest supplies 

 from this one source be still further restricted or cut off compels 

 attention to the development of new sources of supply. The con- 

 sumption of henequen in the United States has increased an average 

 of 40 per cent in geometrical progression each five years since 1890, 

 and at this rate of increase it will be imperative to seek new sources 

 of supply irrespective of the conditions in Yucatan. Practically all 

 of the henequen produced in Yucatan is used in the United States, 

 and an adequate supply at reasonable prices is of prime importance to 

 American farmers. Preliminary experiments indicate that henequen 

 can not be grown successfully within the boundaries of continental 

 United States, but every possible effort should be made to foster its 

 cultivation in our tropical islands or in other lands adapted to its 

 production. 



Cotton. — The advantages to be gained through community action 

 in cotton growing were first stated in 1911, and since that time 

 they have been emphasized in a number of publications on the im- 

 provement of the cotton industry by more efficient application of 

 the results of scientific investigations. Meanwhile, convincing demon- 

 strations of these advantages have been afforded by the success of 

 community action in the production of Egyptian cotton in Arizona 

 and Durango cotton in the Imperial Valley of California. The suc- 

 cess of these organizations is attracting attention to the desirability 

 of forming similar associations of cotton growers in other parts of 

 the cotton belt, and special cooperation is being extended to such 

 communities. 



The results of experiments made in the Southeastern States indicate 

 that Texas big-boll varieties of cotton are superior in several respects 

 to the small-boll varieties regularly grown in this part of the cotton 

 belt. The western cottons not only do better there in a normal sea- 

 son, but they appear to be less susceptible to injury from extreme con- 

 ditions, both of drought and wet weather. The latter advantage is 

 due to the fact that rain often fails to penetrate the more abundant 

 fiber that clothes the seeds of the big-boll varieties. Lone Star, a 

 Texas big-boll variety, originated by this bureau, has done especially 

 well in South Carolina, showing the wide range of adaptability of 

 this variety and indicating the possibility of substituting varieties 

 of this type for the more common and less valuable ones of the South- 

 eastern States. 



