BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 89 



EASTER LILIES. 



It is estimated that about $250,000 are annually expended in the 

 purchase and forcing of the Easter or Bermuda lily. Yet growers 

 complain that there is no profit in the business, due mainly to the 

 failure of the bulbs to produce satisfactory bloom. As high as 40 per 

 cent loss has been reported, while 20 jjfer cent is about tlie average. 

 Notwithstanding these heavj^ losses, the demand for the lily forces the 

 growers into cultivating it in order to hold their trade, even though 

 this branch of the business is carried on at an actual loss. The work 

 which the Department now has under way bids fair to solve this diffi- 

 culty. If success? is ultimately attained, this hazardous branch of the 

 florist's business will be made remunerative, and lily forcing as an 

 industry will grow in proportion to the increment of profit which can 

 be shown. 



VIOLETS. 



As a result of the demand for the violet and the price which it com- 

 mands in the market, nearly every person interested in a general sup- 

 ply of cut flowers grows or attempts to grow violets, while many others 

 make violet culture their specialty and main dependence. In conse- 

 quence of the many failures which are annually reported in this line, 

 the work of the Experimental Gardens and Grounds has been extended 

 to include a test of the methods of culture and varieties of violets best 

 suited for commercial growing. As a beginning in this direction two 

 houses have been erected and so arranged that the various conditions 

 of soil, heat, and moisture demanded by the violet can be studied. A 

 variety collection, comprising all of the commercial sorts of both the 

 United States and Europe, has been brought together for the purpose 

 of determining their fitness for commercial work and their value as 

 parent stock for new varieties. 



The work along floricultural lines will be broadened and developed 

 as rapidly as the means of the office will permit. This line of endeavor, 

 while a decided departure from the former work of experimental gar- 

 dens and grounds, is justified by the enormous outlay of capital 

 involved in the growth and forcing of flowers, and also from the fact 

 that the business is general, scattered through every State and Terri- 

 tory of the Union, though there is scarcely enough in any one State to 

 justify any considerable outlay for such work by the State experiment 

 stations. The problems and difficulties of the florist, if they are to 

 be solved, must be taken up and worked out at the experimental 

 gardens. 



COOPERATIVE WORK. 



The plan of cooperation outlined in the report of the Experimental 

 Gardens and Grounds for the year ended June 30, 1901, is being car- 

 ried out as rapidly and fully as the work of the Department demands 

 and the facilities will permit. 



GRASS GARDENS. 



An area upon the grounds has for several years been set apart for 

 the use of the Agrostologist. The use to which the area has been 

 devoted is that of growing various meadow and pasture grasses, 

 together with a limited number of the more important forage crops. 

 Upon another area there has been planted in an attractive manner a 



