BUEEAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 97 



office of Seed and Plant Introduction. The miscellaneous distribution 

 of this material may result in finding now and then the proper local- 

 ity for a particular plant, but in general the labor and expense of 

 importing and propagating the material will be lost unless provision 

 can be made for distributing this material to those of the proposed 

 cooperative test stations best located for the success of the plant in 

 question, and then to be under the immediate supervision of a skilled 

 Department gardener who is able to give the plant such treatment as 

 will be most likely to insure its growth. As the matter now stands 

 the arrangement is not perfect, much valuable material being lost 

 because the persons receiving it know nothing of its care and culture. 



Such cooperative stations would further the work of studying the 

 adaptation of horticultural varieties of both fruits and vegetables to 

 the several life zones of the country. Such testing stations would 

 prove of immense value as a guide to those in charge of the distribu- 

 tion of valuable seeds, plants, bulbs, etc., as the sort best adapted to 

 a region Avould be learned and the distribution arranged accordingly. 

 The geographical limitations of varieties would thus be determined 

 and the influence of soil and climatic conditions brought out. 



Should the plantations at these stations be extended to include 

 fruits, the work of the Pomologist would be placed upon a much more 

 satisfactory basis than at present. The changes in varieties induced 

 by soil and climatic conditions would serve to prevent much of the 

 confusion which results from the remaining of old sorts modified by 

 new environments. 



The importance and desirabilitj" of such a plan of cooperation 

 between the Horticulturist in Washington and an experimental station 

 located in each of the leading fruit-growing, seed-growing, and truck- 

 ing regions of the country is obvious, and it is believed that the hor- 

 ticultural interests of the country can best be served by cooperative 

 arrangements along the lines and for the purjioses above mentioned, 



TEA GROWING. 



The work on the growing of American tea has been continued dur- 

 ing the year at "Pinehurst," Summerville, S. C, in cooperation with 

 Dr. Charles U. Shepard. For a number of years Dr. Shepard has 

 been devoting his entire time to the problem of successful commercial 

 tea culture in this country, and has carried on at Summerville an 

 interesting line of experiments which have served to settle many 

 questions in regard to this croj), heretofore little understood. With 

 a view to encouraging this industry, the Department undertook 

 cooperative work wiT,li Dr. Shepard a few years ago; prior to that time 

 he had borne all the expense himself. It is now known, of course, 

 that many of the earlier efforts in the matter of planting and handling 

 tea were mistakes, but these could not well have been determined 

 except b}^ actual experiment. It has been shown, for example, that, 

 so far as conditions at Summerville are concerned, the best teas and 

 most prolific crops are not grown, as was supposed, on the high ridges, 

 but are produced in the low places commonly known as the "pine 

 woods ponds." There are several of these places on Dr. Shepard's 

 plantation, where the soil is of a rich black loam, and where the tea 

 makes excellent growth and gives a hea\'^^ yield. The plantings made 

 on the higher ground have been more or less injured every year by 



AGR 1902 7 



