102 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



tions of this Bureau. The need of the introduction of certain varie- 

 ties of grain was, in the first place, actualh' suggested in connection 

 with tlie investigations with cereals being carried on bj'' that office. 

 After such varieties are once introduced and found by two or three 

 years' experiment to be adapted for cultivation in this country-, the 

 further work with these varieties, their relations to soil and climate, 

 selection of the best sorts, etc., is continued chiefly under the direc- 

 tion of the Pathologist and Physiologist. Therefore, in cases where 

 certain data if given here would exactly duplicate statements made 

 in the report from the ofi&ce of Vegetable Pathological and Physiolog- 

 ical Investigations, the reader is referred to the report of the cerealist 

 of that office. 



History. — In connection with the Department work on cereals, it 

 became evident some years ago that anything approaching the per- 

 fection desirable in the way of rust resistance, hardiness, earliness, 

 etc., did not exist among the varieties of wheat and other cereals then 

 grown in this country. At the same time these experiments seemed 

 also to show that varieties superior in these respects might be obtained 

 in foreign countries. The section of Seed and Plant Introduction, 

 therefore, in 1898-99, in cooperation with the cerealist, began the 

 work of introducing better varieties of cereals, and while the partic- 

 ular qualities already mentioned were kept in mind, a special feature 

 was also made of securing varieties that might be adapted for culti- 

 vation in the large semiarid prairie regions of this country. 



Methods. — The plan adopted in the introduction of these varieties 

 was to first secure a limited amount of seed of desirable varieties and 

 to distribute this in small quantities to the experiment stations in the 

 districts where it was likely to succeed. Also, certain varieties 

 which if successful would establish an entirely new industry in this 

 country, were imported and tested in the same way. If these careful 

 experiments on a small scale justified further importations, the seed 

 was purchased in larger quantities and distributed to selected farm- 

 ers throughout the region to which the varieties were adapted. If 

 the results of these experiments were favorable and thereby confirmed 

 the conclusions from results obtained by the experiment stations, the 

 varieties were considered to be thoroughly well adapted to the coun- 

 try, and so far as the section of Seed and Plant Introduction was con- 

 cerned the work was considered completed. The crops produced by 

 these farmers served as nuclei from which further distribution of seed 

 was afterwards made. In accordance with this plan, there was never a 

 possibilitj^ of the waste of a large amount of seed, since it was only 

 obtained in small quantities until it had been thoroughly tested by 

 the experiment stations or directly by the Department at certain 

 selected points. 



SUCCESSFUL, RESULTS NOW DEMONSTRATED. 



Macaroni wheats. — Up to the present time by far the greatest part 

 of the introduction work with regard to cereals has been accomplished 

 with the durum or macaroni wheats, and the macaroni-wheat indus- 

 try may now be considered as thoroughly established. After thorough 

 preliminary experiments had first been made, a considerable quantity 

 of seed of several of the best varieties from eastern and southern 

 Russia was distributed on rather a large scale. The results of this 

 more general distribution were successful beyond the expectations of 

 the Department. 



