BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 105 



the United States. It is evident from Dr. Knapp's report that the 

 price paid for labor in other rice-producing countries is so low that 

 the American planter must relj^ on the use of the best methods and 

 the best machinery in order to compete with the foreign producer. 

 There is no doubt, however, that with the general use of the best vari- 

 eties which the Department has imported and which we are now 

 propagating, and with such improvements in machinery and methods 

 as American ingenuity will be sure to suggest, rice culture will become 

 one of the great industries of the South. 



/ 



DATE INTRODUCTION. 



The dates previously imported and planted in the semiarid South- 

 west are all growing well and give promise of the successful introduc- 

 tion of this fruit. A new shipment has been received during the past 

 year, 22-1 j'oung trees being sent from Persia b}" the Hon. Barbour 

 Lathrop, to whose generous interest in the work of plant introduction 

 the Department owes a great deal of the material it has been enabled 

 to place before the American planter in the past. These dates are 

 said to be superior to any that reach the American market from the 

 East. The trees sent by Mr. Lathrop represent the best date varieties 

 in the world, and are likely to ripen earlier than the Xorth African 

 varieties. The cooperative date orchard in Arizona now comprises 11 

 acres and contains 580 imported trees, besides 80 native seedlings. It 

 is of interest to report that a number of the suckers imported in 1900 

 blossomed this j'ear, and that there is a prospect that some fruit may 

 be secured two years from planting. 



EGYPTIAN CLOVER. 



This variety of clover, known in Egypt as Berseem, is highly 

 esteemed in the Nile Valley. It there serves the double purpose of a 

 soil reclaimer and enrieher and of a most excellent forage plant. 

 The continued fertility of portions of the Nile Y alley which are annu- 

 ally overflowed is probably as much due to the nitrogen-gathering 

 properties of this plant as to the fertility of the Nile silt. 



Seed of this clover has been brought to this country at different 

 times, but owing to an imperfpct understanding of the proper meth- 

 ods of handling this crop it has never been a success. During the 

 past year, however, Mr. D. G. Fairchild, agricultural explorer of the 

 Department, spent suflicient time in Egypt to study the methods of 

 handling Berseem, and a bulletin on this subject has already appeared. 

 Acting on this new information, a quantitj^ of the seed of several varie- 

 ties was imported and sent to such parts of the irrigated Southwest as 

 seemed to offer favorable conditions for the growth and profitable cul- 

 ture of this clover. It is as yet loo early to expect definite reports as 

 to the outcome of the experiments, but there is reason to believe that 

 Berseem will prove a valuable plant in some sections, such as the 

 overflowed rice lands of Louisiana and Texas. 



THE .JORDAN ALMOND. 



In the year 1900, about 5,500,000 pounds of almonds were grown in 

 Calif ornia, but many pounds were still imported from Spain, $G83,000 

 worth in 1897, because the California nut was not equal to the best 

 imported, known as the Jordan almond. This variet}^ is found only 

 in certain districts of Spain, and is highly prized by confectioners 



