BUKEAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 107 



far as it pertained to the work of packeting, assembling, and mailing 

 the seed. To carry out this and other needed changes the following 

 plan, approved by you, is in operation for the present year, and so 

 far has proved very satisfactory: 



(1) The Department secures its own seed and provides for the nec- 

 essary packeting, shipping, etc., or the purely mechanical features of 

 the work, by contract. This plan has made it practicable to secure 

 from the most reliable sources such seeds as may be needed, and does 

 away entirely with any opportunity or inducement for substitutions, 

 reduced weights, or anything of this nature. To carry out the plan 

 to the best advantage the country- has been divided into districts 

 according to climatic requirements, and certain assortments adapted 

 to these districts will be distributed therein. Aside from the benefits 

 derived from each district getting the things best suited to it, the plan 

 does away with the necessity of having to secure such large quantities 

 of a variety, thus enabling the Department to decrease the families and 

 increase the number of varieties. It also adds materially to the elas- 

 ticity of the entire work, making it feasible to consider the individual 

 needs of different localities much more in detail than has been prac- 

 ticable in the past. For example, under the new plan it is practica- 

 ble to furnish Members who have city constituents with flower seed 

 onlj', if they so elect. It is also practicable to prepare assortments 

 of both flower and vegetable seeds for special purposes, such as 

 nature-study work in the public schools, the encouragement of agri- 

 cultural studies in other schools, etc. 



(2) The Congressional distril3ution proper is being confined as 

 closely as possible to new, rare, and special seeds and plants, and the 

 building up of agriculture and horticulture by demonstration experi- 

 ments with the seeds and plants distributed. For convenience the 

 work is divided into two classes, viz, (a) the distribution of special 

 seeds and plants, such as forage crops, tobacco, cotton, sugar-beets, 

 cereals, etc. ; (b) the distribution of miscellaneous vegetable and 

 flower seeds. In the handling of the special seeds and plants, due 

 attention is being paid to the requirements of different sections of 

 the country, and the crops are being so selected as to meet the needs 

 and requirements of the districts into which seeds and plants are sent. 

 A promising forage crof) is distributed, for example, in a section 

 where the nature of the soil and climate indicates success, and where 

 the cooperation of a sufficient number of farmers can be obtained to 

 make the work in a measure a demonstration experiment. The 

 same plan is followed with tobacco, cotton, and other special crops, 

 particular attention being given to comijaratively new things. 



(3) In the miscellaneous distribution of vegetable and flower seeds 

 the work is being so conducted as to gradually introduce new or little- 

 known things, dropping them after the first or second year, and leav- 

 ing the demand created for them, if demand there be, to be supplied 

 by the trade. Efforts are being made to cooperate with the seedsmen 

 of the country in the matter of obtaining specialties and novelties, 

 and disseminating these instead of the okler sorts, taking care, of 

 course, that nothing is sent out without some good claim to value and 

 newness. To determine whether or not the seeds have value, plans 

 have been perfected for coojierative tests with experiment stations. 

 As soon as it is determined that a novelty or specialt}^ is worthy of 

 dissemination, arrangements will be entered into for the growing of a 

 sufficient quantity of the seed for distribution, and it will be distrib- 



