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818 



HORTICULTURE 



December 10, 1910 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SEC- 

 RETARY OF AGRICULTURE 

 FOR 1910. 



This document, presented to the 

 country by Secretary Wilson on De- 

 cember 8, is, as usual, full of absorb- 

 ing interest and information regarding 

 the greatest of our national indus- 

 tries. We should like to devote much 

 more space than is at our disposal to 

 extracts and notes and would urge 

 upon our readers the advisability of 

 procuring a copy of the complete re- 

 port and giving it a thorough perusal. 



The Secretary tells us that nothing 

 short of omniscience can grasp the 

 value of the farm products of this 

 year. At no time in the world's his- 

 tory has a country prodMced farm 

 products within one year with a value 

 reaching $8,926,000,000, which is the 

 value of the agricultural products of 

 this country for 1910. The value of 

 farm products from 1899 to the pres- 

 ent year has been progressive without 

 interruption. If the value of the 

 products of 1899 is placed at 100, the 

 value for this year is 189, or almost 

 double the value for the census year 

 eleven years ago. "During this period 

 of unexampled agricultural production, 

 a period of twelve years, during 

 which the farmers of this country 

 have steadily advanced in prosperity 

 and wealth and in economic inde- 

 pendence, in intelligence, and a 

 knowledge of agriculture, the total 

 value of farm products is $79,000,- 

 000,000." 



The corn crop of 3,121,381,000 

 bushels exceeds that of the record 

 year of 1906 and is greaeter than the 

 average crop of the preceding five 

 years by 14 per cent. While the value 

 of this corn crop is below that of 

 1909 and also of 1908, its amount 

 belongs to stories of magic. It can 

 hardly be reckoned as less than 

 $1,500,000,000, a sum sufficient to can- 

 cel the interest-bearing debt of the 

 United States, buy all of the gold 

 and silver mined in all of the coun- 

 tries of the earth in 1909, and still 

 leave to the farmers a little pocket 

 money. 



"The corn crop is a national .asset 

 .In more than one sense. It is not 

 merely wealth in existence for the 

 time being, but it is an asset of per- 

 petual recurrance. Year after year, 

 throughout the ages, a stupendous 

 amount of corn with incredible value 

 can be produced." 



All of the cereals except corn are 

 together worth only three-fourths as 

 much as that crop. The great allied 

 iron and steel industries had, in the 

 latest census year for which results 

 tave been published, 1904, a produc- 

 tion worth only 60 per cent, of the 

 value of this year's corn crop. 



Forest products to the value of 

 ^85,054,602 were exported in the fiscal 

 year 1910, an amount exceeded only 

 in 1909 and 1908. The imports of 

 these products consisted mostly of 

 India rubber, wood pulp, pulp wood, 

 and woods not grown in the United 

 States; the value of all imports of 

 forest products in 1910 is $179,610,886, 

 which is by far the highest annual 

 value of imports. 



Fumigation and Spraying. 



The Bureau of Entomology has been 

 of great service to the citrus-fruit 

 growers of California and Florida by 



its investigation of hydrocyanic-acid 

 gas fumigation. In the former State 

 the work has been directed against 

 scale insects, while in Florida the 

 efforts have been directed against 

 the white tiy. Much attention has 

 been given to various spraying 

 methods with satisfactory results. 

 Inspection of Nursery Stock. 



Inspection of nursery stock import- 

 ed into the United States from foreign 

 countries has been an important item 

 in the year's work. Much of this 

 stock destined to many of the States 

 and the District of Columbia, when 

 inspected, was found to be seriously 

 infested with brown-tail moths, or 

 other injurious insects, and nearly 300 

 such shipments have been destroyed. 

 Through the efforts of this Depart- 

 ment some of the offending countries 

 have adopted inspection methods, and 

 their shipments are likely to be less 

 dangerous in the future. 



Reforestation Drawbacks. 



In attempts at reforestation of the 

 treeless areas of our national forests 

 by the Forest Service it was found 

 that on an average half of the seed 

 was dug up and eaten or carried away 

 by mice and chipmunks. Attempts to 

 poison the animals, however, have 

 proven very successful. Oatmeal mixed 

 with strychnine and water, or wheat 

 coated with hot tallow mixed with 

 strychnine as a protection against lain 

 or moisture, proved very effective. The 

 poison should be distributed several 

 days in advance of the seeding. 

 Oil-Cement Concrete. 



An important investigative work 

 during the year has been the develop- 

 ment of an oil-cement conciete, and 

 from results already obtained the ex- 

 periments indicate that it would be 

 practical to use this material for 

 floors, cellars, foundation walls, tanks, 

 silos, manure pits, and similar con- 

 struction, where strength, solidity and 

 waterproof qualities are required. 

 Production Per Acre Overtaking Pop- 

 ulation Increase. 



Production per acre is beginning 

 to overtake increase of people, declares 

 the Secretary of Agriculture, in dis- 

 cussing one of the features of his re- 

 port. "The evidence is very plain that 

 the yields per acre of our crops are 

 now increasing, and if the facts were 

 assembled in detail for the States it 

 would be found that the ]iercentage 

 of increase in yield of many of them 

 is greater than the percentage of nor- 

 mal increase of population — that is, 

 the increase of births over deaths in 

 the old native element." 



Interesting Plant Discoveries. 



An agricultural explorer of the De- 

 partment has spent the year exploring 

 the plant resources of southwestern 

 Asia. Among the large number ot in- 

 teresting things he has secured is a 

 variety of alfalfa from Erivan, which 

 is said to be longer lived than the 

 Turkestan; a species of Medicago from 

 an altitude of over 4000 feet, which is 

 already being utilized in the work of 

 creating new hybrid alfalfa for the 

 Northwest; a wild almond from the 

 Zaiafshan Valley, found growing on 

 the dry mountain sides at an altitude 

 of 6000 feet: a drought-resistant 

 cherry for home gardens in the North- 

 west: and a collection of apricots with 

 sweet kernels from Samarkand; the 

 Afghasian apple and special varieties 



of pears for trial in the Gulf States; 

 some remarkable olives, which have 

 withstood zero temperatures and still 

 borne good crops of fruit; late and 

 early varieties of Caucasian peaches 

 for trial in the Southwest; seeds col- 

 lected in the Caucasus from wild 

 plants of the true Paradise apiile, 

 which is used as a dwarf stock for the 

 purpose of obtaining seedlings not in- 

 fected with crown gall; scions of a 

 newly produced crab api)le, reported 

 to be a better keeper than American 

 crab apples; the Slew Abrikose, a vari- 

 ety of apricot with a skin as smooth 

 as that of a nectarine; a remarkable 

 drought-resistant poplar for the Middle 

 West; and a wild strawberry, fruiting 

 at the end of February on the dry cal- 

 careous cliffs of the Caucasus. 



Fruit Disease Investigations. 



The investigation and study of fruit 

 diseases have been vigorously pushed 

 and have shown a healthy progress. 

 The destructive tumor disease of limes 

 and other citrus fruits has been shown 

 to be of fungus origin and attacks 

 oranges as well as limes. The new 

 methods of spraying with sulphur 

 compound worked out by the patholo- 

 gists of the Department has been wide- 

 ly adopted by apple growers. The in- 

 vestigation shows that fine fruit can 

 be produced and protection secured 

 against fungus diseases without the 

 injurious effect resulting from copper 

 compound. Bordeaux mixture is still 

 being used, but in the spraying of ap- 

 ples it has taken second place. Spe- 

 cial attention has been given to ex- 

 perimental work in perfecting the 

 method of using the new sulphur 

 sprays for the fruit spot and leaf dis- 

 ease. As a result, fruit growers who 

 have used the new sprays have secured 

 fine crops of the best apples they have 

 ever grown. Spraying has very large- 

 ly prevented the fruit spot and leaf 

 disease known as cedar rust, or orange 

 rust, prevalent in the Blue Ridge and 

 Allegheny mountain district from 

 Pennsylvania to Tennessee. The 

 peach growers of Virginia. West Vir- 

 ginia and Georgia have been prompt 

 to adopt the discovery of spraying 

 with self-boiled lime-sulphur for 

 brown rot and scab, which has result- 

 ed in the removal of some of the fac- 

 tors which rendered the growing of 

 this fruit uncertain. The pear blight 

 eradication methods have been in ex- 

 tensive use on the Pacific coast. 

 Work Against Gipsy and Brown-Tall 

 Moths. 



Much space is given in discussing 

 the work of the Bureau of Entomology 

 to the important work that bureau has 

 done during the past year in its ef- 

 fort to control or eradicate the gipsy 

 moth and the brown-tail moth. The 

 infested territory covers all the New 

 England States excepting Vermont, 

 and the Department, working in co- 

 operation with the authorities of those 

 States, has met with gratifying suc- 

 cess. Conditions there are largely im- 

 proved. 



Importation of Moth Parasites. 



The Bureau of Entomology has been 

 largely aided in its campaign against 

 the nioth family by the importation 

 from abroad of moth parasites. The 

 results from their importation have 

 not been entirely satisfactory, yet 

 they are sufficiently so to justify 

 further work along these lines. 



