History of the Bureau of Plant Industry 



United States Department of Agriculture. 



It seems fitting at this time, as Dr. Beverl}- T. Galloway 

 enters his position as dean of the New York State Col- 

 lege of Agriculture, to review his long association with 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, which he 

 has just severed to engage in his new field of endeavor. 

 Rising from the ranks until he became chief of the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry, which position he vacated a little more 

 than a year ago, to acce|)t that of Assistant Secretary of 

 Agriculture, Dr. Galloway has accomplished much for 

 horticulture and floriculture in scientific research work. 

 It is said of him that he was one of the first men in this 

 country to realize the importance of pathological and 

 physiological studies of plants. 



In announcing his resignation as .Assistant Secretary 

 of Agriculture, a department bulletin says : "Dr. Gallozvay 

 goes to his iiezii position ivith an experience and an ap- 

 preciation of agricultural problems that jnstifies the belief 

 that Cornell University n'ill continue the really wonderful 

 progress it has made in agricultural science during the 

 past quarter of a century." 



\Mien Dr. Galloway came into the Department of Ag- 

 riculture twenty-seven years ago he was greatly inter- 

 ested in the h<jrticultural work, especially the intensive 

 lines, as he had been for several years connected with 

 floricultural work conducted by the Agricultural College 

 of the University of Missouri. He had charge of the 

 greenhouses for several years, and as these greenhouses 

 were conducted on purely commercial lines, he took a 

 deep interest in all of the problems confronting florists, 

 problems of greenhouse construction and greenhouse 

 management, and problems connected with the propaga- 

 tion of bedding plants and special crops, including roses, 

 carnations and violets. 



Upon coming to Washington his first work was in the 

 field of plant diseases, especially those affecting fruit 

 crops, such as grapes, pears, apples and other orchard 

 fruits. The first successful treatment of the grape for 

 black rot was made in 1888 at \'ineland, N. J., under his 



direction. 1 he same year he was successful in preventing^ 

 for the first time the serious disease of pears known as 

 leaf blight. The next year the grape work was extended, 

 as was also the work on leaf blight, in so far as aft'ecting" 

 both the orchard trees and nursery stock. A special ef- 

 fort was put forth to assist nurserymen in the matter of 

 protecting their stocks against diseases. Mildew aft'ect- 

 ing apple stocks, leaf blight affecting pear stocks, and 

 various other maladies, which for years had greatly 

 troubled nurserymen, were one by one successfully 

 controlled. 



In all this work it was necessary to develop special fun- 

 gicides, and it was also pressingly necessary to develop 

 apparatus with which to apply the fungicides. His de- 

 partment was the first to design and place on the market 

 the .\merican knapsack form of sprayer. This sprayer 

 had been used in foreign countries, but no American type 

 had been designed and placed on the market. The vari- 

 ous forms used today are based largely on the earlier 

 machines designed by the Section of Vegetable 

 Pathology. 



About 1890. in association with Mr. P. H. Dorsett, one 

 of the assistants, he began some special work in the im- 

 provement of lettuce. They carried on this work for two 

 or three years and published numerous papers on lettuce 

 culture, especially as grown under glass. As a direct re- 

 sult of this work they were successful a few years later, 

 through the aid of Mr. George W. Oliver, in_ actually 

 produ'cing several new types of lettuce by hybridization. 

 Dr. Galloway regards this as one of the most interesting 

 pieces of work with which it has been his pleasure to be 

 connected. The work on lettuce, extending over a num- 

 ber of vears, had very clearly indicated to him the need 

 for a special type of lettuce for the Eastern grower and 

 Eastern markets. There were no types that exactly met 

 the prevailing conditions. They tested practically every 

 forcing lettuce offered in this country and in foreign 

 countries, and out of this testing work it was decided that 





PART OF EXPERIMENTAL GROUNDS AND GREEM ,- .L .,.., i;URLAL: u, ^'^C^NT I>n h^ :. ^LOCATED AT ^^^ 



HOUSES DEVOTED LARGELY TO PROBLEMS CONNECTED WITH FLORICULTURE AND VEGETABLE CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



