Kearney: Louis Trabut 



159 



and the avocado in Algeria have thus 

 far been unsuccessful. The colony is 

 indebted to Trabut for a host of exotic 

 ornamental plants and of shade and 

 forest trees, one of the finest of the 

 latter being the handsome Canary 

 Island pine. 



Bersim or Alexandrian clover, the 

 most valuable forage plant of the Nile 

 Delta, has been acclimatized after 

 years of effort through the discovery 

 and segregation of a strain resistant to 

 low temperatures. With a view to 

 fostering the cultivation of cotton and 

 tobacco in Algeria, collections of the 

 leading varieties of these crops have 

 been assembled and progress is being 

 made in the development by selection 

 and hybridization of races adapted 

 to the local conditions. 



Trabut has discovered several nat- 

 ural hybrids between different species 

 of Eucalyptus, a tree which is exten- 

 sively grown in Algeria. One of 

 these, named in his honor Eucalyptus 

 Trabuti, gives a wood suitable for 

 cabinetmaking and said to resemble 

 mahogany. Another hybrid, E. algeri- 

 ensis Trabut, he has found to be self- 

 sown, which is not the case with other 

 members of the genus in Algeria. 

 Superior and more productive races of 

 the camphor tree and of the soapberry 

 tree have been developed by selection. 



CREATION OF NEW HYBRIDS 



Hybridization work of the greatest 

 importance has been carried on at the 

 botanical stations of Rouiba and Mai- 

 son Carree with cereals, cotton, to- 

 bacco, the artichoke, sisal and related 

 species of Agave, Opuntia or prickly 

 pear, citrus, grapes, loquats and many 

 other groups of plants. This phase of 

 Trabut's work not only has enriched 

 agriculture and horticulture with val- 

 uable new forms but has led to a con- 

 clusion of great scientific interest, that 

 many of the important cultivated 

 plants have originated as hybrids 

 between two or more botanical spe- 

 cies. Evidence of this has been pre- 

 sented in the cases of alfalfa and the 

 fig. 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMERICAN 

 AGRICULTURE 



There is no little resemblance in 

 climate and in the native and culti- 

 vated vegetation between Algeria and 

 the southwestern United States. The 

 Mediterranean littoral, with its chap- 

 arral-clad hillsides and its mountain 

 forests of live-oak and pine, finds its 

 counterpart in the coast region of 

 California. The interior plateau, cov- 

 ered largely with coarse bunch grass, 

 resembles the high plains of New 

 Mexico, and the vast Sahara is repro- 

 duced on a smaller scale in the deserts 

 of southeastern California. This sim- 

 ilarity of conditions has made the 

 North African colony a Mecca of agri- 

 cultural explorers in search of plants 

 for introduction into the southwestern 

 United States. Cooperative relations 

 with Dr. Trabut were established more 

 than twenty years ago by Walter T. 

 Swingle and David Fairchild of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, and as a 

 result hundreds of Algerian plants 

 have been brought to this country. 



Numerous but unsuccessful efforts 

 had been made to produce the fine 

 Smyrna fig in California, the reason for 

 the earlier failures having been the 

 absence of the tiny insect (Blasto- 

 phaga) which caprifies or pollinates the 

 female flowers. With the aid of Dr. 

 Trabut, Blastophaga finally was intro- 

 duced successfully by Mr. Swingle and 

 Smyrna fig production is now a thriv- 

 ing industry in California. Trabut 

 has also co-operated enthusiastically in 

 the introduction of numerous varieties 

 of dates from the North African deserts 

 and has the credit of inventing an 

 effective method of maturing the fruit 

 on the tree by enclosing the clusters in 

 paper bags. 



Pelissier wheat, one of Trabut's 

 selections, ranks among the best of the 

 hard wheats tested in Montana by the 

 Office of Cereal Investigations of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry and has 

 reached the stage of commercial pro- 

 duction in that state. It appears to be 

 especially suitable for the manufacture 



