20 



cabbage aiKl onion seeds. It will also receive, durinj): this month, fresh 

 seeds of the ramie and jute i)lants, the latter of which cannot be grown 

 snccessfuil y north of Tennessee. Oats and barley of approved varieties 

 have been ordered from Scotland and Germany, and will be distributed 

 in aini)le time for si)ring-sowing'. A choice variety of white spring-wheat, 

 grown in Oregon from seed imj^orted from Australia, has just been dis- 

 tributed to the Northwestern States and Territories. 



The Department has also just distributed a quantity of Cooley's early 

 ■white field-corn to a selected list of farmers in the different States, who 

 Avill nuike a trial of it in their respective localities, and report the results 

 of their experiments at the close of the year. This corn is a new variety, 

 originated by Mr. 0. C. Cooley, of Manchester, xldams County, Ohio, 

 and introduced to the public in the fall of 1870. It is said to be remark- 

 able for its early maturity. Mr. Cooley states that he planted it the 

 past season on the 3d of May, and it was ripe and ground into meal the 

 9th of August, the time of its growth having been fourteen weeks. A 

 farmer in Wisconsin is reported to have raised a crop and had it ground 

 into meal in thirteen weeks from the day of i)lanting. .Another, in Min- 

 nesota, raised fifty bushels from one pint and a half of seed. Mr. Cooley 

 claims that this corn is equal in productiveness to any variety in culti- 

 vation. 



As there is much inquiry in the Southern States for seed of the Japan 

 clover, it is deemed proper to repul)lish, from the Annual Eeport for 18G9, 

 the following opinion by the Su])erintendent of the Garden and Grounds 

 of the Department: ^'■Lespedeza striata (Ja[)an bush-clover) is a legu- 

 minous plant that has lately attracted some attention in the Southern 

 States as a forage i^lant. It is poorly adapted to any such use, and not 

 by any means worth3" of recognition by the cultivator. It is a low, 

 hard-wooded annual, spreading freely on sandy and poor soils, with very 

 small and scantv foliage." 



CHEMICAL NOTES. 



Dr. Rvland T. Brown has been appointed chemist of the Department 

 of Agriculture, and entered upon the discharge of his duties, January 11. 

 He has not had sufiicient time to make any extended chemical analysis, 

 and therefore has no report to present this month. He found the labor- 

 atory in charge of an assistant, Mr. Henry M. Smith, who presents 

 the following notes of his analysis of yaupon {Ilex cassine) or Carolina 

 tea. This idant is of special interest to the people of the United States, 

 as it belongs to the family which is, chemically, the American repre- 

 sentative of the tea of Asia and the coffee of Africa. 



KEPORT ON YAUPON. 



The Department is indebted to Mr. J. E. Reside, of Washington, District 

 of Columbia, for the opportunity of amdyziiig a specimen of this interest- 

 ing ])lant. "Yaupon" was the name given by the Indians to the leaves of 

 the Ilex cassine, which formed an important article of commerce between 

 the different tribes. Mixed with the leaves of other species of the same 

 plant, {Ilex vomitoria, Aiton, and Ilex dahoon,) it formed the basis of 

 their famous " black drink," which was used by them as a medicine; 

 and at one of their peculiiir religions festivals was taken, a pint at a 

 time, at short intervals during two or three days, to serve as an emetic, 

 to thorouiihly purify their bodies before undertaking one of their pro- 

 tracted expeditious. The emetic effects were more probably due, how- 



