KEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 17 



The coffee plant may be mentioned as an example of plants of this 

 description; cinnamon, gamboge, some of the rubber and other gum- 

 yielding plants, chocolate, vanilla, and nutmeg may also be noted as 

 coming under this class. 



Some plants again, even where the thermometrical conditions are 

 faYorable, require special climatic conditions to secure their production 

 in profitable quantities; the tea i>lant is a good example of a plant 

 requiring special climatic peculiarities to enable its commercial products 

 to be produced in sufficient abundance to be profitable as a mere money 

 investment, y^le it can be cultivated and made available as a domestic 

 article for famOy use over a large portion of the country. 



There are many articles of importation which can be grown here, but 

 can be purchased at so cheap a rate that our system of labor cannot 

 compete in their production. Of these opium may be noted ; the opium 

 poppy m.ay be cultivated in every State of the Union, but the slow and 

 tedious manipulation required in collecting the juice prevents competi- 

 tion with the cheaper labor of other countries. The same factor pre- 

 vails in the cultivation and preparation of perfumery oils and essences, 

 but in these, as in other industries, much can probably be accomplished 

 by the invention of new appliances of a labor-saving character. 



The culture of the ramie plant, which yields a valuable fiber, and 

 which was introduced many years ago, has hitherto been held in abey- 

 ance, owing to the want of machinery adapted to the profitable extrac- 

 tion of the fiber from the stalks. This is now so far accomplished that 

 the complete success of a machine for the purpose may be looked for in 

 the near future. 



Jute culture has been in a similar provisional condition, and as soon 

 as the announcement is confirmed that suitable machinery has been 

 erected for the reduction of tiKefio plants, and for the separation of their 

 fibers in a manner satisfactory to the cultivator and to the manufact- 

 urer of fabrics, new and profitable crops will be at once available. 



The introduction of new industries is at all times a matter of spe- 

 cial interest, because they promise a direct addition to the industrial 

 and wealth-producing resources of the nation, and, what is further of 

 great importance, they have an indirect value in so fur as they increase 

 diversity of crops and widen systems of rotation on lands, which is a 

 significant factor in maintaining the fertility and in the economical man 

 ngement of the soil. 



Nothing promises to be more effective in this direction than the in- 

 troduction of fruits into every section where they will thrive and do not 

 now exist, and the careful experimentation with new varieties of sucb 

 kinds as remain to be tried. Our farmers are American in every sense, 

 and, as a rule, desire an almost immediate return as a reward for their 

 industry; seed sown in the spring yields its product in the fall, and hence 

 broad acres are sown year after year, with little or no diversity, whicL 

 2 AG— '85 



