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REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. | © 
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in southern Mississippi, near the Gulf. In the fall of 1887 circulars ; 
were sent to a number of parties to whom seed had been distributed 
the preceding spring, asking whether any of the plants had ripened ~ 
seed; also that samples of the growth be sent to the Department. 
Samples bearing ripe seed were received from several parties in 
southern Florida, but from no other locality. On one of the stalks, 
having 13 fertile joints, 812 seeds were counted. In somegcases ripe 
seed was produced on plants the seed of which was planted the pre- 
ceding spring, but usually it was produced on those the roots of 
which had lived through the previous winter, Teosinte having been 
cultivated for a number of years in that section. A quantity of the 
crop of seed which ripened in southern Florida the past season has 
been purchased by the Department to be distributed in the spring - 
of 1888. ee 
Teosinte makes a rapid, succulent, and abundant growth, which, 
in the warmer parts of the country, may be cut two or more times 
during the season. In Florida the first erop from roots which have 
lived over winter is sometimes cut for fodder, and the second ero 
left to ripen seed. This plant requires good soil, and that which is. 
moist but not necessarily wet. It can not, be considered of any value 
for the dry regions of the West, except where irrigation is practiced. 
Tt seems to suffer from the effects of drought rather more than Indian 
corn. On good soil which is not too dry it will probably prove to be - 
of value much farther north than where it attains its complete devel- 
opment. On good garden soil on the Department grounds plants 
from seed sown on the 4th of last June attained a height of 6 feet by 
_ the 29th of July. 
A sample of Teosinte grown in 1885 by John 8. Erwin, of Kirk- 
ville, Mo.,; was analyzed by Mr. Edgar Richards, of the Chemical 
Division of this Department, and found to contain a lower percent- 
age of crude fiber and a higher percentage of albuminoids than either 
clover or timothy hay. Mr. Clifford Richardson, the acting Chemist, 
expressed the opinion, however, that the sample was exceptionally 
rich. (Plate I.) 
WHITE SAGE (Hurotia lanata). 
This plant, known as ‘“‘ White Sage” or ‘‘ Winter Fat,” is abundant 
in places through the Rocky Mountain region from Mexico to British 
America. Prof.S. M. Tracy, whovisited portions of Nevada, Arizona, 
and adjoining territory in 1887, investigating the native forage plants 
under the direction of the Commissioner of Agriculture, states that 
in more arid districts of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah this plant, with 
Greasewood (Sarcebatus vermiculatus), are the most highly valued 
lants for winter forage. An important fact in regard to the plant 
is its ability to thrive in somewhat alkaline soils. It is employed as 
a remedy for intermittent fevers. 
It is a perennial, half shrubby plant growing a foot or two high, 
with slender wooly twigs, which are abundantly covered with linear 
sessile leaves an inch to an inch and a half long, with a velvety sur- 
face of a grayish color and with the margin rolled back. They are 
mostly in small fascicles or clusters. The flowers are minute and in 
small clusters in the axils of the leaves, chiefly on the upper part of 
thestem, The flowers are of two kinds, male and female, on separate 
parts of the stems, or sometimes on separate plants. The small fruit 
is covered with long and close whitish hairs, 
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