170 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
country, and when it can be utilized cheaply it may become a staple 
crop. ‘It multiplies very rapidly from root-planting, one hundred roots 
having in one year produced plants enough for over one hundred and 
fifty acres, as reported from Louisiana. In Fayette County, Tennessee, 
it grows very thriftily, and produces a beautiful, glossy fiber. In Goliad, 
Texas, it grows well both from seeds and roots; and in Austin the staple 
is reported long, fiber excellent, white, and silky. 
From Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Bel Air, Georgia, reports concern: 
ing the successful growth of the Tea plant have been received, and ocea- 
sional calls upon the Department for seed show an interest in efforts for 
native tea production. In the localities named it is said that the plants. 
grow finely, and the flavor of the tea produced is equal to that of the 
tea of China. A correspondent in Louisiana says that the tea plant 
(Thea viridis) grows well in that State, and that one of the members of 
his agricultural association has between three hundred and four hundred 
fine shrubs four and one-half to six feet high. 
The introduction of several varieties of clover has been attended with 
satisfactory results in various localities. This is especially true of the 
Alsike clover, reports upon which have been noted from time to time in 
the monthly and annual reports of the Department. Lucern (Medicago 
sativa) grown near Columbia, South Carolina, from seed furnished by 
the Department, is reported as growing finely, and “one of the very 
few grasses that will grow” there. W.S. Monteith, of Columbia, says: 
_“TIn all the upper counties of this State it would be of very great value, 
if largely planted to take the place of clover.” - 
MINOR VEGETABLE PRODUCTS AND ‘THEIR 
SOURCES. 
The introduction of new industries is, at all times and in all countries, 
a matter of special interest of a two-fold character—the direct addition 
to the industrial and wealth-producing resources of a nation, and the 
indirect value that is certain to follow a system of rotative cropping and 
diversity of culture,.in maintaining the fertility and economical manage- 
ment of the soil. The inducements for further efforts in this direction, 
and the stimulus to new trials, become clearly apparent when we reflect 
upon the fact that, with the exception of tobacco and Indian corn, all 
of our cultivated field crops and most of our esteemed esculent vegeta- 
bles are of foreign origin. 
This Department has actively stimulated experiments and tests of new 
plants, and responded to repeated inquiries in this direction. Fruits, 
fibers, gums, dyes, and medicinal products, which have not been thus 
far the object of productive industry in this country, can be profitably 
introduced, as many have been, through the agency of this branch of 
the Government. It is not maintained that all the plants named in 
this article can find in this country the conditions most favorable to 
their growth or to their profitable production if easily grown. 
__ The theory of acclimatization of plants, although a subject frequently 
alluded to, has no tangible support or foundation on facts. A species 
is either fitted or unfitted, either hardy or tender, in any given climate 
or locality. It is a question to be decided by experiment. The most 
popular system of so-called acclimatizing is by sowing seeds of successive 
generations, with a view of rendering the offspring better suited to the 
