26 RErORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



at its disposal. There are many semi-tropical productions of great com- 

 mercial value, which can now only be treated in a limited way as tender 

 hothouse phuits, which they practically are in this latitude, and are 

 consequently placed under conditions for propagation, which not only 

 limit their quantity but depreciate their value. 



There is pressing necessity for increased facilities for cultural experi- 

 ment to test the practicable cultivation of such plants as the olive, tam- 

 arind, banana, pineapple, coffee, tea, theobroma or chocolate, orange, 

 especially the bergamot or otto yielding plants, ginger, pepper, cinchona, 

 and many others of commercial value. There are sections of the country 

 whose climate will admit of the propagation of these plants in the open 

 air, in which the cost of production may be put to a practical test. In 

 the absence of means to provide these facilities, the department finds it 

 impossible to fuUy discharge the primary duties with which it is charged 

 in the act establishing it, viz., "to test by cultivation the value of such 

 seeds and plants as may require such tests, to propagate such as maybe 

 worthy of propagation, and to distribute them among agriculturists." 



Time and again it has been asserted that coffee was found growing 

 wild in Florida, but an examination of the bush and berries sent the 

 botanist of the department has resulted thus far in disproving the asser- 

 tion. 



I have, however, within the past few days been informed by Ex-Gov- 

 ernor Gleason that he himself Lad seen coffee growing wild on Cape Bis- 

 cayne, that he had picked the berries, and that a grant of land had been 

 made to a company to induce them to idant coffee on the peniusula. 



The reason does not appear why this enteri)rise was abandoned, but 

 abandoned it was long years since, and the record and memory of the 

 attempt have been almost forgotten. 



Accurate botanic information will now soon be obtained, and if coffee 

 is growing on Cape Biscayne the fact will be established. 



COFFEE. 



Whether there is any part of the United States in which coffee can 

 be cultivate<l has been a question discussed for years and until recently 

 undecided. A practical solution of this question has at last been reached 

 by Mrs. Julia Atzeroth, of Braiden Town, Manatee County, Florida, M^ho 

 has sent to the department a branch of coffee grown in the open air in 

 her garden. In her letter accompanying the coffee, she says : 



Gen. W. G. Le Due, 



Commissioner, Washington, D. C. : 



Drau Sir: Yours of tlie 20tli of last inontli arrived safe, and I can assure yon I folt 



greatly Louored to find tliat you appreciate my experiiueut in growing ooii'ee, and 



that mine should be the only coffee in the United States. I feel sure it can be suc- 



cesHl'iilly grown further south where frost never conies, and there ia an abundauco of 



