30 THE CHINESE SUGAR CANE. 
Office. Now if we really, as American farmers, desire to 
have the Government not only continue its present appro- 
priations but increase them, we certainly should not take 
the seeds and cuttings which it now gives to us, and by 
the most culpable carelessness allow them to be utterly 
lost, thrown away, and rendered unproductive of any 
benefits to our farmers. In the majority of cases, seeds 
received from the Patent Office, with foreign names 
printed upon the packages, are looked at as curiosities, 
bitten to see how they taste, placed upon the mantel- 
shelf for the examination of visitors, and subsequently 
put into the fire, or thrown into the top of some old 
closet, because the farmer cannot find time to plant them 
with care, and investigate their qualities. It is highly 
possible that among the seeds distributed for the last few 
years by the Patent Office, there may have been a number 
which, if they had been properly planted and taken care 
of, would have been productive of the greatest good to 
this country. Are we not confined as to cotton-growing 
to asmall section of the southern states? Would it not 
be a source of immense wealth to our country if we could 
find some plant which would be a substitute for the cotton, 
and which could be produced in the northern and north- 
western states, as in this instance we have found a new 
sugar cane having a number of varieties, and some of 
them specially adapted to the cold climates of the north? 
and who can say but that among these seeds which have 
thus been lost to our farmers, there may not have been 
some one or more which would have produced a substi- 
tute for the cotton plant? Many of the seeds are brought 
home by the officers of our Exploring Expeditions, and 
