44 MICHAEL A. LANE 



and improved methods of work that the government is not 

 giving him now for no fee. 



An entire Ubrary would be the result were one to 

 undertake a full account of the way in which the depart- 

 ment spends the $6,000,000 or so that is appropriated 

 annually for the work. In the chemistry bureau alone 

 the activities of the government experts cover a vast range 

 of experiment and investigation. All sorts of experiments 

 with bacteria are going on there, looking to the production 

 of new ferments. Among these may be mentioned the man- 

 ufacture of twenty five yeasts which have been grown 

 by cultures in apple juice with a view to making new ciders. 

 In this way the experts can take a barrel of apple juice and, 

 dividing it up into twenty or twenty five different parts, pro- 

 duce as many ciders, all with new and different flavors and all 

 from the same juice. 



The department, against much strenuous objection from 

 reformers and opponents of intemperance, is experimenting 

 with certain drugs, including opium; so that the poppy in- 

 dustry can soon be introduced into this country. It is also 

 working on the pineapple in the hope that the fiber of this 

 plant can be used in the manufacture of fine cloth, much as it 

 is in the Philippine islands at present. 



Our relations with the West Indies and the Philippine 

 islands have caused a new interest to spring up in the cultiva- 

 tion of spices, flowers, fruits, and other products of tropical 

 countries, particularly tobacco, with which the department 

 is experimenting for the purpose of producing a fine quality 

 of this drug from home grown plants. One item alone is 

 worth consideration, as an index of what may be done in the 

 future. In the early seventies the department of agriculture 

 lent its assistance in the introduction to this country of the 

 navel orange which was found growing in Brazil. In thirty 

 five years the cultivation of the navel orange has added some- 

 thing like $60,000,000 to the wealth of the state of California. 



The orange industry suggests the work of the department 

 in the business of protecting crops from destructive insects. 

 Not long ago the orange growers of California were appalled 

 by the prospect of utter ruin from an insect parasite. In 



