1HE IRRIGATION AGE. 



123 



ports upon the various things already dis- 

 tributed it is certain several other most 

 important things would need to be added. 

 Of course, the value of most of the arbor- 

 escent plants can only be decided after 

 several years of culture and the fate of 

 many of the annuals only after numerous 

 repeated trials. 



In addition to the four hundred and 

 more products secured and shipped, many 

 important plants were learned of, but not 

 secured. Quantities of important tropical 

 fruit varieties for Porto Rico and Hawaii 

 are on the books of the expedition and 

 wait only for suitable experiment condi- 

 tions on those islands. A seedless Siam- 

 ese grape fruit was ferreted out but owing 

 to the unhealthiness of the country, not 

 securable. This one variety it is pre- 

 dicted, would if introduced, like the seed- 

 less Bahia naval prange, revolutionize the 

 grape fruit industry. 



Enough has been cited to show the 

 American farmers what has been accom- 

 plished by private means, and in how great 

 a measure their thanks are due to the true 

 American who, with neither land of his 

 own nor agricultural interests in his charge, 

 has put at their disposition his money and 

 time and health. 



The great results likely to cyome from 

 Mr. Lathrop's explorations will be due to 

 his wisdom in associating with him expert 

 botanists and scientists and securing the 

 most complete data and information con- 

 cerning the new and strange plants se- 

 cured, relating to their habits of growth 

 and the character of their natural sur- 

 roundings, thus enabling the department 

 of agriculture to intelligently experiment 

 with them. There is in the broad area of 

 the United States somewhere, a spot 

 which is a counterpart of almost every re- 

 gion of the eastern hemisphere, but it is a 

 work of great magnitude to fit the plants 

 of the older country to their congenial 

 spots on this hemisphere. This is one of 

 the most important lines of work which is 



being .carried on by the department o 

 agriculture. 



FARM NOTES, 



A novel way of booming farm lands is 

 credited by the Philadelphia Record to 

 the general passenger agent of the Atchin- 

 son. Topeka & Santa Fe R. R. He has 

 had traveling about the West an expert 

 shorthand writer to visit individual far- 

 mers in their homes, find out what success 

 had been met with and then write letters 

 at their dictation, addressed to eastern 

 friends, telling all about the big crops and 

 resultant good times. This private sec- 

 retary goes about with a team and carries 

 a small typewriting machine and station- 

 ery. He interviews the owner or renter of 

 each quarter section on his route and 

 writes down the industrial situation as it 

 really is in that neighborhood. He tells 

 just what luck was had with wheat, cattle 

 and hogs, describes climatic conditions, 

 mentions Mary and the baby, and some- 

 times winds up the story of a lifted mort- 

 gage and money in the bank. This per- 

 sonal correspondence is followed up at the 

 head offices of 1 the road by mailing appro- 

 priate advertising literature to the farmer's 

 friends. Beneficial results are said to be 

 already manifest to the railroad. When a 

 person living back in Ohio receives a let- 

 ter from his former neighbor written on a 

 typewriter, he naturally concludes that 

 any country which is prosperous enough to 

 warrant a plain farmer owing his own 

 writing machine is worth investigation. 



The department of agriculture has ad- 

 dressed inquiries to over l(i,000 peach 

 growers in the United States, the great 

 majority of whom have replied that 

 "peach-curl-leaf may be prevented with 

 an ease, certainty and cheapness rarely at- 

 tained in the treatment of any serious dis- 

 eases of plants, and there is no longer a 

 necessity for the losses annually sustained 

 from it in the United States." The rem- 



