136 AGRICULTURAL, APPROPRLA.TION BILL, 1924. 



BINDER TWINE FIBERS. 



The cooperative work with the Philippine Bureau of Agriculture to encourage the 

 pro'luction of machine-cleaned sisal and cantala fiber in the Philippine Islands is ^ 

 resulting in a steadily increasing production of these fibers. The machine-cleaning % 

 demonstrations, conducted during 1918 and 1919 with Government-owned machines, 

 were followed by the establishment of machine cleaning on a commercial basis. 

 During the calendar year 1920, the Philijipines produced 707 bales of machine-cleaned 

 fiber; during 1921, the production amounted to o.lliS bales; and, during 1922, the pro- 

 duction has been in excess of 1,000 bales per month. With the maintenance of the 

 present rate of production the Philippines will produce, during the calendar year 1922, 

 approximately 4,000,000 pounds of machine-cleaned binder twine fiber, or a supply 

 sufficient to provide binder twine for 2,009,000 acres of grain crops. 



SEED TESTING. 



During the fiscal year 1922 the seed-testing laboratories of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry received and examined 29,()71 samples of seeds. Of these 17.100 came to 

 the Washington, D. ('., laboratory and 12, .571 to the five branch seed-testing labora- 

 tories maintained in cooperation with the State institutions. These samples repre- 

 sent both vegetable and field seeds from farmers, seed dealers, and investigators, to 

 whom reports of analyses were sent showing the presence of weed seeds and worthless 

 material, or germination, or both, as requested. 



CEREAL IMPROVEMENT. 



Increased Welds of wheat, oats, and other cereals, as well as an extension of their 

 range, have been secured by the introduction of new types from foreign countries 

 and by selection and breeding work, both by the State stations and by the department. 

 During recent years the most notable wheats are probably Kota, a bearded, hard red 

 spring variety, resistant to stem rust; Kharmont, a high-yielding selection of Kharkof 

 hard red winter wheat, especially desirable under Montana conditions; Hard Federa- 

 tion and Federation, two varieties of white wheat suitable for the Pacific coast area, 

 and the rust-resistant Durum wheats, which outyield other varieties in the spring 

 wheat belt and are satisfactory for the manufacture of semolina, although not for the 

 production of first-quality macaroni. 



BARBERRY ERADICATION FOR THE CONTROL OF BLACK STEM RUST. 



The camj)aign for the eradication of the common barberry in order to control the 

 black stem rust of wheat was begun in the spring of 1918 and is now in its fifth year. 

 The eradication area conri^rises 13 of the north-central wheat-growing States, namely, 

 Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Miciiigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North 

 Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. All of these States now 

 have enacted legislation requiring the removal of common barberry l>ushes. The 

 campaign is conducted in cooperation with the State agricultural college in each of 

 the States, with the State department of agriculture in most of them, and with the 

 conference for the prevention of grain rust. Investigations of the time, rate, and 

 manner of spread oi rust from barberries, made during the sunmier, give additional 

 evidence of the enormous losses directly traceable to individual bushes and hedges. 



CORN DISEASES. 



Investigations conducted in several States on corn root, stalk, and ear rots show 

 this group of diseases to be responsible for reductions in yield of marketable com, 

 ranging above; HO per cent. Control measures are being develo))ed from both the 

 8tand])oint of seed selection and field management. The most fea.sible control 

 measures thus far developed are careful field selection of seed corn eare before frost, 

 proper curing and storing ot these ears, and a further weetiing out from this selected 

 stock of those ears showing disease in germination tests. 



CHLOROSIS DUE TO MAGNESIUM DEFICIENCY. 



In further work on the significance of magnesium as a constituent of fertilizers for 



tobacco and other croi)B it has been found that corn, like tol)acco, develoivs ohanu'ter- 

 istic pathological symptoms on certain soils when magnesium is omitted from the 



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