138 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BELL, 1924. 



NEW VEGETABLES. 



Work on the introfluction and establishment of the dasheen, chayote, and tropical 

 yams has been carried forward and many experimenters have been supplied with ma- 

 terial for propagation. The market for dasheens is growing, not only among our foreign- 

 born population who have been familiar with the.se vegetables in their early homes, 

 but also among native Americans. Commercial shipments totaled about ten carloads 

 last season. About 350 persons are this year growing yams experimentally and for 

 market, from propagating material supplied by the bureau. The chayote, a subtropi- 

 cal vegetal)le of the squash family, is now produced in commercial quantities in some 

 of the Southern States, and the department is cooperating with dealers in northern 

 cities who desire to bring this new vegetal)le to the attention of the American public. 



FORAGE INVESTIGATIONS. 



Pasture and meadow investigations are of unusual importance in that they represent 

 under present conditions the cheapest form of animal feed. Improvements in pastures 

 and meadows have come largely from the introduction of improved species from abroad. 

 For example, molasses grass, introduced by the Bureau of Plant Industry in the 

 southeastern United States from South America, is beginning to be utilized by stock- 

 men. The Mung bean, velvet bean, and soy bean are well established and adding 

 materially to the quantity of forage produced in the areas where grown. Investiga- 

 tions by the Inireau of the relative value of imported red clover seed in comparison 

 wits domestic clover seed show that, in general, the imported red clover seed is more 

 liable to winterkillings, and also more likely to die after the first cutting following 

 the winter season, than plants grown from domestic seed. 



DEMONSTRATIONS ON RECLAMATION PROJECTS. 



Demonstration work has been conducted the past year on 11 Federal reclama- 

 tion projects as follows: Minidoka, Idaho; Umatilla, Oreg. : Unconipahgrc, Colo.; 

 Huntley, Milk River and Sun River, Mont.; Shoshone, Wyo.; North rlatte, Nebr.- 

 Wyo.; Belle Fourche, S. Dak.; Xewlands, Xev.; and Yuma, Ariz. 



SALARIES. 

 REDUCTION IN NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES. 



1 



Doctor Taylor. On page 72 of the statutory roll there are changes 

 which in total involve the dropping of 17 statutory places, covering 

 $15,900, the transfer out of the Bureau of Plant Industry to the Secre- 

 tary's roll of two places at S720 each and the transfer into the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry from the Bureau of Agricultural Economics of four 

 places at SI, 200 each. This transfer in is necessary to complete the 

 transfer to the Bureau of Plant Industry from the Bureau of Agri- 

 cultural Economics of the fruit and vegetahle transportation and 

 storage investigational work. The lump appropriation for that was 

 transterred last year, hut, through oversight, the transfer of four 

 statutory clerical places that helonged witii (hat woik was not made. 

 This covers that. So tluit tlie net change in the statutory roll of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry involves an apparent decrease of .$12,540 

 hut an actual decrease of SI 5,000. 



Mr. Buchanan. These dropped places — 17 of (lieni at S9()(), are 

 there not? 



Doctor Taylor. There are seven at $WM) and six at $840 ^ ! 



Mr. BuciiANAX (interposing). You need not stiite them, unless you 

 want to give them. 



Doctor T.VYLOK. One at $1,0S0. three at $1,020 each. 



Mr. Buchanan. These are not Idled now, are they ^ 



Doctor T.VYLOR. They are places which have hccn inlernii(t(Mitly 

 filled and vacated, places where we have had temporary people for 



