188 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Bureau of Plant Industry. 



The Bureau of Plant Industry has been experimenting in 

 the southern States in an effort to discover a species of cot- 

 ton that will prove to be resistant to a parasite that has 

 destroyed many strains of the finest cotton, and the Bureau 

 officials have discovered that the parasite can be overcome. 

 It has also introduced a strain of cotton of better yielding 

 power and longer and better fibre, which will add greatly to 

 the yield of the cotton crop. 



The importance of leguminous crops for increasing the 

 nitrogen contents of the soil is becoming more and more 

 apparent to the American farmer. The department has 

 discovered an entirely new method of growing and distrib- 

 uting nitrifying organisms, and also increasing their nitro- 

 gen-affixing power. It is expected that the department will 

 be able to distribute these organisms within a short time. 



One of the most important problems that has engaged the 

 attention of the Bureau has been the securing of crops for 

 the semi-arid reg-ions of the west and the desert reo^ion of 

 the south-west, and gratifying success has been met with. 

 We have successfully imported the finest varieties of the 

 date palm, and Egyptian cotton, also adapted to the arid 

 areas, has been successfullj" introduced. The introduction 

 of this crop will mean a great deal to the cotton industry. 



Until recently nearly all the macaroni made in the United 

 States has been manufactured from the American bread 

 wheats. The macaroni has been of an inferior quality, and in 

 consequence large quantities of the European-made macaroni 

 have been imported. 



There is a great demand for macaroni wheat, not only in 

 this country but in Euro})c. This wheat grows with ten 

 inches of rainfall and is adapted to a belt of territory ex- 

 tending through western Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and the 

 Dakotas. Tests made by the department have proved very 

 successful, and the quality of wheat produced is equal if not 

 superior to some of the varieties grown in Europe. Exten- 

 sive mills are in process of erection for the handling of this 

 wheat, and changes are being made in present mills for the 



