PLANT IMPROVEMENT 149 



this Bureau. The purpose of this division was to explore 

 the world systematically and to bring back to this country 

 plants that might be valuable to our agricultural production. 



As now organized, this division consists of two branches: 

 that of exploration, which places several men in the field to- 

 travel over the world in search of useful plants; and that of 

 propagation, which tries out the plants sent here by the 

 explorers to determine their agricultural value. If they 

 prove valuable when fully tested, they are distributed to 

 farmers for actual introduction. 



Many plants, some more productive than similar kinds 

 already grown here, and others, new kinds of great agri- 

 cultural value, have been found and introduced. Among 

 the former, for example, are the durum wheats introduced in 

 1898 from Russia. These wheats are well adapted to the 

 semi-arid regions east of the Rocky Mountains, extending 

 from Texas to North Dakota, which are too dry for ordinary 

 wheat. Besides, the durum wheats are especially valuable 

 for the manufacture of macaroni. The production of these 

 wheats, in 1919, amounted to about $50,000,000. Among 

 other plants that have been successfully introduced are 

 Japanese rice, date palm, Swedish oats, Turkestan alfalfa, 

 and Egyptian cotton. 



The work of the government in plant introduction is 

 deserving of more than this brief account. Further infor- 

 mation may be found by consulting recent yearbooks of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. 



Sudden appearance of new plants among the old. Oc- 

 casionally, in nature, a plant will appear which is noticeably 

 different from its companions. The same is true of culti- 

 vated plants. When a plant is found that is clearly different 

 from others of its kind, it may be better than the others . 



