40 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



certain questions concerned with the insect parasites which attack 

 the date palms which will have to be given more consideration 

 in the future than they have been in the past, although methods of 

 controlling some of the most important parasites have already 

 been devised and there is no reason to doubt that adequate means 

 for protecting the date palms from these insect parasites will be 

 devised. There is no question, it seems to me, that Mr. Walter T. 

 Swingle, whose name will always be associated closely with the 

 American date palm industry, has laid the foundation of one of 

 the most fascinating monuments which anyone can erect to him- 

 self in his own country. 



Although there is no project upon which the Office of Foreign 

 Seed and Plant Introduction has expended more time and money 

 than that connected wath the importation of foreign alfalfas, it is 

 still difficult to determine the exact money value of these introduc- 

 tions. It can be said, however, that the introduction of the Tur- 

 kestan alfalfa, by Prof. N. E. Hansen, which was followed by the 

 securing of species of Medicago from every corner of the world, 

 has started experiments in the selection and breeding of this 

 important forage crop which will result in the development of 

 strains adapted to all the varying conditions of our great western 

 country, strains which will be as hardy doubtless as the yellow 

 flowered Medicago falcata from Central Siberia, suited to the 

 northernmost regions of this country, and winter growing forms 

 as succulent and adapted to irrigation conditions as the Peruvian 

 and Arabian alfalfas are in Southern California. In other words, 

 as a result of this introduction work the term alfalfa has come 

 to mean a great number of distinct varieties, the characteristics 

 of which are recognized by the farmers. It is doubtless true that 

 the increased production in certain arid regions of the Turkestan 

 alfalfa has increased the money value of the lands by many 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars. 



The introduction of the durum wheat, which in 1898 was quite 

 imknown in this country, is actually producing for the farmers 

 who grow it in those regions where the ordinary fife wheats cannot 

 be grown many millions of dollars over and above what they could 

 reasonably expect to get from growing other crops. The public 

 is already well aware of this unusually successful piece of intro- 



