BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 65 



ceed in some localities along the Gulf coast, and especially in southern 

 Georgia and northern Florida, where sea island cotton is grown away 

 from the coast. Further experiments with this cotton were begun in 

 the spring of 1900 in those regions where favorable results were 

 obtained, and also in Porto Rico and Hawaii. 



Experiments in the cultivation of several European varieties of 

 hemp, as compared with improved Kentucky hemp, were instituted in 

 the testing garden of this Department and at six places in the Caro- 

 linas. In each instance the Kentucky hemp was superior to the for- 

 eign varieties. Some of the hemp grown in the testing garden was 

 water-retted, and although satisfactory facilities for breaking and 

 cleaning the fiber could not be secured, some samples of the fiber 

 itself, examined by an expert linen manufacturer, were pronounced 

 equal to the best grades of imported Italian hemp. In the spring of 

 1901 seed of several varieties of Japanese hemp were imported 

 through the Office of Seed and Plant Introduction, and they are now 

 being grown in the testing garden and at six other stations. Some of 

 them give promise of much value. 



It is proposed during the coming year to continue culture tests with 

 foreign and improved native varieties of hemp and also conduct exper- 

 iments in the production of flax, and begin work on a classification 

 of American varieties of cotton. 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE. 



Even before the acquisition of tropical territory by the United States 

 a large number of inquiries regarding tropical crops and products were 

 received annually from merchants, investors, and colonists. In the 

 last three years popular interest in the Tropics has become general, 

 and the demand for information on tropical botany and agriculture 

 is now very great, and often pressing, especially from those engaged 

 in the production of public and private improvements in the new pos- 

 sessions of the United States. The volume of American investments 

 in tropical countries is also rapidly increasing, and to secure the 

 largest possible share of such capital and enterprise for Porto Rico, 

 Hawaii, and the Philippines, detailed and reliable information is nec- 

 essary regarding the useful plants and agricultural methods suitable 

 for these islands. 



Previous to the appropriation for the year 1901-1902 little in the 

 way of investigations in tropical agriculture could be undertaken, 

 but a beginning was made with a study of the useful plants and agri- 

 cultural conditions of Porto Rico. Special attention has been given 

 to coffee, which is at once the most important agricultural industry of 

 Porto Rico, and, with the exception of sugar, the largest of the agri- 

 cultural imports of the United States. A bulletin on shade in cof- 

 fee culture has been published, in which it is shown that the coffee 

 plantations of Porto Rico are rendered relatively unproductive by use 

 of too much shade. The good effects commonly ascribed to shade are 

 explained as the indirect results of the protection of the soil from 

 drought and of the fertility imparted by the nitrogen-collecting root 

 tubercles of leguminous trees generally planted for shading coffee. 



Plans for these investigations contemplate the continuation of the 

 study of coffee and of other crops now grown in the islands men- 

 tioned, with a view to the improvement of varieties, methods, and 

 markets, and the investigation of other tropical plants and agricultural 

 methods likely to be of use in the new colonies. Further publications 



AGR 1901 5 



