152 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



nontwining in habit, thus paralleling a similar phenomenon which 

 has before occurred in the garden bean, the Lima bean, the cowpea, 

 the soy bean, and other annual beanlike plants. Of the numerous 

 hybrids developed by the Bureau of Plant Industry one that has been 

 called the Mississippi velvet bean is so promising that it is being 

 propagated for general distribution. 



SOY BEANS. 



Interest has continued to increase throughout the country relative 

 to the utilization of the soy bean, not only for forage purposes, but 

 for oil and food products. The introduction of new varieties by the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry has greatly extended the production area 

 of the crop and therefore has brought about a greatly increased 

 acreage, especially northward and westward. 



The field work has been extended in testing out improved sorts 

 in various sections of the country. A large amount of selection and 

 hybridization work has been done, resulting in several quite promis- 

 ing sorts. Nearly all of the varieties now handled by growers and 

 seedsmen were originated by the Department of Agriculture. Dur- 

 ing the past year the Mandarin has been introduced in the North as 

 one of the most promising early-grain sorts. For the lands of the 

 South infested with the wilt and nematodes the Laredo has been 

 found highly resistant and is one of the most promising forage sorts. 



The Biloxi, Virginia, Black Eyebrow, Manchu, and Wilson-Five 

 varieties have been distributed over a wide territory and have given 

 excellent results. The testing of varieties for food has determined 

 that the Plahto for a gTeen vegetable and the Easy Cook, a soft- 

 boiling sort, as a dried bean are the best. The Hahto especially has 

 been received with considerable favor. It has been widely distrib- 

 uted, several thousand packets being given to the boys' and girls' 

 canning clubs of the South. In addition to developing forage and 

 food value, breeding work has been conducted with varieties for high 

 content of oil and protein. 



TIMOTHY. 



The new strains of timothy developed at Elyria, Ohio, at the 

 forage-crop testing station, in cooperation with the Ohio Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station, still continue to prove superior to common 

 commercial timothy in both pot and field tests. Investigations are 

 now being carefully conducted with a view to solving some of the 

 practical difficulties that lie in the way of establishing these strains in 

 general use throughout the important timothy-growing sections of 

 the country. 



NEW CROP PLANTS AND CROP EXTENSION. 



EGYPTIAN COTTON IN CALIFORNIA. 



Many fields of Egyptian cotton were grown around Fresno and 

 Bakersfield, Calif., in the San Joaquin Valley in 1918 and afforded 

 striking demonstrations of the possibility of extensive production in 

 this region. Not only w^ere good yields obtained at the rate of a bale 

 per acre, but the plants also showed an unusually regular and full 

 development of the fruiting branches and bolls during the entire 



