154 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



spring- of 1919. Barle^^ is a very important crop in the rotation in 

 the States of the northern Mississippi Valley, as well as a very 

 valuable crop for stock feeding. Active measures were taken in Wis- 

 consin and Minnesota, especially, to emphasize the value of barley 

 to the farmers of those States and thus encourage continued pro- 

 duction. 



mcE. 



In California the commercial acreage of varieties introduced and 

 improved by the Bureau of Plant Industry represented over 20 per 

 cent of the total area of 106,220 acres in 1918. In 1919 this per- 

 centage is believed to be still larger. 



GRAIN SORGHUMS. 



Owing to the imj)ortance of the grain sorghums as drought-re- 

 sistant crops, and in view of the long-continued droughts which have 

 occurred in the western portions of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas 

 during the past two or three years, another campaign was carried on 

 in those States in the spring of 1919 to emphasize the value of these 

 crops. The resulting acreage, while below that of 1918 because of 

 the enormous increase in wheat, is slightly larger than that of 1917 

 and more than a million acres larger than that of 1916. 



WINTER FLAX. 



Under the supervision of a specialist, commercial sowings of win- 

 ter flax Avere made for the first time in Arizona and southern Cali- 

 fornia in February and March, 1919. These have now been inspected 

 and harvested under supervision, and the seed either has been re- 

 served for seeding an increased acreage next winter or arrange- 

 ments have been made for shipping it to an oil mill, where its quality 

 for oil production will be determined. 



HARD FIBERS FOR BINDER TWINE AND CORDAGE. 



The continued uncertainty of supply and the threatened shortage 

 of henequen from Yucatan have caused serious anxiety lest there 

 might not be enough binder twine to harvest the increasing crops of 

 grain in this country. Investigations have been continued, there- 

 fore, Avith a view to finding new sources of supplj^ or new regions 

 where binder-twine fibers may be produced. 



Field investigations have been conducted in southern Florida, 

 Cuba, Haiti, Santo Domingo, Porto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. 



Henequen and sisai.. The conditions in extreme southern Florida 

 and on the larger keys are regarded as suitable for the production of 

 sisal and henequen fibers, provided the cost of land and of labor there 

 is not too high to permit successful competition with other regions 

 where these fibers are produced. A large commercial plantation is 

 now being established by private capital in that region. 



Henequen has been cultivated successful!}^ for several years in 

 Cuba, and the jDlantations are being increased there, but thus far they 

 produce scarcely enough fiber to supply the cordage mills on that 

 island. 



In the Eepublics of Haiti and Santo Domingo it was found that 

 most of the plants heretofore referred to as sisal or henequen were 

 other species of agaves or furcraeas, which had been misidentified. 

 Conditions are regarded as favorable for the production of binder- 



