NATIONAL COUNCIL OF HORTICULTURE 89 



(13) Demonstrations, experiments and other work in connection 

 with plants under glass. 



(14) Vegetable variety testing. 



(15) Bulb culture, including experiments in the home growing of 

 Dutch and other bulbs on a commercial scale. 



(16) School garden work. 



The results accomplished in these lines of work may be briefly 

 summarized as follows : 



HORTICULTURAL EXPLORATIONS. 



For several years the Department of Agriculture has conducted 

 systematic exploration work in foreign countries in search of rare and 

 valuable seeds and plants for introduction into the United States. We 

 now have a trained explorer in the regions of North China and Man- 

 churia searching for new plants and seeds worthy of being trans- 

 planted to this country, and for wild forms of our cultivated fruits 

 and vegetables which may have characters of hardiness or unusual 

 vigor that will make them useful for the plant breeders of the United 

 States. Shipments of scions and of seeds representing hundreds of 

 interesting things have been received from our explorer and are now 

 growing in the trial grounds of the Department. New hardy persim- 

 mon varieties, interesting varieties of the English walnut, the Chinese 

 pistache, wild and cultivated apricots, the wild peach from its sup- 

 posed original home, hardy apples, and a very remarkable lot of Chi- 

 nese grape varieties are among the most recent things secured in this 

 way. The persimmon varieties mentioned are of the seedless type 

 known as the Pekin, which has been tested and found to be superior 

 in flavor to any of the Japanese persimmons, as well as hardier. 



INTRODUCTION, PROPAGATION AND DISSEMINATION OF SEEDS AND PLANTS. 

 SECURED FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



In connection with its foreign exploration work the Department 

 maintains field testing gardens where the seeds and plants so secured 

 may be propagated with a view to their dissemination if found valuable. 

 The principal one of these gardens, located at Chico, Cal., is more 

 than 80 acres in extent and is actively engaged in the testing and dis- 

 tribution of numerous things received through our explorers. A total 

 of 53,270 plants were distributed from this garden during the past 

 year. Much attention is being given to the introduction and culture of 

 the pistache nut. New hardy stocks of this promising dry-land nut 

 crop have been secured from Turkestan, China and the driest deserts 

 of the Old World. About 16,000 seedling pistache trees were propa- 

 gated at the Chico garden last year for distribution throughout Cali- 

 fornia, Texas, Arizona and adjacent localities. 



Another promising horticultural crop which is being introduced is 

 the date palm. The palms which have been introduced by the Depart- 

 ment into southern California and Arizona have borne hundreds of 



