NEW PLANT IMMIGRANTS 885 
Photo by Frank N. Meyer 
BAMBOO TIMBER AS IT IS RAFTED DOWN THE TRIBUTARIES OF THE YANG-TSE RIVER 
It is difficult to give an adequate idea of the magnitude of the bamboo timber business 
of China and Japan, because it is scattered throughout the country, and every farmer has 
his own little grove, from which he cuts irrigation pipes, timbers for his house and shingles 
for his roof, and from which he makes all sorts of useful articles for his household. 
the dry regions of an Indian reservation 
in New Mexico, or is secured by a 
trained collector from the Chiloe Islands 
off the coast of Chile. It makes little 
difference ; they must all come in as plant 
immigrants to show what they can do 
in the gardens of American experts. 
There is always the chance that they 
may be thrown out as unprofitable ; but, 
if they have desirable characters, they 
can be blended with others, or exploited 
with others, if they are superior for any 
of the potato regions of this country. 
It may be new to many that every day 
plant immigrants from different parts of 
the world arrive in Washington, and 
every day, through the mails, hundreds 
of these disinfected arrivals go out to 
find a new home in some part of the 
country. 
It is a difficult matter to give an ade- 
quate impression of the magnitude and 
importance to the country of this stream 
of new plant immigrants which for 14 
years has been pouring into the country, 
and has been directed by a great and 
growing body of research men and 
women into those regions where it was 
thought they might make their homes. 
In the brief space of a short article, 
and to avoid what would be almost a 
bare enumeration of plant names, I pre- 
