962 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 703 



Extensive tests of these plants are being 

 made in various parts of the country, and 

 their culture in promising localities is being 

 encouraged. These tests are being carried on 

 at Arlington, Va. ; Ohico, Cal. ; Pullman, 

 Wash.; and Chillicothe, Tex. Among the 

 most valuable new things so far tested are 

 the Tangier pea, moth bean, and snail clover, 

 all of which are of sufficient promise to war- 

 rant distribution. Seed of the first two has 

 been grown in quantity for distribution in 

 1908. 



IMPROVED COTTON SEED 



This work consists of the sending out on 

 congressional and other order of trial pack- 

 ages of seed of the improved varieties of 

 cotton developed by the plant breeders of 

 the Bureau of Plant Industry for boll-weevil 

 districts. Each congressman from the cotton 

 states is assigned a regular quota of eighty 

 packages of this select seed, each package con- 

 taining one peck. The seed is also sent to 

 cooperators and others. 



IMPROVED TOBACCO SEED 



This work is conducted on the same plan 

 as the cotton-seed distribution, the improved 

 varieties of tobacco being sent out on both 

 congressional and other request. The Bureau 

 of Plant Industry has developed several im- 

 proved tobaccos, and the seed secured in the 

 breeding work is distributed each season. 



IMPROVED MELON SEED, CITRUS HYBRIDS, ETC. 



The Bureau of Plant Industry also dis- 

 tributes each year seed of improved wilt-re- 

 sistant melons, which are being developed in 

 connectioil with the pathological work; and 

 also young trees of improved and new citrus 

 fruits, such as citranges, tangelos, etc. 



AGRICULTURAL EXPLORATIONS 



The Bureau of Plant Industry conducts 

 systematic agricultural exploration work in 

 foreign countries. Purchases are made in all 

 parts of the world, including seeds and plants 

 for trial by the experiment stations and 

 others, and the shipments arrive at the rate of 

 eight or nine a day. One of its explorers has 



completed a year of search through Man- 

 churia and North China for hardy fruits, 

 vegetables, grains and forage crops. He has 

 secured and shipped in over 1,000 things, 

 among them promising new alfalfas, seedless 

 persimmons four inches in diameter, hardy 

 Chinese pears, the Shantung peach for the dry 

 southwest, new North China grapes, the seed- 

 less Chinese date, timber bamboos, new cow- 

 peas, new soy beans, a new rose, a new sand 

 cherry, a remarkable series of new shade trees 

 and sorghums, etc. These things are now be- 

 ing tested in those portions of this country 

 ■which have a climate like that of North 

 China, where the thermometer goes down to 

 15 or 20 degrees below zero. 



DATE INTRODUCTIONS AND DATE GARDENS 



A LARGE collection of the remarkable date 

 varieties from the upper Tigris Eiver in the 

 region of Bagdad is now being gotten together 

 by the American consul, and these will be sent 

 to this country next spring. Large purchases 

 of date seeds and fruit of the Morocco varie- 

 ties have been made this season. Two date 

 gardens are being maintained in California, 

 one at Mecca and the other at Indio. In the 

 Mecca garden are assembled 394 palms im- 

 ported from foreign countries. They occupy 

 fifteen acres of land and are without doubt the 

 largest ever gotten together in any country. 

 It has been demonstrated that the date palm 

 can be grown successfully in California and 

 Arizona as a result of this work during the 

 last eight years. 



MATTING PLANT INTRODUCTION 



The floor-matting industry costs the United 

 States four million dollars in imports every 

 year. There are perfected looms in America 

 which are fed by the imported material — rush 

 and sedge straw. The Americans are being 

 shut out of the Japanese market by the 

 Japanese manufacturers and must get their 

 raw material in this country or take their 

 machines to Japan and operate them there. 

 An explorer was sent to Japan by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture and secured, notwith- 

 standing the opposition of the Japanese mat- 



