30 



But when this was once made known in British Guiana, 

 India, Australia and Natal, it is remarkable that the grass should 

 have been allowed to die out. It is clear that it was highly thought 

 of in these countries, then why did it not establish itself there as 

 it did in the Transvaal and Natal after its second introduction? 

 There are two probable reasons : (1) The smaller and more conser- 

 vative agricultural population may have been less alive to the 

 advantages of a new hay-grass ; (2) failure to follow up the new 

 introduciion. In the work of seed and plant introduction and 

 acclimatization, success very rarely follows the first attempt; but 

 perseverance, repetition of the experiment, study of controlling 

 conditions, and removal of inhibiting factors, often result in sub- 

 sequent success. 



A well-organized system of co-operative field experiments on 

 private farms, is a very necessary adjunct to any Government 

 Department of Agriculture. To overcome the indifference or con- 

 servatism of the rural population, it is not sufficient to maintain 

 demonstration plots on Government farms or experiment stations, 

 nor to issue publications broad-cast, nor even to tour the country 

 lecturing, valuable as all these agencies are. 



Generally speaking, new crops are first taken up by theorists 

 or by men trying to " get rich quick," to whom seed-catalogue 

 advertisements of novelties appeal ; such men are often but in- 

 co-operative experiments with farmers, by which selected farmers who 

 knew how to grow crops, were taken into the confidence of the 

 Department, and induced to try new and promising plants, under 

 supervision, Teff would not, even to-day, have been a success, any 

 more than it has been in Australia, India or the United States. 



INTRODUCTION INTO CALIFORNIA. 



My attention was first attracted to Teff when preparing an 

 Index to the earlier volumes of the Kew Bulletin, while attached to 

 the Kew Staff in 1891-2. When the article on Tropical Fodder 

 Grasses (10) appeared in 1894, I was studying the grass flora of 

 California and it occurred to me that Teff might prove useful in 

 warm, dry parts of that State. I therefore applied to the Director 

 of Kew, who courteously supplied a little seed for trial. 



This was tested in the Botanic Garden of the University of 

 California, and subsequently at the State Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, in both cases with very satisfactory results; the yield and 

 quality of the grass and the ease with which it cured into hay, 

 attracted very favourable attention. 



But California is a region of winter rains, and the winters are 

 too cold — in the principal stock-raising districts — for Teff to thrive 

 in winter. Lucerne is the staple summer forage crop, being grown 

 under irrigation, and no farmer who could grow Lucerne cared any- 

 thing about an annual hay-crop like Teff, where water and the cost 

 of irrigation were expensive. 



There are localities in California where Teff may yet prove a 

 great boon. But at that time the Experiment Station authorities 

 could not see any value in it, would not offer it for distribution 

 among the farmers of the State, and even omitted any reference to 

 it in their Reports on the Station Experiments. However, in 

 November, 1898, I was able to include Teff in the Exchange Seed- 

 list, published by the Agricultural Experiment Station ; this was 



