CHAPTER IV 



PLANT INTRODUCTION 



By DAVID FAIRCHILD 



^HERE IS NEED OF A MORE EXTENDED CROP FLORA. We are prone to look on 

 the agriculture of this country as in a finished state, when, in fact, even the pioneer 

 work has barely been done. The farmers have spread marvelously over the land. They 

 have tried corn and wheat in nearly every great area where water is to be found ; they 

 have planted potatoes from one corner of the country to the other, and have set out apple 

 and pear trees wherever they have gone ; they have found out the value of such a forage 

 plant as alfalfa, which was a great crop in South America before the farmers of this coun- 

 try heard of its existence. They have done the best that could be done with the- materials at 

 their disposal ; but, when the land was too moist to grow potatoes, they left it alone ; regions 

 in which corn and wheat failed because of the drought, they have given a wide berth ; and 

 they have allowed good farming land in New England to grow up in weeds because it was in too small 

 areas to grow wheat or corn in competition with the great fields of the West. Rich alluvial fields in the 

 Carolinas, which have easy water connection with New York, they have abandoned for a similar rea- 

 son. One thing that farmers need is new crops, — grains that will grow on dry land where wheat fails, 

 higher-priced crops for the abandoned New England farms, new and valuable plants for rice lands. 



Early efforts at plant introduction. 



Farmers are searching for these new plants and are willing to spend millions of dollars in testing 

 them, but until recently there has been no organization to aid them in getting the necessary plants with 

 which to experiment. 



Their needs have long attracted the attention of the government, and when, in 1838, Congress made 

 its first appropriation in aid of agriculture, this appropriation was in the form of a grant of one town- 

 ship of land in southern Florida to Doctor Henry Perrine, former American Consul in Campeche, for the 

 purpose of encouraging the introduction and the cultivation of tropical plants in the United States. In 

 1838, Mr. Ellsworth, Commissioner of Patents, made the following appeal to Congress : 



" Our citizens who are led by business or pleasure into foreign countries, and especially the officers 

 of our navy and others in public employment abroad, would feel a pride in making collections of valu- 

 able plants and seeds if they could be sure of seeing the fruits of their labors accrue to the benefit of 

 the nation at large. But, hitherto, they have had no means of distributing, to any extent, the valuable 

 productions of other climates which patriotism or curiosity has led them to introduce into our country. 

 To a great extent, they have perished on their hands for want of some means of imparting to the public 

 the benefit they had designed to confer. Those who have not considered the subject in its wide details 

 are very imperfectly qualified to judge of its importance." 



In 1839, Mr. Ellsworth believed still more strongly in the work of plant introduction, for he remarks: 



"The diplontatic corps of the United States residing abroad have been solicited to aid in procuring 

 valuable seeds, and the officers of the navy, with the appropriation of the honorable Secretary of that 

 department, have been requested to convey to the Patent Office, for distribution, such seeds as may be 

 offered. In many cases no charges will be made for seeds. If small expenses do arise they can be reim- 

 bursed by appropriations from the patent fund, daily accumulating, and consecrated especially to the 

 promotion of the arts and sciences. 



" The cheerfulness with which the diplomatic corps and the officers of the navy have received the 

 request of this office justify sanguine anticipations fromi this new undertaking." 



In 1840, the work of plant introduction, coupled with that of gathering statistics on agriculture, 

 called for the first stated expenditure by the Commissioner of Patents for agriculture. The amount was 

 only $451.58, but it was the beginning of an expenditure by the government that has increased in sixty- 

 five years to over $6,000,000. 



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