IMPORTANCE OF PLANT INTRODUCTION 



73 



Fig. 92. The Mitsumata paper plant of Japsin. A plantation 

 in the Mils. (Edgeworthia Oardneri.) 



have learned that fenugreek is one of their best 

 cover-crops, as it stands up especially well and can 

 be plowed under easily. 



One of the most far-reaching in its possibilities 

 of all the introductions of the Office is the drought- 

 resistant durum wheats, which yield crops where 

 all ordinary wheats fail for lack of water. Largely 

 through Mr. M. A. Carleton's effort, this grain, un- 

 known on American grain markets seven years ago, 

 is now grown in such quantities that in 1905 the 

 United States exported 6,000,000 bushels of it. 

 Another introduction was the Japanese Kiushu rice, 

 which was in part responsible for the great develop- 

 ment of the Texas and Louisiana rice-fields and 

 which is now planted on one-half the rice area of 

 these states. 



These problems, chosen from among the many 

 engaging the attention of the Department special- 

 ists, should give an idea of the way in which this 

 branch of the government is affecting the agricul- 

 ture of the country. 

 Other interesting or important food plants that 

 the Office is introducing 

 r disseminating are 

 shown in Pigs. 93 to 99. 

 These are products of 

 well-known species and 

 need not be further de- 

 scribed here. 



A feature of the in- 

 troductions that d e - 

 serves especially to be 

 mentioned, since it is 

 growing rapidly in im- 

 portance, is the getting 

 of material for those en- 

 gaged in breeding new 

 races of plants. In order 

 to break up a species it 

 is often necessary to 

 cross it with some nearly 

 related species, and such 

 near relatives are often 

 wild plants or forms that 

 are not to be found in 

 this country. It is one of 

 Fig. 93. The Bohemian horse- the pleasant parts of the 

 k^^f gfow^'^'^E^fe-: work to secure a plant 

 water Park, N. J., from from the ends of the 

 g?iS'Ei1n,X'hT:^r' earth that some breeder 



may incorporate it into a new hybrid of value. The 

 citrange of Messrs. Swingle and Webber would not 

 have been made had not an ornamental, the Citrus 

 trifoliata, been introduced from Japan ; the inter- 

 esting tobacco crosses that Mr. Shamel has made 

 owe their origin in part to the fact that he had 

 Sumatra seed to work with ; the, interesting series 

 of hybrid cottons that Dr. Webber has been work- 

 ing with are the results of cross-pollinations be- 

 tween the American and Egyptian cottons. To help 

 Mr. Swingle in his work on the pistachio-nut, which 

 may prove a new nut industry for California, the 

 Office is searching for a Chinese species that will 

 resist cold, a species native in Afghanistan that' 

 will resist alkali, the mastick and terebinth of 

 southern Europe, and a native Texan species that 

 Mr. Swingle thinks will be valuable for use as 

 stocks. The problem of the introduction of the 

 tropical mangosteen of the Dutch East Indies is 

 being worked out by Mr, Oliver, the expert propa- 

 gator of the Department, chiefly through the use 

 of as many of the nearly related species of the 

 genus Garcinia as can be brought together. There 

 are over sixty species in this tropical genus, and, 

 as fifteen of these bear edible fruits, it would be 



V 



Fig. 94. English Broad bean 

 ( Yieia Faba) as grown in 

 America. Pods ready for 

 the table. 



strange if at least one should not be available as a 

 stock or of worth for breeding purposes. The suc- 

 cessful introduction of this, the most valuable of 

 East Indian fruits, probably hangs on the utilizing 

 of some of these other and more vigorous speciea 

 of Garcinia. 



Most fortunately for the Office, the possibilities 

 of plant-introduction work appealed at the outset, 

 most strongly to the practical mind of a past 

 master in the art of travel, who for over forty 

 years has wandered almost constantly over the 

 world, — Mr. Barbour Lathrop, of Chicago. Seeing 

 such widely different crops in the many lands that 

 he visited, his unusual foresight saw in the work 



