116 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
Mr. Woops. One of the most important problems that we have fin- 
ished is the Sea Island cotton. That has been practically completed; 
and some of the other problems I will speak of a little later on. The 
macaroni-wheat problem has about been finished. 
Mr. Wrieut. You think there is no question about your getting 
corn and other products that are resistant to the alkali? 
Mr. Woops. We will get resistant corn and alfalfa. 
Mr. Wricut. Would it not be less expensive to get this alkali 
resistance than to eliminate the alkali from the soil # 
Mr. Woops. In some cases it would, hut in some cases it would not. 
The Cuarrman. Where the drainage was feasible and practicable it 
would be probably the easiest way. 
Mr. Gattoway. The question of drainage would necessarily put: a 
limitation upon the kind of crops you could grow. 
Mr. Brooks. The drainage would limit the crops to certain kinds 
that can be grown on drained land. Some areas that are not feasible 
to drain might be treated this way ? 
Mr. Woops. Yes, sir; there is one thing you will hear about next 
year. That is oat-breeding work. We believe that we can now breed 
oats resistant to smut, which causes a very large loss every year, and 
we are making a few scientific tests that practically cost us nothing. 
If the tests prove successful, very likely we will come here next year 
and ask you for several thousand dollars for this work. 
The Cuarrman. You must then finish np something in the mean- 
time. We will hold you to that. 
Mr. Scorr. For our encouragement, I think before you leave the 
committee you ought to submit a list of finished problems. 
Mr. Woops. In the past? 
Mr. Scorr. Yes, sir. 
Mr. Bowis. A little speech on that subject would be very inter- 
esting. 
Mr. Woops. I think we can give you a speech on that subject. The 
tobacco-breeding work is the next item I wish to present. Last year 
we did practically nothing on this subject, but this year we found out 
that the tobacco industry of Connecticut, and wherever they used the 
tent method of growing tobacco, is threatened by the difficulty of 
not being able to produce a constant or fixed type of leaf. The types 
of leaf tobacco are extremely variable as you will observe from these 
photographs [showing photographs]. The Sumatra-grown tobacco, 
grown under the tent, can not be used on account of the variability 
of the leaf. But it is found that it is possible by methods of selection 
of seed to fix the strain of tobacco which is being grown, and to 
throw out the variables. 
The Cuarrman. Those people ought to be experts enough in tobacco 
raising to drop into that. 
Mr. Woops. They do drop into it very easily. We simply have to 
demonstrate that what we say isso. We think that with an expen- 
diture of $1,500 for next year, within two years we can demonstrate 
the fixity of these types of tobacco. 
The Cuatrman. You will not do that here in Washington? 
Mr. Woops. No, we send a man right up there. 
Mr. Gattoway. When that work was inaugurated there there was 
very little ies oe of the variability of these types, and there is little 
knowledge as to whether these types vary in Sumatra. When we get 
