176 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
Mr. Sprttman. I have nothing to do with that. Mr. Coville will 
take that up. ; 
Mr. Bowrsn, I wanted to get some information on it. 
Mr. SpruiMan. He is going to talk to you on that subject. 
Mr. Gattoway. One point that Mr. Scott raised in regard to blue 
grass. We have 40 acres here in Washington that we have been 
trying to get into blue grass for fifteen or twenty years, but have not 
been quite successful yet. The fact of the matter is that unless the 
blue grass is shaded here in this climate it burns out, and our expe- 
rience has shown us that the more the grass is watered artificially the 
more trouble we have in getting a stand. We can take our hose and 
write our name in that blue grass where the summer grass comes in. 
We have found that where we throw the hose down on the grass and 
the water comes in the shape of a fan that that fan grows in there. 
When we let water run on at night we won’t have that difficulty. Our 
experience has shown that in the planting of blue grass if you plant two 
parts of blue grass and one part of clover you get the best combination 
for this climate. 
Mr. Scott. Do you think your stand is helped any by watering at 
night? 
r. GaLLoway. It is here, but it would not be practicable at night. 
The Cuarrman. You do not think you can get a permanent blue- 
grass seed here for pasturing purposes? 
Mr. Gattoway. No, sir. In this climate, where there is the shade 
of a tree, blue grass grows all right all summer. 
Mr. Brooxs. Is that the same as the blue stem? 
Mr. Gattoway. No, sir. 
STATEMENT OF FREDERICK D. COVILLE. 
Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the Committee: 
One of the pieces of work with which the office of botanical inves- 
tigation is charged is that of inquiry into the cause of deterioration 
of grain in storage and in transit. Complaints have come, particu- 
larly from the other side of the Atlantic, of the character of the ship- 
ments which have been received there, and there is a tendency to attrib- 
ute the defects of the grain received on the other side to the inefficient 
grading and a further tendency to consider it as dishonest grading. 
The Department found it necessary some time ago to investigate these 
charges and we have completed a certain portion of that investigation. 
The machinery which has resulted is on exhibition here. I can give 
you some idea of the character of those requests which come to us 
from the other side. Here is a copy of a letter transmitted to us from 
the Department of State, as follows: 
No. 206.] ConsvuLATE-GENERAL OF THE Unrrep Srates, 
Berlin, Germany, December 3, 1908. 
Hon. Francis B. Loomis, 
Assistant Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. 
_, Siz: Lam constrained to ask the attention of the Department of State, and through 
it that of the honorable Secretary of Agriculture, to the serious and increasing com- 
plaints which are heard in European markets concerning the alleged untrustworthi- 
ness of American certificates of grain inspection and the depreciated condition in 
which shipments of wheat and corn, even though accompanied by such certificates, 
are frequently received. 
The complaint has reached a stage in which produce exchanges and chambers of 
commerce in this country have combined to appeal for relief. Before taking further 
