196 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
tobacco, which we send to Connecticut. Cuban tobacco we send in 
the same way. We are endeavoring to secure a higher grade of these 
seeds by the selective methods described here yesterday. That is ex- 
pensive. Wecan grow by general selection cheaper than by special 
selection; but after a while we can grow specially selected seed as cheap 
as the other. 
As to sugar-beet seed, we imported something like $500,000 worth, 
and we have been endeavoring to get that grown for us in certain 
parts of the West. Last year we distributed 10,000 pounds, and we 
sent that in most cases out through members living in the sugar-beet 
belt; but in a number of instances we distributed it in 100-pound lots, 
to be planted side by side with foreign-grown seed, and in nearly all 
of the reports we are getting the American seed is reported as superior, 
not only in quantity of sugar that the beets yield, but in the vitality 
and per cent of germination. The fact is, we get only about a third- 
grade seed from abroad. There was a gentleman here yesterday that 
grows 60,000 pounds of sugar-beet seed, and he sells it as soon as it is 
grown, to California growers. 
The Cuarrman. How much is it worth? 
Mr. Gattoway. Ninety cents a pound. 
The Cuatrman. How much does he sell it to the California people 
for? 
Mr. Gatitoway. He has a contract with the Spreckels people. We 
have been trying to get a contract with him, but he sells it all to them. 
Among special lines of seed work is the Berseem and Turkestan 
alfalfa, that is valuable in the low bottom lands. It is a great crop of 
the Nile Valley, and has grown there for hundreds of years. It isa 
clover, and one of our foreign explorers secured the seed, and we are 
now developing it. Weare endeavoring to place it in the hands of 
reputable men, and make a contract with them to grow for us certain 
quantities of the seed, so that we will not have to go to the source of 
original supply. 
r. GraFr. That would not grow on the low lands of Illinois, 
would it? 
Mr. Gattoway. No, sir; it is not hardy there. It is undoubtedly 
one of the most valuable introductions that has been made, for the , 
South—not the extreme South; it will grow where temperature falls 
to 25°. 
Considerable work with cereals, new introductions of cassava; these 
flax varieties; the Japanese bamboos. Considerable work has been 
done in the latter direction, for the purpose of planting them in the 
South where the lumber is scarce, ae ot a the bamboos can be used 
for not only the manufacture of furniture, but in the construction of 
houses. We introduced quite a number of them last year. 
Mango, that is a southern crop. And there are a number of other 
ye which are not necessary to mention here. These all have to do 
with seed work, and the work is all paid for out of the general appro- 
priation for Congressional seed and for foreign-seed introduction. 
There has been no increase asked for in that work. 
That is all, 1 believe, Mr. Chairman. 
At 4.30 o’clock p. m. the committee adjourned. 
