ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL BOTANIC GAKDEN. 31 



small wild fruit the size of a pea to a fruit the size of a Concord grape, and we 

 have made its culture a profitable industry. This one small piece of scientific 

 work has an industrial value of millions of dollars. These results I should 

 never have been able to accomplish without greenhouse facilities situated close 

 to my office. Many new things had to be found out about blueberry plants, and 

 by daily contact with them I became as familiar with their behavior and their 

 needs as a dairy farmer with the behavior and needs of his cattle. 



Some day the space occupied by our temporary greenhouses at the Department 

 of Agriculture will be needed for a public building. Where then shall we go? 

 To do the most effective work, we must follow our greenhouses. If your com- 

 mittee chooses wisely to-day, we shall go to the new botanical garden ; for 

 among the opportunities to be found there our work is bound to become most 

 useful to the Nation. 



I urge upon the members of this committee as strongly as my command of 

 language permits that in deciding between the two proposed sites you choose 

 the one recommended by the Fine Arts Commission. If. the present Congress 

 shall authorize that site, it will not only have reached a wise solution of a 

 present problem, but it will confer a lasting benefit on the whole country- On 

 and about that site can be brought together in future years such related activi- 

 ties as future Congresses may decide to be wise and prudent. The botanical, 

 horticultural, and agricultural activities that would find their natural location 

 about this site would constitute an agency of human progress the value of 

 which is beyond calculation in money. 



. In closing permit me to call your attention to one very important feature of 

 this proposal. If you select such a site as shall inevitably bring about the 

 grouping of activities that I have outlined, you will not be spending money on 

 a place of rner.e recreation, with only an intangible return of benefits, but you 

 will be making an investment which will yield to the Nation dividends of many 

 dollars for every dollar you put in. 



STATEMENT OF ME. WALTER T. SWINGLE, IN CHARGE OF THE 

 CROP PHYSIOLOGY AND BREEDING, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUS- 

 TRY, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Mr. Swingle. Mr. Chairman, I am in charge of the chief office 

 of plaiit breeding in the Department of Agriculture, and have seen 

 the work grow from a very small beginning 25 years ago until now 

 20 offices are carrying on work in plant breeding. One of the most 

 important phases of the work that our department is doing is rep- 

 resented by the office. We are the only people whose home country is 

 of continental extent. The European countries, like England, France, 

 and Germany are, after all, only small in extent, and have only a 

 limited range of climate. In America, in our home country, we have 

 every range of climate, from tropical Florida to the glacial regions 

 of Arctic Alaska. The European methods and plants our forefathers 

 brought over with them did very well in the eastern part of the 

 country, but as the pioneers penetrated westward until they reached 

 Arizona and California they found themselves vastly outstripped 

 in effectiveness by the Mexicans, who used Spanish crops and Span- 

 ish methods, developed partly by the Moors during their long occupa- 

 tion of Spain. In other words, we are forced in our country of con- 

 tinental extent to carefully consider whether or not the agricultural 

 practices that our ancestors brought from northwestern Europe are 

 best adapted to our climatic conditions. I am prepared to say that 

 we have pretty conclusively proven that they are not, and that we 

 can vastly increase the yield and the profit of agricultural production 

 of foods, of fiber plants, and of medicinal plants by the use of the 

 proper choice of strains and by the proper breeding of new types. 

 I might give one or two instances to show the almost miraculous 



