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UNITED STATES __ 



DEPARTMENT of AGRICULTURE 



DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR 323 



Washington, D. C. September, 1924 



HO^Y TO COLLECT, LABEL, AND PACK 



LIVING PLANT MATERIAL FOR 



LONG-DISTANCE SHIPMENT 



B. T. GALLOWAY 



Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, Bureau of Plant Industry 



CONTENTS 



Page 



IntroducLion. 1 



Dangers to be avoided 1 



Importance of proper records 2 



Packing dry and domiant seeds 2 



Packing and shipping nuts 3 



Packing fruit-tree and related seeds_ 4 



Tropical seeds 4 



Citrus-plant material 6 



Cuttings and scions of dormant wood_ 7 



Buds of hard-wooded plants 8 



Page 

 Bulbs, rootstocks, roots, and rhizomes_ 8 

 Cuttings, scions, and buds of soft- 

 wooded plants 9 



Rooted plants 9 



Sphagiuim-moss method of growing 



plants for shipment 10 



Special shipping directions 10 



How to address packases 11 



A last word of caution 11 



^ INTRODUCTION 



Seeds, plants, scions, grafts, and other plant material intended for 

 propagating purposes may be shipped long distances if properly 

 selected and packed. Long sea voyages through the Tropics are 

 particularly severe on plant material, so that great care must be 

 exercised where such journeys are involved. 



The following suggestions and recommendations are based on 

 several years* observation and experiments incident to the work of 

 the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction. Shipments of 

 plant material come from all over the world, packed in many dif- 

 ferent ways by many different people. Opportunities have therefore 

 been afforded for conducting numerous experiments, cooperating in 

 this work with agricultural explorers and others in different parts 

 of the world. 



DANGERS TO BE AVOIDED 



BThe greatest danger involved in the shipment of living plant ma- 

 terial is that of introducing some new insect pest or plant disease. 

 Alien, enemies already introduced are causing millions of dollars 

 loss annually, and it behooves us to take every precaution against 



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