PURPOSES OP PLANT INTRODUCTION. 

 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW PLANT INDUSTRIES. 



The first and most evident reason for tlie introduction of economic 

 Xilants into any country, and tliat to wliicli the ordinary mind at once 

 refers, is the building up of new plant industries. To the most casual 

 observer it must be ai)parent that the number of useful plants, com- 

 l)ared with those of which man makes no use, is very small. The menu 

 of an average American dinner includes the product of scarcely a 

 dozen plants, and yet the number which could be grown for the table 

 would reach into the hundreds. There are several reasons why the 

 number of plants upon which we depend for subsistence remains small, 

 and the competition between producers of the same plant product con- 

 tinues fierce, but the most potent one lies in a persistent conservatism 

 of taste, which is both unreasoning and uncontrollable. That the Ger- 

 man peasant should look u^jon Indian corn meal as fit only for his live 

 stock,* or the inhabitants of some portions of Holland consider the 

 sheep raised along their canals for the English market in the same 

 light as Americans do liorse flesh, are facts which must be reckoned 

 with, however unreasonable they may appear, in any attempts at plant 

 introduction. This conservatism in small matters, although often 

 enough exhibited in America, is less firmly fixed upon us, as Sir Henry 

 Norman and other European critics have pointed out. This is evi- 

 denced by our quick appreciation of such new fruits as the pomelo, or 

 grape fruit, which has become almost as common with us as the orange, 



Forestry seven years ago, the adaptability of the species to our Southern States and 

 California has been satisfactorily demonstrated. 



As far as plant material for the arid regions is concerned, no expectation need be 

 entertained that woods of high economic value will ever be grown in forests under 

 the climatic conditions tliere prevailing. Arboriculture, not forestry, may be prac- 

 ticed in those regions for the sake of climatic amelioration, ornamentation, and com- 

 fort, and such species should be preferably chosen as produce abundant shade and 

 perhaps useful fruit or some other advantages. Adaptation to climate — the possi- 

 bility of growing under untoward conditions — is the first and most important con- 

 sideration in choosing plant material for these regions. We possess trees in our 

 own territory the possibility of utilizing which, under cultivation, is hardlj'' yet 

 tested. The mesquite, the China tree, the Osage orange, and other examples may 

 be cited. 



There is not so much difficulty in finding plant material as in finding incentive 

 and enterprise to use it and knowledge of proper methods in its use. 



Nevertheless there can be no doubt that our choice of really valuable plant 

 material for these regions could be greatly extended by the systematic procedure 

 outlined. — B. E. Fernoiv. 



*Hock, F. Naehrpflanzen Mitteleuropas, 1890, Stuttgart, p. 44. Only 5 kilos per 

 capita is produced, owing to unsuitable climate. According to the latest figures, as 

 collected by Hitchcock (Bull. No. 10, Section of Foreign Markets, U. S. Dept. of Agri- 

 culture), the consumption of American corn in Europe must be rapidly increasing, 

 as our exports of this grain increased from $37,836,862 worth in 1896 to $54^087,152 

 ■worth in 1897. 



