Miscellaneous. 



242 



[March 1908. 



the fifties, its culture has spread, until 

 the area covered by it is over 2,000,000 

 acres. 



With the thought that there was no 

 reason why this Chilean alfalfa should 

 be the bestin the world, Mr. N. E. Han- 

 sen, the first explorer of the office, 

 brought home with him seeds of alfalfa 

 which he found on his exploring trip to 

 the steppes of Siberian and Russian 

 Turkestan. 



It is only grown there in small patches, 

 that are cut with sickles in a most pri- 

 mitive fashion. Distributed in large 

 amounts, this seed has proven to be of a 

 variety more resistant to drouth and 

 alkali than the ordinary kind, and it is 

 now being grown in acre areas in many 

 parts of the West. While in Arabia 

 three years ago the writer found and 

 imported seed of an alfalfa which the 

 Arab date-growers cultivate, and this 

 has made such an unusual growth in the 

 irrigated regions of the south-west that 

 the farmers think they can get an extra 

 cutting of hay from it each season. 



THE MALIN HORSERADISH FROM BOHEMIA. 



Horseradish culture in this country 

 has been generally neglected. Until the 

 introduction by the Office of Plant Intro- 

 duction of the famous Malin horseradish, 

 only one sort, the common American, 

 was known. In a little village near 

 Vienna the best horseradish in the world 

 is grown. There are two or more other 

 sorts that are recognized in the markets 

 of Europe, but although sold as larger 

 roots, these are not so tine flavoured nor 

 so crisp as the Maliner Kren, as it is 

 called. The methods of the Malin pea- 

 sants, too, are superior to tiiose prac- 

 tised in America, and it was thought at 

 one time that to this difference in method 

 of cultivation rather than to the variety 

 itself was to be attributed its superiority. 

 The introduction of the Malin roots, 

 however, has proven that it is a superior 

 kind. In New Jersey, at Edgewater 

 Park, one of the first men to get the 

 roots grew over six acres this season. 

 Though he had on the same kind of soil, 

 and adjoining the plant where he culti- 

 vated the Malin, the American sort, it 

 yielded a ton of roots more than the 

 native kind, was several weeks earlier in 

 coming to maturitv, thus commanding a 

 higher figure in the early season, and 

 produced a larger, rnoie regular root, 

 These favourable characters combined 

 have made the Malin horseradish a much 

 better paying one than any other, 

 netting the planter $100 an acre more 

 than the American. 



This is a small industry, it is true, but 

 in a single country in that State it has 



grown from the production of a few 

 hundred pounds a year to that of more 

 than 1,000,000, which means a decided in- 

 crease in five years in the earning power 

 of a community. 



THE MANGOSTEEN PROM THE MALAY 



ARCHIPELAGO. 

 There is not in the whole range of fruits 

 a single one that surpasses the tropical 

 mangosteen in delicate flavour or in 

 beauty ; and yet, because the West 

 Indies do not grow it, Americans who 

 stay at home cannot taste it. Trees, 

 few in number, it is true, are now grown 

 in Jamaica, Trinidad, and even in Hawaii, 

 but the propaganda in its favour has not 

 yet been made, and we are now pushing 

 an investigation to establish it as a new 

 industry in Porto Rico, Hawaii, and on 

 the Panama Canal Zone. The mangos- 

 teen has a poor root system, and it is one 

 of the lines of research we are following 

 to find among the near relatives of the 

 species a form that has better roots and 

 will serve as a stock upon which to graft 

 the more delicate mangosteen. The 

 genus to which this wonderful fruit be- 

 longs has at least fifteen edible species 

 in it, few, if any, being known to those 

 who have not made them a special study. 

 It has a beautiful white fruit pulp, more 

 delicate than that of a plum, and a 

 flavour that is indescribably delicate and 

 delicious, while its purple brown rind 

 will distinguish it from all other fruits 

 and make it bring fancy prices wherever 

 it is offered for sale. 



THE TUNA, A FRUIT AND FODDER PLANT 

 FOR THE DESERTS. 

 The prickly pear, or tuna, is a fruit 

 that all those who have been in Mexico 

 or Italy, or who have visited southern 

 Spain have seen and perhaps tasted. 

 Few, probably, have thought that this 

 fruit was the product of a cactus that 

 would grow in the dry deserts where 

 scarcely anything else will live, aud pro- 

 duce fruit on which men can live. It 

 furnishes a fodder for cattle, too, that 

 though not of the best, is at least good 

 enough to make it worth while to culti- 

 vate it in the old world, and in the new 

 it has been utilized by burning off the 

 sharp spine native in Mexico, but intro- 

 duced into the Mediterranean region and 

 into South Africa at a very early date, 

 it has developed astonishingly there, and 

 it is from these parts of the world and 

 from Mexico that we are getting for Mr. 

 Griffiths, the opuntia expert of the De- 

 partment, all the different varieties. 

 These h« is growing in special gardens 

 in California, and it is safe to say that 

 he has already assembled there the 

 largest collections of these plants 

 of the world. 



