42 The National Geographic Magazine 



STUDY OF PLANTS IN PUBLIC 

 SCHOOLS 



Special efforts have been made to en- 

 courage the study of plants in the pub- 

 lic schools. The Secretary argues that 

 our system of elementary education 

 leaves no impression on the child's 

 mind of the importance, value, and use- 

 fulness of farm life, while in many ways 

 he is brought early into contact with 

 facts pointing to the value of commer- 

 cial life. He calls attention to the rapid 

 advances made in agriculture along all 

 lines, and notes the need for bright 

 young men in this field, which he be- 

 lieves offers opportunities as great as in 

 any other. The distribution of seed is 

 being handled in such a way that en- 

 couragement of plant growing will be a 

 feature of it in connection with public 

 school work. 



NEW PLANT INDUSTRIES 



Under the head of new industries de- 

 veloped the Secretary enumerates, first, 

 rice, of which, under the encourage- 

 ment of the department, there has been 

 enormously increased production in Lou- 

 isiana and Texas. Preliminary estimates 

 give the area devoted to rice in 1904 in 

 these two states at 600,000 acres, and 

 the crop will approximate 650,000,000 

 pounds. In reference to durum or 

 macaroni wheat the success attending 

 its introduction continues unabated. 

 Probably no less than 14,000,000 bush- 

 els of such wheats will be grown this 

 year. The durum wheats are now being 

 handled without difficulty by many 

 millers. These wheats have been found 

 valuable for bread and can be grown 

 successfully where many other crops 

 fail. Efforts are also being made to in- 

 troduce the raw material for the manu- 

 facture of fine mattings. 



IMPROVEMENT IN SUGAR-BEET SEED 



In regard to the sugar beet the chief 

 effort of the department has been to 

 effect improvement in the seed and to 

 study the diseases with a view to the 



discovery of remedies. Strains of pedi- 

 greed seed are being established in New 

 York, Michigan, Utah, and Washing- 

 ton, having already assumed commer- 

 cial importance in the last two states. 

 It seems to be a question of but a few 

 years when the entire 5,000,000 pounds 

 used in the United States will be pro- 

 duced at home. American-grown seed 

 has produced beets testing as high as 

 24 per cent, and the average in all beets 

 tested from American-grown seed in 

 1903 was 15.8. The average percent- 

 age in all beets grown in the United 

 States is but a little over 1 1 per cent. 

 During the season of 1904, 14,000 

 pounds of American-grown seed were 

 distributed by the department for test- 

 ing in comparison with imported seed. 

 The factories also bought 34,500 pounds 

 of American-grown seed. Interesting 

 experiments in fertilizing were con- 

 ducted, one in particular showing the 

 difference of over twenty dollars per 

 acre as the result of fertilizing with 

 nitrate of soda. 



In the matter of developing sugar- 

 beet seeds with single germs, which 

 would greatly diminish the labor of 

 thinning, the Bureau work has been 

 very satisfactory. 



NEW CITROUS FRUITS 



Early oranges secured as a result of 

 crossing the sweet orange with the hardy 

 Japanese orange are now ready to dis- 

 tribute, and this work will be inaugu- 

 rated the coming winter. The oranges 

 are valuable for marmelades and may 

 be grown in nearly all the Southern 

 States. Other citrous fruit developed 

 from the investigations of the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry, such as the tangelo, 

 a cross between the tangerine and the 

 pomelo, promise to be exceedingly val- 

 uable. 



AMERICAN TEA AND AFRICAN DATES 



As heretofore, investigation in Amer- 

 ican tea production has been continued 

 in cooperation with Dr C. L. Shepard, 



