PLANT IMMIGRANTS READY TO START FOR THE LAND OF THEIR ADOPTION. 
The successful shipment of live plants and cuttings from distant countries to the United States 
forms the most difficult part of the agricultural explorer's work. Great care must be exercised 
in packing the plants to insure their reaching Washington without either having dried out or 
having decayed from too much moisture. Sphagnum moss, waxed paper, and newspaper are 
used in packing, and each bundle is securely sewed in a cotton jacket. The lot above shown, 
prepared for shipment at Ambato, Ecuador, and over a month on the road between that point 
and Washington, contained tubers of several new potatoes, cuttings of the babaco or hardy 
papaya and the capulin or Andean black cherry, as well as seeds of several Andean fruits. 
(Photographed by Wilson Popenoe at Ambato, Ecuador, January, 1921; P18313FS.) 
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