1990 
plorations, - in place of covering a wide range of territory, devoting 
but little time to any given section and its crop plants, a permanent 
base will be established in some conveniently located place, and criti- 
cal studies will be made of plants found there, not alone with a view 
to securing seeds or propagating material, but also to obtain infor- 
mation which may be used to strengthen our agricultural and horticul- 
tural industries generally. 
Forage crops and cereals of value are likely to be found in Man- 
churia, and the soy btan, which has in recent years become an important 
crop in the United States, will be studied carefully, with a view to 
securing new varieties of promise. From northern China, several hardy, 
drought-resistant shade and windbreak trees have already been introduced 
into this country. These have shown themselves capable of growing in 
regions where few other shade trees prosper, and it is expected that 
the present expedition will result in the introduction of numerous 
similar trees of value for the Great Plains region. Wild fruit trees, 
or wild relatives of fruits cultivated in the United States, will be 
obtained for the use of breeders now at work on the problem of securing 
hardy fruits for regions of extremely cold, dry winters; while other 
species of the same general character may prove valuable as root-stocks 
on which to graft our cultivated fruits, just as Amygdalus davidiam from 
northern China has already done. 
Special attention will be given to the study and collection of 
highly developed fruit and nut crops, such as the bush cherries, jujubes, 
persimmons, pears, peaches, plums, and chestnuts. The Department has 
made a number of introductions of the Chinese hairy chestnut, a promis- 
ing species. It is blight resistant lends itself to orchard culture 
and furnishes a nut closely resembling that of our native species. Up 
to the present however, seeds only have been introduced, and seedlings 
do not come true. An effort will be made to secure grafting wood of 
numerous fine varieties known to exist to the north of Peking. 
These are a few of the lines of work which the Northeastern China 
Expedition will undertake to carry out during the next year or two. 
The cooperation of the agricultural experts of Nanking University and 
other institutions in China will be secured to the fullest extent possi- 
ble, and it is expected that American missionaries, who have always 
been helpful to this Department, will assist in making the work of the 
expedition a success. New and promising varieties of fruits, forage 
plants, cereals and other crops which are discovered by the expedition 
will be brought to the attention of local agriculturists and horticul- 
turists, so that China may profit by the work as fully as the United 
States. It is planned in fact, to -make this a mutually beneficial 
agricultural exploration of northeastern China, - one of the oldest 
agricultural regions in the world. 
Wilson Popenoe. 
