The government enterprise of plant introduction should not interfere with the private seed trade, but, on the contrary, benefit it, for its object is to create a demand which the seedsmen will supply. Seedsmen have kept on their catalogues for years certain species for which the demand is so small that it does not pay to handle them, and yet some of them are worthy of wide cultivation in this country. Government plant introduction brings these to public attention. Had the work of intro ducing new fa,.m and garden plants been a profi table one, there would certainly be in this and other countries commercial firms with their collectors in all parts of the globe, as there are rug- and tea importers ; yet it is safe to say that there is no private concern in America that would undertake to get at moderate expense the Manchurian millet through fields of which the Japanese soldiers marched in the recent Russo-Japanese war, nor would it have thought it profitable to supply the Canadian wheat experimenter with the early-ripen ing wheat from the Ladoga sea from which one of the best wheats for the Northwest has been originated.
Experimental work is expensive, and it is only when the first stages in the experiment have been passed—when a demand has grown up for the seeds —that there is money in keeping in stock a supply for this demand. Understanding this point fully, the work of the Office of Plant Introduction is planned to cease as soon as experiments have shown the money-making value of a crop -as soon, in other words, as the seed firms decide that it is to their advantage to take it up.
There is another great reason why the plant in troduction of a country should be in the hands of the government. This lies in the danger of the introduction of noxi ous weeds, i n se c t pests and fungous parasites. This idea is quite distinct from that of a quarantine affecting all private introductions. The damage wrought by fungous and insect pests in Europe has been so great that practically prohibi tive quarantines have been placed against the introduction of foreign plants in Italy and Greece; and in this respect these countries have been followed by the Ar gentine. The result has been that the potato-growers of Greece have seen their potato varieties deteriorate without being able to get a change of seed, and in Argentine the pres sure to get new things was so great that seeds were im ported clandestinely in large quantities, and the law has had to be repealed. The doors had been shut to private introduc tion and yet no pro vision was made for the government to meet the legitimate demand of the people for foreign plants.
In bringing a new plant into a country, with all we now know of plant diseases, it would be a calam ity to introduce its particular disease with it, yet, unless done with the greatest care and under the supervision of experts who know how to inspect, disinfect and fumigate, this is almost sure to occur.
Two important plant industries which the Depart ment is now at work on, the mango and the pistachio, could be seriously injured by injudicious private introductions that would almost surely bring in the destructive mango weevil of Java and a dangerous pistachio bud-borer from Sicily, pests that are now unknown here.
The possibilities of plant introduction.
The possibilities of organized plant introduction are almost unlimited. Enough has already been done in this country to attract the attention of other nations which had not hitherto realized its importance ; and the time is not far off when the interchange of plants between countries will assume proportions that are now not dreamed of even by the most enthusiastic believer in the work, and the building up of new plant industries in a country will one day rank with the greatest of national duties.
The rate at which new plants arrive today is such that the inventory of accessions in the Office in the last two years comprises over 7,000 entries, while in the three years preceding, only 4,000 new things were brought in by the Office ; altogether, since 1898, over 19,000 selected seeds or plants have entered.
It is not intended to give here even a partial list of the introductions of the Office of Seed and Plant Introduction and Distribution, but only to mention some of the species whose names do not appear in former cyclopedias of horticulture or agri culture.
Agropyron cristatum, J. Gaert. Gramineas. From Walujka Experiment Station (in the dry steppes about 50 miles east of Rovnaya, south of Saratof on Volga river), Russia. Received through Prof. N. E. Hansen, May 25, 1898. Native dry steppe grass. Seed from plants culti vated one year. Director Bogdan, of the Walujka Station, regards this species promising for cultivation.
Andropogon rufus, Kunth. Jaragua. Gramineze. From Matto Grosso Province, Brazil. Presented by the Brazilian minister, Hon. J. F. de Assis-Brasil, December 1, 1900. A native fodder grass called by the Portuguese provi aorio. Described by Mr. Assis-Brasil in his book on Bra zilian agriculture.
Angelica sylvestris, Linn. Umbelliferm. From Naples, Italy. Received through Mr. W. T. Swingle, May, 1899. Said to have a much more fleshy leaf and stalk than the ordinary Angelica (Archangelica officinalis). Of this lat ter plant Vilmorin says: The sterns and leaf-stalks are eaten preserved with sugar. The leaves are also used as a vegetable in some parts of Europe. The root, which is splendidly shaped, is employed in medicine. It is some times called 'The Root of the Holy Ghost.' The seeds enter into the composition of various liquors." By some, the candied angelica is preferred to citron.