Leadership of the Patent Office


and had grown to a height of eighteen inches when taken from the
original cases in Washington.3
 Distribution of Tea Plants-In 1859, 30,000 well-rooted tea
plants were ready for distribution to southern growers and to
gardeners in the North who had greenhouses. The Patent Office
expected to continue supplying these plants in order to give tea
cultivation a fair trial over a period of years. Some growers were
optimistic enough to hope that the substitution of steam power
and machinery for hand labor in the preparation of tea might
eventually make it an article of export.
 The dissemination of tea plants was a prominent part of the
work of the Agricultural Division until the Civil War halted
communication with the South. The Department of Agriculture
continued to propagate the plants after its formation in 1862,
and efforts to introduce the tea plant were not given up until
recent years.

 SORGHUMS FOR SUGAR
 During the decade preceding the Civil War, the production of
sugar from sugar cane declined sharply while prices and per capital
consumption of the product were steadily increasing. This was
due in part to the rapid degeneration of sugar cane importations-
which had to be supplanted with new cuttings periodically. The
annual consumption of cane sugar in America reached 822 million
pounds in 1855, and more than half of this had to be imported.
Sugar beets were considered impractical for our economy because
their cultivation required a lot of cheap labor. Maple sugar pro-
duction had increased, but it failed to make any appreciable dif-
ference in the shortage of native sugar.
 Chinese Sorgo-To step up sugar production, the Patent Office
turned to the sorghums as a substitute for the sugar cane. The
Chinese sorgo and other sorghums aroused more interest than any
other single plant introduction during the nineteenth century be-

 3The use of Wardian glass cases for transporting plants great distances at
sea came to be widely practiced soon after the discovery of their principle by a
London physician, Nathaniel B. Ward, in 1829. The Wardian case is simply a closed
glass case that protects plants from various unfavorable conditions. It protects
them from impure air, salt spray, cold air, and high winds. It maintains constant
humidity and moisture in the soil, because it permits only negligible air circu-
lation. With the advent of transportation by airplane, the Wardian cases have
become largely obsolete.