Leadership of the Patent Office


the high valleys of America where other varieties did not succeed.
This is the first instance in the United States of plant introduction
for the purpose of breeding desirable qualities of the immigrant
into the ordinary native varieties. This Indian corn was crossed
with larger sorts to improve their taste and to hasten the time of
ripening. A Cuzco corn from Peru was obtained through Vilmorin
of Paris.
 Field Crops-Bald barley from Italy, giant rye from England,
and various small grains from Poland, Algiers, and the borders of
the Black Sea were imported for testing. Many legumes, forage
crops, and grasses were obtained. The problem of improving
southern pastures continued to interest farmers throughout the
nineteenth century. As with a great many plants, no details are
available about these importations. They were merely enumerated
and their separate histories swallowed up in the experiments to
find better crops.
 From England the Patent Office obtained a variety of trefoil
or clover, a cow grass or perennial clover, the alsyke or Swedish
clover, a variety of red clover, two varieties each of Perennial Ray
Grass and fescue grass, Rough-stalked Meadow Grass, and Sweet-
scented Vernal. From France came two varieties of sainfoin and
rape and specimens of Vernal, burnet grass, and spurry. A variety
of alfalfa was brought from Chile.
 In 1857 Wendelin Grimm, a German immigrant farmer,
brought with him to Minnesota from Baden the valuable alfalfa
to which he gave his name. This hardy type occupied over 700,000
acres in 1930. A white lupine from southern Spain and a yellow
lupine from Germany were imported for forage and soiling.
 M. B. Bateham, editor of the Ohio Cultivator, called attention
to his importation of the alsike clover in 1839 from an agricultural
society in Scotland which in turn had received it from Sweden.
Like other farm papers, the Ohio Cultivator imported and dis-
tributed many field and garden seeds.
 Vegetables-The Patent Office imported new varieties of peas
and beans from England, France, and Germany in 1854. Chick
peas and lentils came from Spain and France. Twenty-six varieties
of turnips came from Charlwood and Cummins of London with
the condition that they be distributed in every state and territory,
and a report published on the results. The variety names resem-
bled the descriptive names given to turnips by present day seeds-
men.