The Commissionership


cularized them about the program. Capron stated that "the result
of a single importation of wheat has alone been worth more than
an annual appropriation for the whole Department." Figures
were given to show that an increase in the annual production of
wheat by only one bushel per acre would be worth $30 million.
In defense of seed distribution, Capron said that, "If nine-tenths
of the seed distributed are sheer waste, and the rest judiciously
used, the advantage to the country may be tenfold greater than
the annual appropriation for agriculture."
 In his first Report, 1867, Capron favored the extension of the
various agricultural crops until "everything consumed in the
country, to the growth of which our various soils and climates are
adapted, shall be produced on our own lands." With regard to
the South, Capron stated that there was a great search in that
section for new crops and that the aid of the government in
finding new fruits, grasses, and fibers would help the return of
prosperity to the whole nation.
 Capron was interested mainly in new crops, in contrast to New-
ton's emphasis on the search for better varieties of the old crops.
The Department encouraged the commercial production of sugar
from the sugar beet in Illinois by distributing seed imported from
France and Germany. Capron favored a domestic silk industry,
and the entire nation was invited to advance grape culture. Ramie,
an old fiber plant of the Far East, excited the attention of growers
and continued to hold interest beyond the turn of the century.
 Capron wrote the congressional committees of agriculture
asking for remission of duties on imported seeds in order to en-
courage their distribution by agricultural societies. Nevertheless,
in 1870, foreign plants, trees, and seeds were made subject to duty
except when introduced by the Federal government.
 In 1869, Capron advocated exhibitions of plant collections of
commercial value. The emphasis on diversification of crops,
especially in the South, pointed to the need for a study of the
various oil, gum, and sugar-bearing plants and fiber-producers.
Congress voted an appropriation of $25,000 for a glass conserva-
tory building to protect trees and to propagate economic crops.
Dr. C. C. Parry, botanist for the Department, explored for plants
in San Domingo in 1871. He planned to bring back live specimens
of some of the 500 items he had collected for museum purposes.
The Department made an exhaustive study of western plant life to
find hardy grasses and other plants of economic value.