America's Crop Heritage


one-third to one-fourth of the annual appropriation for agriculture
was being spent at this time for the distribution of seeds and
plants.
 WORK OF COMMISSIONER LE DUC

 General William Le Duc of Minnesota succeeded Watts in 1877
and served until June, 1881. A former salesman, lawyer, and land
promoter, Le Duc proved an able administrator whose work won
the favorable attention of Congress and of the public. His reports
stressed two themes: the introduction, experimentation, and pro-
motion of sugar-producing plants, and the need for more funds
and facilities for testing new plant introductions. His promotion
of sugar is discussed topically in Chapter 7.
 During Le Duc's term, many plants were propagated and sent
to localities where they might flourish. Buildings for and plant-
ings of various fruit trees had taken most of the land available for
experiment by 1878. Le Duc recommended the purchase of a
thousand acres near Washington and the establishment of eight
or ten experiment stations in different climatic and geographical
regions. He enthusiastically promoted tropical and semitropical
crops including tea, coffee, oranges, lemons, olives, Japanese per-
simmons, bananas, pineapples, cacao, tamarind, cinchona, pepper,
ginger, and dates. Scions of Russian apple trees and plants of
European wine grapes were distributed.
 Le Duc was in turn critical of the extensive seed distributions
by his predecessor. He planned to favor agricultural societies over
other applicants, and devoted much space to criticism of distri-
butions by members of Congress. Le Duc's views were endorsed
by resolutions of farmers' organizations, by newspaper editors, by
some members of Congress, and individual citizens.
 Le Duc's interest in tropical and semitropical products was
reflected in his unusually large distributions of such plants. He
claimed that large increases in yields valued at millions of dollars
had resulted from his efforts, and he also believed that more
diversification had been achieved. The appropriation act of 1881
required that "three-fourths of plants, seeds, and cuttings" should
be made available to members of Congress for distribution. The
proportion thus reserved varied from year to year, but had
increased to five-sixths when the distributions were discontinued
in 1923.