America's Crop Heritage


but Newton claimed that their acid content had been reduced
by hybridization with European varieties. Good native seedlings
were hybridized with the choice imported varieties to produce a
number of fine grapes. The Black Hamburg is mentioned as one
of the imported varieties used in crossings. Ninety different foreign
grapes were planted in glass structures in the spring of 1870.
 Those varieties which proved unsuccessful were replaced from
time to time with other importations. Additional plantings of
foreign varieties were made in Texas and California in 1880. Plans
were made in 1889 to secure grapevines from Turkey and Pales-
tine through diplomatic officials. The Section of Seed and Plant
Introduction imported 119 varieties from Europe in 1899, which
were grafted on American stocks for testing.
 OPIUM POPPY
 Experiments with opium in this country during the latter part
of the nineteenth century indicated that the plant could be grown
successfully. Quantities of opium were being imported regularly
for medical use, but the supplies were frequently adulterated.
Charles Mason was the first to arouse interest in its cultivation,
and Isaac Newton later suggested that opium might be grown
profitably. An article in the Annual Report for 1870 instructed
growers in the cultivation of the poppy and methods for collecting
the drug.
 Experiments conducted in Jefferson County, New York, indi-
cated that the opium poppy could yield a higher money return
per acre than any other crop then being cultivated. Growers
reported that the poppy had been cultivated in Kansas, Connect-
icut, and Vermont. The crop was never grown commercially, how-
ever, because the intensive cultivation necessary for a successful
crop was too expensive using American labor.
 EUCALYPTUS
 At the close of the Civil War the Department of Agriculture
 was searching for "anti-periodic" medicines for the treatment of
 malaria. Reports from German hospitals indicated that the
 Eucalyptus globulus (the Australian blue gum, or anti-fever tree)
 had antimalarial properties. Specimens of this tree were brought
 from Australia by William Saunders and were kept growing for
 several years. Seeds of the tree also were obtained from Walter
 Hill, botanical gardener at Brisbane, and planted in the spring of