Introduction Under Rusk and Morton


border from Mexico and directed to the Gulf States and California.
The Division of Pomology hoped to expand avocado culture, which
had been limited to the East Coast and adjacent keys since the
great freeze of 1894-95. This division allotted 2,000 seeds of the
superior variety Persea gratissima to eighty-six persons in the
southern states and Arizona and California.
 FIBER AND FORAGE CROPS
 The $15 million being paid annually to foreign countries for
raw and manufactured flax, and the $5 million paid to Yucatan for
sisal hemp, convinced Rusk that these crops should be grown in
the United States. There was much interest in these crops and their
importance could not be overestimated. The Harrison adminis-
tration placed tariff duties on flax to encourage its production.
Ramie could become a $20 million crop if suitable machines were
developed for processing it. Jute was another fiber crop to be
promoted. Considerable areas of sisal hemp were being grown in
Florida, and one plantation exceeded sixty acres. Rusk suggested
a bounty or a tariff to promote further production.
 The government imported seeds of the manila hemp plant and
of the New Zealand flax for southern localities. Fiber investi-
gations were conducted by the Department of Agriculture with
flax, ramie, sisal, and bowstring hemp. The growing of sisal hemp
was said to be out of the experimental stage in southern Florida.
In 1891 three varieties of flax seed from Belgium and Russia were
assigned to agricultural experiment stations, flax manufacturers,
and growers seriously engaged in experiment. Large plantings of
bowstring hemp were made in Florida in 1892. Growers reported
that it was of rapid growth, produced strong fibers, and was
cheaply harvested and cleaned. A few experiments were in prog-
ress with the cultivation of Italian hemp and the sunn hemp of
India in 1894.
 GRASSES
 Colman, as Commissioner, had accelerated the search for
grasses and forage crops for the dry regions of the West. The
native grasses of South America, Siberia, and India were suggested
in 1890 as possible sources of hardy grasses for the South. Experi-
menters realized that it might take a long time to discover suit-
able grasses and pointed out that England had required fifty years
to develop her grass industry. Much attention was still given to