America's Crop Heritage


studies of native grasses in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
 Experiments with native and foreign grasses at Garden City,
Kansas, since 1889 had made it plain that the ordinary grasses of
the East would never do for subarid regions. The only imported
plant which had proved thoroughly successful was the Bromus
inermis from the arid parts of Austria. Some forage plants from
Australia promised to be of value. The Secretary of Agriculture
made arrangements in 1894 with the Department of State for
consular agents to collect seeds of forage plants from foreign
countries and forward them to the Department for experiment.
An appropriation by Congress in 1895 made the organization of
the Division of Agrostology possible. Prof. F. Lamson-Scribner
became Chief of the Division and continued as head of grass
and forage investigations.
 The guiding motive for finding new crops under Rusk and
Morton was to produce some of the imported staples at home and
thus achieve a greater national self-sufficiency by diversification.
Through Congressmen and through the Department itself, in-
creasing quantities of plant materials were placed in the hands
of persons who might adopt locally the crops being promoted.
Experiments with sorghum as a source of sugar gave way to experi-
ments with the sugar beet while other trials proved that silk
could not be profitably produced. The administrations of Rusk
and Morton concluded attempts to found several fiber crop
industries, but marked the beginnings of much work with a
variety of fruits for temperate and tropical climates.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Roeding, G. C., The Smyrna Fig at Home and Abroad, Fresno, California: 1903.
2. Eisen, Gustav, "Biological Studies on Figs, Caprifigs, and Caprification," Proceed-
 ings of the California Academy of Sciences, 2nd Series, San Fracisco: 1896, V,
 Pp. 897-1,003.


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