110 America's Crop Heritage

an agricultural landmark comparable to the first appropriation of
$1,000 in 1839 for agricultural work by the Patent Office.
 The figures in Table 6, giving the approximate yearly value of
our main agricultural imports at the close of the century, were
pointed to by growers as strong arguments for producing these
crops in the United States.
 Plant introduction procedures put into effect by the govern-
ment were much broader in scope than previous efforts. Growers
were to be given full information on cultivation methods. The

 TABLE 6
 APPROXIMATE YEARLY VALUE OF AGRICULTURAL IMPORTS
 UNITED STATES-1900

 Crop Value
 Sugar....................................... $96,000,000
 Rubber ........................................ 32,000,000
 Coffee.......................................... 55,000,000
 Fruits and nuts ................................. 18,500,000
 Tobacco....................................... 12,000,000
 Manufactured Fibers. ........................... 13,000,000
 Sisal Hemp.................................... 10,000,000
 M anila Hemp .................................. 6,000,000
 Jute ........................................... 2,250,000
 Cotton......................................... 10,000,000
 Flax........................................... 1,000,000
 Hemp ........................................ 500,000
 Tea.......................................... 10,000,000
 W ines ......................................... 7,250,000
 R ice.......................................... 4,000,000
 Seeds ........................................ 1,000,000
 Licorice ....................................... 1,500,000
 Cork.... ................ ..................... 1,500,000
 Macaroni ...................................... 600,000


Department was to aid in creating markets and to continue to
support new crop industries until they were commercially success-
ful. Foreign plant materials would go either to reliable growers
or experiment stations, and in some cases would be retained by
the Department for trial. Each shipment represented a step in
the solution of a special problem and not merely an unplanned
broadcast of stocks.
 O. F. Cook, in 1898, began the "Inventory of Plants Intro-
duced" in which numbers were assigned to each new item and
information given on its origin, nature, value, and cultivation.
 Wilson issued an executive order in 1900 which further co-
ordinated the Department's work by requiring division heads to