The Twentieth Century


very productive of seed pods, already was being grown through-
out Florida.
 Korean lespedeza, introduced in 1919 and again in 1921,
proved useful in the South and Northeast because it was able
to withstand unfavorable growing conditions. Its planting had
been extended to 5 million acres by 1935. H. L. Westover
explored through southwest Asia in 1929. Again the following
year, with K. A. Ryerson, he searched North Africa and Spain
for varieties of alfalfa resistant to bacterial wilt. This disease
had appeared in the Midwest about 1926 and crop losses in
many cases reached 25 per cent. In 1934, Westover also toured
Russian Turkestan, Persia, and Afghanistan with C. R. Enlow,
searching for plants that would prevent soil-erosion in the Great
Plains. They returned with eighteen hundred lots of seeds from
drouth-resistant plants, some of which, it was hoped, would yield
suitable plant covers for wind-blown topsoil.
 The expedition to Central Asia secured grasses and legumes
from areas bordering the Gobi desert in 1935. More than a
thousand grasses and forage items for soil control were collected
by the Division of Foreign Plant Introduction in 1936, and the
following year a similar collection was made.
 COTTON
 Various lots of seed of Egyptian cotton were secured prior
to 1900, but selections from seed of the Mit Afifi procured by
Fairchild about 1901 were the basis of successful Egyptian cotton
production in Arizona. Alkali-resistant cottons and other types
were secured at the same time in Egypt and Algeria to promote
long-staple production in the United States. The Department
hoped to extend cotton cultivation into alkali lands and pro-
duce the long-staple cotton which was being imported to the
extent of $15 million annually. For several years growers were
disappointed with Egyptian cotton due to its rank growth and
other undesirable changes caused by the transfer from its
original home. However, efforts at adaptation by selection
brought a yield of two bales per acre in Arizona in 1908. Three
superior varieties discovered were the Egyptian, Durango, and
Acala. By 1913, 3,500 acres were being grown, and the value of
the crop in 1920 was $20 million.
 In 1905, Peruvian and East Indian varieties were being tried