The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-20
DANGER TO AGRICULTURE
NOxIOUs INSECTS AND WEEDS LIKE
LIZ TO BE IMPORTED SOON.
Plants for Experimental Purposes
Will BE Brought from Philippines,
and Diseases with Them.
correspondence Of the Iournal.

Correspondence of the Journal
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19.-One hundred
and sixty-three million acres of the United
States are now devoted to the cultivation of
staple crops, and yet pumpkins and a few
kinds OF grapes, plums and berries are the
only food plants native to this country.
American pride must take severe tumble
when it is considered that with all our great
productive capacity, supplying good por-
ton of the worlds needs, and with our vast
resources, the American bill of fare would
to-day be scarcely an improvement on that
of the Digger Indian were it not Cor the in
PRODUCTION from foreign lands of the hum
dreds Of edible products now found through
out the country. Even corn, King Corn,
commonly known in the world as Indian
corn and recognized as American, is in all
probability an introduction from Mexico.
According to eminent research, wheat, rye
and other grains are Of European and East
ern origin, as are also cabbage lettuce, as
paragus, celery, onions, cucumbers, melons,
etc. Peru has given us the potato, tomato
and egg plant, while our apples, ounces,
pears, gooseberries and California grapes
are of European parentage.
Thus it SENS to be- more or less, with all
new countries. If, as it is claimed, the
traveller would starve to death in the prime
val North American forest, so would he
likewise in the dense tropical growth of
Central and South America. 1t is mis-
taken idea to suppose that in the tropics
fruit grows wild on every branch The
traveller must needs come out onto the river
banks or the seacoasts, where at some
time past man has planted the banana
sucker or the bread fruit slip, or the taro
root. These may appear to him to grow
wild but in reality they have been intro
duced there long since, and finding condi-
tons congenial have perhaps more
than held their own against the ma
tive growth. For countless years and per-
haps centuries fruit and food products have
been cultivated and improved by men and
tribes, the evolution being perhaps from an
almost worthless form to staple product,
and these have been disseminated through
mgrations and trade, until the origin of
many of them has become lost in doubt and
tradition How is it to be known that the
wild food product of a country is not the
outcome of years of care and cultivation by
some long-forgotten people?
PRODUCTS OF ALL COUNTRIES.
Each section of the globe seems to have
its own small percentage of indigenous
to procure variety he must depend upon
products brought from other sections. The
rapid development of any new country is
due to the discovery Of soil and climatic
conditions suitable to the growth of intro
duced species which have been cultivated,
possibly for thousands of years, and grad
ually brought to a high state of perfection.
California owes her wealth and great de-
velopment to the conditions favorable to
the cultivation of the European grape and
orange, themselves famous before her gold
en- shores were dreamed Of The wealth of
Ceylon and Java is reaped largely from the
cultivation of fine teas from China and
Assam, of the quinine tree from Peru and
of coffee from Arabia and Liberia, rather
than from the cultivation of Indigenous
plants. In almost every country the intro
duction of some well-known species has
done far more to develop wealth than have
the native productions.
With the settling of the United States be-
gan, of course, at once the importations of
European and other products for trial in
our varied climates, and this has been go
now grow hundreds of kinds Of common
fruits and vegetables which seem as much
at home here as the native groWths: IN IN,
of Agriculture the head of that branch was
instructed to procure rare and valuable
plants and seeds for test and trial, and for
many years this work has been going on
Systematically and with great results, al
though more is probably heard of the free
! the real work of the department.
For something over year DR.. ID. q. Fair
child has had charge of the work of seed
and plant introduction of the national De-
partment of Agriculture. The rapid growth
In the work of plant naturalization and Sc
| lection, and the recognition of the great
losses caused by parasitic insects and fungi
introduced from foreign countries, empha-
sizes the Importance of the most careful
supervision and inspection of all imported
| plants and seeds. Although the United
| States produces hundreds of different crops,
there are yet as many plant species and
knows not even the name, yet which are
| considered staples in the countries in which
| they are grown. DR.. Fairchild is highly
| Qualified for this work of introduction; he
| has done extensive travelling in the Mediter-
| ranean countries and in the far East and
! a very necessary requirement for this work
and IS, withal, rising and enthusiastic
| young scientist.
DANGER TO THIS COUNTRY.
| A feature of his work about which DR..
Falrchild is now much concerned is the dan
ger CT introducing inadvertently into the
country weeds and noxious insects and dan
| gerous fungi. He is soon to issue an official
publication covering this subject as well as
| the general work of plant introduction. He
refers to a few instances of what importa-
| tons carried on without proper inspection
have brought with them. The well-known
|
! States as late as 1870 has swept over large
! portion OF it like a scourge, and has, dur
| ing the present year, been made the subject
| of an imperial German edict, restricting the
| importation of American fruit into Ger
| many The introduction of the coffee dis
| ease from Africa has practically wiped out
the Ceyon coffee industry. The brlar rose,
| since its introduction into Hawaii, has be-
| come a most troublesome plant and the
| most serious weed of the tropics. The Rus
| sian thistle introduced with flax-seed into
| South Dakota, now ranges over several
| States. The handsome water hyaclnth, IN
| troduced into Florida as an ornamental
| plant now chokes UP the st. john and other
rivers until navigation is seriously impeded.
| In the Island of Sicily the prickly pear is
| highly priced as a food plant, but since its
| infroduction into South Africa it has proven
| there a vertiabie curse to the country The
| gypsy moth, Mr.. Fairchild says, was
| brought into New England with the idea OF
| breeding up race of hardy silk worms at
| the time when the pebrine disease threat
| ened the silk industry of France, and al
! though it has been systematically Fought
| since its introduction, 1t has caused tre-
| mendous ravages, besides costing in state
appropriations nearly 100000. The remedy
| for all such evils, of which the foregoing
mentioned are but examples, lies in govern
ment inspection at the doors whence they
are brought in. This will, of course, 90 no
| good TO diseases and insects which have al
| ready established a foothold, but 1t will pre-
| vent new ones from coming DR.. Fairchild
| thinks the time particularly suspicious to
| take In hand the regulation of Importation
of nIants and seeds into Hawaii, Porto Ftieo