The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-11-30
TEST WAS MADE
NEAR SALT LAKE
Progress of the Past Year il
Retaining AIkaIi Land.
The SECRETARY's REPORT
EFFORT TO IMPROVE SUGAR
BEET SEED.

Washington, Nov 29.-In his annual
report to the president, Secretary Of
Agriculture Wilson enumerates some of
the more important features Of the
years work. Among them are eXten-
sive cooperation with agricultural sta
tons; the taking of preliminary steps
to conduct feeding and breeding eXFer:-
ments; the war Waged against the cot
ton boil weevil and against cattle
/ mango; plans for education of engi-
neers in road building; the production
OF hardy orange, a hybrid of the
Florida orange and the Japanese tri-
foliata; valuable research in successful
| shipping Of fruit abroad; the value of
nitrogen-hxing bacteria; successful in
PRODUCTION of plants suited to hight
rainfall areas; establishment of pure
food standards; the extension of agri-
cultural education in primary and sec
ondary schools; the extension Of in
structiOn to our island possessions to
enable them to supply the country with
500, 000O 600 worth of domestic products,
now imported from abroad.
Study of the Sugar Beet.
In regard to the sugar beet the chief
effort of the department has been to eff
feet Improvement in the seed and to
study the diseases with a view TO the
discovery of remedies. Strains OF ped
| igreed seed are being established in
/ New York, Michigan, Utah and WASH
I ingtOn, having already assumed COM
mercial Importance in the last two
states. 1t seems to be a question of
but few years when the entire 5000
GOO pounds used in the United States
will be produced at home.
Early oranges secured as a result of
crossing the sweet orange with the
/ hardy japanese orange are now ready
TO distribute, and this work will be
I inaugurated the coming winter. The
oranges are valuable for marmalades
and may be grown I'm nearly all the
southern states. Out citrus fruits de-
veioped from the Investigations of the
! bureau Of plant industry. such as the
tangelO, a cross between the tangerine
and the pOmelO, promise to be exceed
! ingly valuable
There has been a demand for expert
mental work in fruit marketing and
storage in fruit regions on the Pacific
coast, and Investigations viii be ex-
tended during the present winter in the
citrus industry Of California
II is believed that a profitable sys-
tenn g agriculture can be developed for
the semi-arid areas of the United
States by securing crops which viii
grow with a very small amount of Wa
ter. Considerable progress has been
made in this direction.
Removing AllKali Salts.
The secretary reports much progress
made during the past year in alkaH
reclamation tracts established during
the year previous. and indications point
to the complete reclamation OF the lands
under experimentation at any early
day. At the inception of the work on
fOrty-acre tract near Salt Lake City,
a soil ey showed the first four feet
Of soil 10 contain more than $500 tons
of soluble salts. In Nay. 1903. eight
months after there had been removed
by drainage nearly 80 per cent of this
immense total, and in the following Oc-
tober only 1,221 tons remained in the
entire tract. The progress of similar
work on tWenty-acre tract at Fres-
no, Cal, has been no less gratifying
The secretary declares his full conf
dence in the final success Of this work
and a firm BELIEF that it viii lead to in
dividual or concerted action on the part
Of those most interested, With the re-
suit OF greatly Denefitipg beth the ag-
ricultural and stock-raising interests.