Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1912-03-21

your minds the picture of a
ball ~circling through space, covered with q
film Of plants, animals, and men IN constant
change. So varied is this Aim of plants that
there are probably half a million distinct, spe-
cifc forms in it, and yet man uses only a few
hundreds for his own purposes.
To change, in a measure, the Distribution
of the really useful plants Of the world is what
the office of foreign seed and plant introduc-
ton of the Department of Agriculture IS Try
ing to do. The motive underlying this work
might be called the ambition to make the
world more habitable. If one is inclined to
be pessimistic with regard to the food supply
of the world, he has only to talk to any one
of the enthusiasts of the Department of Agri-
culture to get a picture of the widening vista
of agricultural possibilities which would make
him realize that the food problems of the race
are not hung in the balance of our great plains
area, and that the food-producing power Of
the world is still practically unknown, because
we have Just begun to study in a modern way
the relative performance of different plants.
We may not always grow the plants we do
now. Som Of them are expensive food pro-
ducers, some produce foods that are difficult
to digest, and some we may leave behind as
we learn to like others better.
What to grow was not so serious a ques'
ton to the early Phoenician peasant, who
knew perhaps a dozen crops, as it is becoming
to the American agriculturist, who can pick
from the crops of all the world the one best
suited to his land and climate. Changes come
so rapidly nowadays that if a man today talks
of pears he may mean what are ordinarily
thought of as pears, or he may refer to at
gator pears which he is growing in Florida,
or prickly pears which he is eultivating in
Texas. Both the alligator pear and the prickly
pear have come in as crops to be reckoned
with within the past fifteen years, and already
the stock-raisers Of the South are wondering
II they should plant spiny or s%pineless forms
of the prickly pear cactus, and the fruit
growers of Florida are inquiring as to which
of the several varieties of alligator pear tree
is going to be the most productive and profit
able.
To help find the plant which will produce
the best results of any that can be grown, on
every acre of land in the United States, Is, in
general, the broad policy Of the office of seed
and plant introduction of the bureau of plant
industry.
Although begun in a systematic way and as
a distinct activity Of the department in 1897,
II has barely touched the fringe of it's posi-
bilities. The $1,000 different plant immigrants
which have come in, and have either died or
are now growing somewhere in this country,
represent a small beginning only, and have
merely helped to show the greatness of the
possibilities which progress in agricultural re-
search is creating.
'tYou will soon have all the crops In" Ia
the remark Of those who have given the mat
ter little thought. Our own lives change will
every moment Of time, and 80 do the lives Of
plants. The strains Of potato which oul
grandfathers grew are, with few exceptions
different from the strains in vogue today; and
fitting their lives into the various conditions
of soil and climate, the original wild Soutf
American species of potato, Solanum tube
rosum, assumes In the hands OF men a thou
sand different forms.
In whatever parts of the world new form
may spring into existence 1t matters not; ou
potatogrowers should be able to try ever!
sort Of Importance and every wild, hardy spe
cies, whether it comes from the manse of
Scottish parson, is discovered as a wild spe
cies along the Paraguay river by an American
railway bridge builder, is found among tn,
mountains Of Colombia by Jesuit priest, |
gathered by a forest ranger in the dry region
of an Indian reservation in New Mexico, o
is secured by a trained collector from tn
Chloe Islands Off the coast Of Chile, 1t make
little difference; they must all come In a
plant immigrants to show what they can d
in the gardens of American expeyts. Their
is always the chance that they may be throw
out as Improbable; but, If they have deslrabl
characters, they can be blended with other!
or exploited with others, if they are superio
for any Of the potato regions Of this country.
1t may be new to many that every day plar
immigrants from different parts Of the worl
arrive in washington, and every day, throug
the mails, hundreds of these disinfected a
r;ua1o o. ot,f "a find q now hOma In g0ma nal
of the country.
1t is a difficult matter to give an adequat
impression Of the magnitude and importanc
to the country Of this stream Of new plant in
migrants which for IA years has been pourin