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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 27, 1911)
THE CftCAIIA SUNDAY BEEi 'AUGUST 27, 1911 Wedding of the Plants Produces Very Valuable Children V mi, a a. . h iu Jii ilk mi a n i B ...Til r-t '- -- Aj.l.'ll 111 till. K AJ Iff ill 1 2iZXr BKEEIte OF "WHEAT JWD QAZS. GffCZESAZT W ASHINGTON. D. C, (Special Correspond ence of The Twentieth Century Far mer.) Uncle Same la running a great matrimonial bureau. He makes mar riages by the hundreds a month, and adds to his children by the tens of thou sands a year. He not only marries those within his own boundaries, but he has his agents traveling at government expense far and wide over the world searching out new brides and groo:.' to mate with thm. These marriages, however, are not of men and women, but of plants. It is strange to think of plants marrying, but the vegetable world is male and female. It la made up of such matches, and from them are coming forth new and valuable plant children each day. Evryone has heard of Luther Burbank, who married the plum to the apricot and made the plum cot, who made the white blackberry out of the bru nette and a cross, and who took the ox-eyed daisy and bj uniting It with other varieties created the great Shasta flower, which is many times larger. The Agri cultural department has a half dozen men who have done as much original work as Luther Burbank, and there are scores of others scattered over the country, at our state and national experiment stations,' who are yearly producing grains and fruits which will add enormously to our national wealth. Our New Baby Wheats. Take the matter of wheat. The agricultural matchmakers ' of Minnesota , have done wonders in their marriages of those servants of man. They have crossed the various wheats, and they have now 2,000 hybrid babies which they are testing. They have produced one offspring which has been already scat tered over 1,000,000 acres, and another which Is be ing planted upon' 600,000. Some of the new wheats are showing gains of from two to five bushels per acre, and some have averaged as high as forty-seven bushels. The old wheats beside them have been giv ing only fifteen or twenty. If the wheat crop of the United States could be Increased only three bushels per acre It would add at least $100,000,000 per year to our receipts from that source. ' The grains used In producing these hybrids have pedigrees dating far back Into history. They have been collected from all parts of the world. Among the wheats now used are some sent by Mr. Aronson from Palestine. He has discovered there a wild wheat whose ancestors are supposed to have grown la the Garden of Eden, and there Is another wheat which has been found In the tomb of an Egyptian mummy more than 3,000 years old. Among the new varieties which we are now plant In Is that brought In from the dry lands bordering the Sahara In southern Algeria. This is the durum or macaroni wheat which M. A. Carleton, one of our agricultural explorers, sent to be tested upon the emf-artd lands of our middle west It was tried in Kansaa, Nebraska and Texas, and the first crop was ff5.(M0 bushels. That was eight or nine years ago. The second crop was over a million, and we are now raising 60.000,000 bushels, about one-half of which is exported to Europe and some to the very country whence the wheat came. That wheat ill comes from " giuw wueBi Derore. New Grains for the Farmer. Similar experiments are being made by our experts of the Agricultural department in almost every grain known to man. New grains and new varieties of the old grains are being gathered from all ver the world and brought here for testing and uniting with other varieties. This Is especially so of corn, oats, barley and rice. Our corn crop last year was worth over $1,500,000 000. Its value was more than a dosen times that of our gold and silver output, and the amount raised was so great that it would haVe filled a solid four-horse wagon train reaching from here to the moon If the skies could be bridged and the corn taken thither. Nevertheless, the corn breeders tell me that by marry ing the different varieties and planting good seed this crop could be doubled without the addition of one acre to me area or adding more fertilizer. All V ! Ill v' 'l; U( ' y, rf : L r.. Ill f . ;.i : -f J'vi.-v..-. t li f t. ,'J. f c. - w .- "! ' r for the dry farms of the west. Many choice varieties have been introduced, and some of these are yielding from 20 to 50 per cent more than those of the past. A great deal of work is being done In millets and Borghums. and Uncle Sam's agents In Manchuria have sent several of these from that country. They are also using the Siberian sorghums and kowliangs from China. These millets have been married to others, and their children may be better adapted to our soil and climate than the parents from far-away Asia. We are introducing alfalfas from Siberia which withstand the cold and drouth and also drouth-resisting trees which will produce stock food and fruit. Among the fruit trees is an olive which growB in the half desert parts of North Africa, where the rainfall for years at a stretch 1b often less than ten inches. In the same connection is the date which is being grown in the Irrigated hot regions of southern Cali fornia and Arizona. There is also a large-fruited, dry-land Chinese date, which we are' grafting and which seems to promise a new dried fruit Industry. The' Marriage of the Rice. Uncle Sam is giving hew crops to the wet lands as well as to the dry. He is bringing rice from all parts of the world and marrying the different varieties. This is a Job. There are no less than 1,400 different kinds of that grain in Japan, India and China, and some of these are found to grow better than our fa mous South Carolina rice, which was long considered the best of the world. Not long ago we sent the late Dr. M. 8. A. Knapp to Japan and he brought back rice from the island of Kiushu which has revolution- fruit from Tahiti, in the Society islands of the South ern Pacific ocean. v This passion fruit Is as large as a peach and it is thought that it may be crossed with the may-pop of South Carolina. It makes delicious ices and the profit3 ized this industry and added millions of dollars to the' ' ral8lnK 't niay reach as high as $300 per acre. The value of our crop. We have now rice for the' uplands as well as for the swamps, and, on the prairies of Ar kansas, we are raising twice as much to the acre as they are getting In South Carolina and Georgia. We now produce hundreds of millions of pounds of rice every year, and that at less cost than Asia can raise It with cheap coolie labor. The secret is In the use fruit Is now grown in the greenhouses of England and it commands a good price in the markets. In addition to these the bureau received yesterday a hardy white ginger from the province of Shantuns in China, which will be planted in Texas, four species of persimmons from Java and seme plants related to the papaya from the Royal Botanical Gardens at Rome. of machinery and .the profits are large, averaging $50 Explorer Parker of Mukden baa just sent in eight and upward per acre. Since these Introductions the rice, lands of the United States have been greatly extended. The crop is now very large in Ixmisiana, Arkansas and Texas, and It Is said that it can be grown on any soil adapted to wheat or cotton, provided the climate conditions are right. Some Other New Crops. We are also breeding new cottons, ruarrylng the best of India and Egypt to our favorite daughters of the uplands and sea islands. We are breeding for seed as well as for lint. We are breeding corn for the oil contained in the grain and also to increase the size of the crop and cut down the size of the cob. We are making oranges which will withstand the frost; extending' the orange belf 400 miles farther north. We are marrying the lettuces and joining the varieties of flax so that the plants are taller and the fibers are better. We are marrying the tobaccos from all parts of the world and growing certain kinds of wrap-' pers and others for fillers and binders. In this work we are aided by agricultural explorers who have been sent all over the world and who are now scratching, the skin of old Mother Earth for new plants and seeds. There Is a bureau devoted to this introduction in the west wing of the Agricultural department, and it Is one of the busiest places in jUncle Sam's factory. It has already introduced some thing like 30,000 new vegetable creations and more are arriving each day. The moment one comes In it Is sent to the special station or plant breeder best fitted to test and develop It, and within a few days It Is under the earth and in just the conditions fitted to give good results. Records are kept of every re ceipt and there are now several hundred thousand cards which tell the story of each distribution. The Seeds and Plants of One Week. . During my stay Jn the department Prof. David Fair child, who Is at the head of the bureau, showed me something of the work as it Is now going on. With him I went over the "cards that have been received ine last wee. Here are the items. The first 1 new kinds of soy beans from Manchuria, and some of these, it Is thought, may produce an oil which can ba mixed with linseed cil to be used cs a paint dryer. There are aleo several new wheats from the highlands of Mexico, and a number of mangoes to be added to the several hundred varieties which have already been tested. New Crops for Uncle Sam. . , This work of one week gives you some idea of what Uncle Sam in doing to find food for hl3 American children. New seeds and plants are coming in daily by express, freight and mail, and In some cases the importations weigh tons. Among the results already accomplished we have now the largest collection of date varieties known. They are growing In the gar dens of Arizona and California. We have also the greatest variety of mangoes extant and we are testing that fruit with a view to Its introduction into Florida. Porto Rico and Hawaii. We have French artichokes now growing in the truck gardens of the south, Kaffir com from Abyssinia, which Is being tested in Kansas, and a rev kind of oats from northern Finland, which is bsiDg Erown in Alaska. We have new alfalfas from Arabia and Chinese Turkestan. We are starting a sisal her-.p industry in Porto Rico and we are growing Jap anese bamboos, which, it is thought, take the place of the old cane brakes of the south. We have also a valuable raper plant from Japan, v.ood oil trees from China and are setting out In California hundreds of Plants v hich it is thought will make varnish. We have bIeo a pedigreed barley which is especially desire-.! by the brewers, and altogether so many other fnii's, grains'" and trees that to mention them would be like quoting a botany. Persimmons as Bis as Base Balls. Among the fruits in which the department Is espe cially Interested Just now is the persimmon. Not the little persimmon as big as a walnut which grows in our south, but the Japanese. Chinese and Korean per simmons which are as big as base balls, or larger. I have eaten them in all of these countries and I verily believe they are the most delicious fruit upon the earth. Some kinds look like mammoth tomatoes, and when ripe are so soft they can be scooped up with a spoon. Others are eaten while still hard like apples, and others are frozen and served like a sherbet or Roman punch. These Asiatic persimmons are beautiful. They are sometimes of an orange red color, measuring from three to rive Inches In diameter, and often weighing more than a pound. Mr. Frank N. Meyer, one of the most expert of our agricultural explorers, naa discov ered one which Is as seedless as a navel orange, which has no pucker, and can be eaten when green and hard. It is known as the Tamopan persimmon and was found, I believe, somewhere near the Ming Tombs, north of Peking, in a climate colder than any of our states of the south. He has sent cuttings which will be grafted on our persimmon trees and It may be that this fruit will some day be almost as common as ap ples. The trees are said to be hardy. They bear so heavily that the limbs break, and they last for forty or fifty years before the fruit falls. There are many other persimmons In Asia which have seeds, but they all grow large and they are one of the most common fruits In the markets. The na tives have a method of taking out the astringency or pucker by leaving the fruit several days la a cask, or tub which has once contained a spirituous liquor. The effect of the liquor which Is soaked Into the wool seems to take out the pucker. We are now raising some Japanese persimmons in Florida, where the crop is said to be commercially profitable. There Is no doubt that the fruit can be grown wherever our native persimmon now thrives, and It Is probable la many, places piuch farther north. Frank Meyer's Work. -vrV.VM Big Missouri Town Without Government T ... . , , . , , - mo ik wee., nero are me items. Tue llrst is a that Is needed la good seed and cultivation and the . .if.if. fm ""I.1! land will produce from two to four times what it does v 7 . J . . . T ' vj wcii luiuruieq farmers, who belong to the many corn-breeding asso ciations scattered over the uaion. The varieties of corn are now as wMl known as those of cattle and horses. The best are beiuj crossed and recrossed and a variety may be discovered which will be worth a great deal of money. Aa It Is, the best seed brings a high price in the market. Plants for Our Dry Land. I am told at the Agricultural department that they are making a special effort to discover new cereals anese larca sent irom Copenhagen In Denmark. And then we have" a new magnolia from Calcutta, which will be married to a yellow magnolia Just received from Buitenzorg. Java, a new kind of banana which comes here through the Kew Gardens of England, and twenty-one bulbs of the yellow illy, which are sent from Ya Chow-fu In China, on the borders of Tibet, Other Importations of this week are a white rubber from near Buena Ventura, Colombia, which It Is thought may be grown on the Everglades of Florida, a new tobacco from Santa Clara, Cuba, which may withstand the Granville tobacco Insect, and a passion HE door of the city calaboose is wide open and silent. Like a faithful sentinel It Btands, keeping guard when all things else have fled. Its hinges are rusting in idleness because no criminal has Deen detained there for many moons. The city hall has long since been vacated and locked up. The mayor and other municipal officials have retired to business and private life and the for mer chief of police has become a deputy sheriff. Every vestige of the once -strong and assertive city govern ment is now only a pleasant memory of bygone days. The preceding paragraph, taken from the St. Louis Republic, might well be an epitaph for Juarei or some ill-fated city that had been wiped from the map by fire, flood or pestilence, but such is not the case. Those conditions are true, it is asserted, in every detail of a growing, thriving Missouri town, and It is one of the wealthiest, busiest places in the state. Flat River, Mo., with a population of from 8,000 to 10,000 people, representing almost every nation ality, political conviction and religious belter; yet without the slightest pretense of municipal govern ment, Is the center of the most unique economic situa tion of the present decroie. It Is another link In the chain of evidence proving that truth is stranger than fiction. Flat River Is a typical mining town; and, so far as being selected because of the conspicuous congeni ality of disposition. Its population is more cosmopoli tan than perhaps any city of Its size in America. Another remarkable feature, says the St. Louis paper, Is that though a mining camp Is usually looked upon as the embodiment In a pro-eminent degree of lawlessness and a low order of citizenship, Flat River is the very heart of the greatest lead mining district in the world and 60 per cent of its male population makes Its living underground. Twenty years ago the town was not even on the map of St. Francois county. As recently as ten years ago it was practically unknown except to those living In that Immediate vicinity, and a few Wall street operators, who were interested in the lead market and hence familiar with the centers were the metal was mined. Though there are no saloons in Flat River, which ract In itself is remarkable considering the number of foreigners, men occasionally tana up in neighboring towns and stray Into Flat River, where they are ar raigned cn various charges before the justice court, and petty crimes and family disputes are not less frequent there than In many other towns. The thing that has made possible the development and crystallization of such a powerful moral senti ment in this mining community is the fact that from its very beginning the most prominent men of the neighborhood were stalwart church members and rep resentative citizens, who used every means in their power to build up such a sentiment and even under went personal sacrifice to discourage and prevent any conduct or Institutions which tended to Impair It. In speaking of this large mining community as Flat River, it Is well to explain that Flat River Is only the largest of a group, and though St. Francois, River Mines, Desloge and Esther are geographically a con tinuation of the city of Flat River, they have separate postofflces and are generally spovia of as distinct towns. Indeed, it is Impossible to estimate the value o our agricultural explorations. They cost us compara tively little, but they yield bigger dividends than an other money appropriated by congress. Take, for Instance, the work of Frank N. Meyer, the man who has sent us the persimmons I have Just mentioned. He is how in Chinese Turkestan, west of Tibet, traveling on foot and on camels, looking up new plants ad seeds for arid lands. He receives, all told, something like $5,000 a year, and out of this pays hla traveling expenses, doing the work more as an enthusiast and for the good of the country than as a means of makings living. He Is one of the most famous of our botanists and plant experts and, like Powell, who recently belonged to the same bureau, he could easily command a salary of $10,000 a yeav if be chose to leave the department. Mr. Meyer has traveled all over China, Manchuria and Siberia, sending us new fruits, nuts and grains. In addition to the persimmon he has gives us a si-ore or more new eeaches, which are now being tebfed. Some of these are as large as navel oranges; ottuTS have a flesh which is blood red, looking more like that of a beet root than anything else. He has sent lu the so-called honey peach, which grows in Shantung, aud the beef peach of Sbansl, which looks like raw iuot. Some of the peaches now being tented are flat, and they are or all shades, from green and yellow to a rich, rosy red. Mr. Meyer has sent In many apricots from China, and wild apricots from Manchuria and northern Korea, which will stand more cold and drouth than anything we now have. Some of these apricots have been suc cessfully tested at Boston, and some even as far north as Wisconsin. We are indebted to Mr. Meyer, also, for new Chinese varieties of plums, cherries, quinces and apples, as well as for other fruits which the department expects will be grown in different parts of the country. One of the moBt Important of the latter Is the Jujube, the fruit of which Is not unlike dates and ran be eaten fresh, dried and preserved, and also stewed or smoked. The jujube will grow In sn alkali soil, and It is well adapted to some of the dry lands of the west FRANK a CAJRPENTEB,, j