CONTENTS CHAPTER FOREWORD I. HISTORY Anticipatory Period, Prior to 1839 II. ACTIVITIES Plant Nutrition Investigations New and rare seed distribution Foreign Plant Introduction Plant Breeding and Selection Promotion of Improved Cultural Methods Promotion of Improved Methods of Handling of Crops Promotion of Utilization of Plants and Plant Products Investigations in Systematic Botany General Physiological and Fermentation Investigations Biophysical Investigations Investigations in Plant Diseases III. ORGANIZATION General Administration Scientific Offices Pathological Laboratory 41 Nematology. Biophysical Laboratory The Bureau of Plant Industry, one of the scientific branches of the Department of Agriculture, was organized in 1901 (Act of March 2, 1901; 31 Stat. L., 922, 926) through the combination of six divisions concerned with the problems of plant life in its relations to agricultural production and utilization. The service thus established, therefore, was not a new undertaking, but the successor of a number of related services, some of them antedating the old Department of Agriculture itself. Historically its development may be traced through four distinct periods, which may be termed, anticipatory, preliminary, formative, and developmental. Anticipatory Period, Prior to 1839. During the colonial period there were repeated attempts by the various governments to encourage the introduction and cultivation of various kinds of plants. Usually these were tropical or semi-tropical plants like sugar cane, indigo, and mulberry trees, which could not be profitably grown in England and which England hoped to get from her colonies, thus ending her dependence on foreign nations. After the United States had been established, sporadic attempts were made by the new government to foster the production of certain plants. In time the emphasis shifted from the introduction of new plants to improvement in the varieties and the cultivation of those which experience had shown were best suited to agriculture in America. As early as 1802, in a private act,1 Congress authorized the sale of 2500 acres of public lands in Southern Ohio, with deferred 16 Stat. L., 47 and 126. See American State Papers, Public Lands, II, 744. payments and without interest.chatges, "to encourage the introduction and to promote the culture of the vine." This was the beginning of a movement that resulted in the development of viticulture on a substantial basis. In 1817 the allotment of certain public lands in Mississippi territory was authorized" "for the encouragement of the cultivation of the vine and the olive." In 1838 a grant of land in Florida was made" to encourage the introduction and promote the cultivation of tropical plants." In 1838, also, the House Committee on Agriculture submitted a report with a bill to authorize the President to lease gratuitously, for a term of ten years, any lot of land not included in the unlocated or public lands for the cultivation of the mulberry and the sugar-beet.* Following the example of Franklin, who served in England from 1764 to 1775 as agent of the colony of Pennsylvania, American naval and consular officers adopted the practice of sending home seeds and cuttings of foreign plants with the idea of introducing new varieties in this country. This was left to the initiative of individual officials until 1819, when William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury, addressed a circular letter to American consuls, requesting them to send to collectors of ports, useful plants and seeds for distribution." Foreign plants and trees were placed on the free-list in the tariff of 1816, and foreign garden seeds were exempted from duty in 1842.' In 1830 the House of Representatives requested the President "to cause to be procured such varieties of sugar cane and other cultivated agricultural products as may best be adapted to the 2 3 Stat. L., 374; 3 Stat. L., 667; 4 Stat. L., 444 and 611. See 15 Cong. I sess., S. doc. 29 (1817); 16 Cong. I sess., S. docs. 101 and 115 (1820); 17 Cong. I sess., S. doc. 70 (1822); 18 Cong. 2 sess., H. doc. 87 (1825); and 20 Cong. I sess., S. doc. 11 (1827). 5 Stat. L., 302. See 22 Cong. I sess., H. rep. 454 (1832); 25 Cong. I sess. S. doc. 26 (1837); 25 Cong. 2 sess., S. doc. 300 and H. doc. 375 (1838); also 17 Cong. I sess., H. rep. 47 (1822); and 29 Cong. I sess., S. docs. 94 and 217 (1846). *25 Cong. 2 sess., H. rep. 815. "This letter, dated March 26, 1819, is reprinted in full in Watson, History of ... Western canals . . . together with the rise, progress, and existing state of modern agricultural societies. . . . pp. 205-06 (1820). *3 Stat. L., 310, 313. See report of importations, 22 Cong. I sess., H. doc. 198 (1832). '5 Stat. L., 548, 561. climate and soil of the United States," and instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to have prepared, a manual of sugar-cane culture and sugar refining. The manual, a pamphlet of sixty-eight pages, was issued in 1831. 8 In 1836 the Commissioner of Patents, Henry L. Ellsworth, on his own initiative and independently of his office, undertook to distribute seeds and plants of foreign origin to farmers throughout the country, using for the purpose the franks of certain Congressmen ; and in his annual report for 1837 he urged the creation of an agency to receive and distribute such materials and the encouragement of agriculture in other ways," saying: Our citizens who are led by business or pleasure into foreign countries, and especially the officers of our Navy and others in public employment abroad, would feel a pride in making collections of valuable plants and seeds, if they could be sure of seeing the fruit of their labors accrue to the benefit of the nation at large. But, hitherto, they have had no means of distributing, to any extent, the valuable productions of other climates, which patriotism or curiosity has led them to introduce into our country. To a great extent they have perished on their hands, for want of some means of imparting to the public the benefit they had designed to confer. Preliminary Period, 1839 to 1862. The result of this suggestion was an act passed in 1839 (Act of March 3, 1839; 5 Stat. L., 353, 354) granting an appropriation of $1000 "out of the patent fund to be expended by the Commissioner of Patents in the collection of agricultural statistics and for other agricultural purposes." A part of this appropriation was expended in collecting and distributing seeds," a service for which Congress first made specific provision in 1852 (Act of August 3, 1852; 10 Stat. L., 76, 95)." In the meantime the Patent Office" had been transferred from the Depart 8 10 21 Cong. I sess., H. res. 3 in H. rep., vol. III. 21 Cong. 2 sess., H. doc. 62. o25 Cong. 2 sess. H. doc. 112. See also H. docs. 245 and 334 and H. rep. 655 (1838). In 1867 (12 Stat. L., 151, 169) seeds and cuttings were admitted to the regular mails, which had carried nothing but written and printed matter up to that time. This was five years before merchandise was made mailable. 12 See 34 Cong. I sess., S. rep. 236 (1856), advocating the importation and distribution of sugar-cane seed. 13 The Patent Office, about 1841, took over from the National Institution, a private scientific organization then in liquidation, the botanical collection brought home by the Wilkes Exploring Expedition of 1838. See civil appro |