(Witness: Galloway.)

gush rested with the Department. They have made claims for it that we have never made or printed in our publications, and the fact that oftentimes failure may come from lack of knowledge in respect to soil conditions and lack of knowledge in other connections is entirely overlooked by such writers.

The CHAIRMAN. I would like to inquire of you whether or not your bureau has any knowledge as to the loss of productive power on the vast prairie lands of the West, where we have that rich virgin soil, which has been cultivated for quite a series of years without the application of any artificial fertilizer?

Doctor GALLOWAY. We have considerable data on that subject, Mr. Chairman, gathered by the experiment stations of the different States where the stations are located. A number of the experiment stations are engaged directly on the question of maintaining soil fertility. The Ohio experiment station, for example, has been for twelve or fifteen years making elaborate plot tests of different crops on different soil types, with a view to securing evidence which would put them in a position to instruct the farmers to bring back the soils of the State to their original fertile condition.

The CHAIRMAN. Then it is your experience that those soils will lose their fertility unless it is preserved by the rotation of crops and proper cultivation or the application of fertilizer?

Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes. These things are being carefully studied, and all the statistics of production for a number of years, taking certain districts, are carefully compared.

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Doctor GALLOWAY. Productiveness, so far as the yield of corn per acre is concerned, has increased in New England, while it is decreasing in the lands of the West. But that is explained by the fact that the New England corn grower has learned how to bring back the fertility of the soil by the rotation of crops and the utilization of

manures.

The CHAIRMAN. Can you produce a lawn without weeds, and if so, how?

Doctor GALLOWAY. In answer to that question I would say that it would depend somewhat on where the lawn was to be produced. If you should say in Washington, I would say no. If you should say somewhere in the vicinity of Buffalo, New York, or more northern sections, I would say that it was possible to produce à lawn without weeds.

The CHAIRMAN. How?

Doctor GALLOWAY. In the first place, the proper preparation of the soil is important. The soil should be thoroughly fined and prepared, and then there should be applied sufficient organic manure to make that soil rich enough to grow grass for twenty years, as they do in England.

The CHAIRMAN. What do you mean by organic manure? Doctor GALLOWAY. Stable manure which has been so thoroughly handled and heated that the weed seeds in it have been killed.

Mr. FLOOD. What is the objection to using stable manure? Doctor GALLOWAY. There is none, if you prepare it properly and have it heated. There is nothing that you can put on soil that will bring grass better than stable manure.

(Witness: Galloway.)

The CHAIRMAN. What do you mean by heating it; piling it up in piles?

Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes; simply letting it ferment and handling it properly.

Mr. SAMUEL. What do you mean by handling it properly?

Doctor GALLOWAY. Taking care not to let it burn; not to let it fang in heating. Turning it so that you will get the heat that you want, and at the same time destroy the weed seed.

A dressing of that kind, 2 or 3 inches thick, spaded in well, will give the foundation. Sow your grass, say, a mixture of bluegrass, redtop, and white clover-that is the mixture that I would recommend in almost all sections of this country-two parts bluegrass, one part of redtop, and a quart of white clover to the bushel. Sow the seed at the rate of five or six bushels to the acre, September being the best month. The grass gets a good start in the fall, and early in spring you can put the lawn mower on and keep the grass down to about 2 inches in height. Now, you can not do that here, for the reason that our summer suns are too hot, and the minute we begin to cut close summer grasses come in, and then we have trouble. We have been able to maintain a good lawn on the Department grounds by keeping a man constantly picking out the first plants of the summer grasses when they are seen. We put a man out on the big lawn in front of the Agricultural Department building in the spring with a lawn mower, and he cuts the grass and looks out for weeds at the same time, lifting weeds out with a special knife as he goes along.

Mr. FLOOD. Do you sow in the spring?

Doctor GALLOWAY. We prefer to sow in the fall, because you can get a better start in the fall.

The question of watering has a great deal to do with weeds in the grass. One can go out on a lawn and write his name with summer grass using water out of the end of the hose. The bluegrass is killed by too much water. It is a question of applying water in hot sunshine and drowning out your grass.

Mr. FLOOD. It does not need to be applied in hot sunshine to do

that.

Doctor GALLOWAY. So that now we put on a man at night, and let him water the grass then.

The CHAIRMAN. What is this summer grass that you speak of? Doctor GALLOWAY. Summer grass is a crab grass, a Panicum. It sends out a lot of fingers in different directions, like Bermuda grass. The minute there is frost it turns brown, and you have a brown spot instead of green in your lawn. Then you can see in the fall just where the men have overwatered: and where a man has thrown down the hose and gone off and left it lying there and the water has gone out in a fan shape, you will find a fan-shaped brown spot. That has occasioned belief among gardeners in Washington that the ground is filled with all kinds of seed which are in the Potomac water.

The CHAIRMAN. That is rather an illusory reasoning from cause to effect.

Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes.

(Witness: Galloway.)

The CHAIRMAN. Will you state in a general way the utility of your. Bureau and the work that you do there to the country, as a commercial and material proposition, continuing your statement which you were making the other day?

Doctor GALLOWAY. When I was before you a few days ago I ran over some of the utilitarian projects of the Bureau. I pointed out the work that we accomplished in the matter of treating plant diseases, how we studied these diseases in the laboratory, and how we applied the knowledge in the field, with the result of saving many thousands of dollars. I want now to briefly review some of the work or practical results from agricultural exploration. I might mention first the fact that for a number of years we were interested in the matter of securing wheats for the semiarid regions.

There is a whole section of country west of the one hundredth meridian where very few crops will grow, the rainfall being deficient. We sent an agricultural explorer to Russia for the purpose of securing wheats from the dry regions of Russia with the intention of introducing those wheats into this country. We secured those wheats first about six or seven years ago, and we put them first in the Dakotas and have since extended them across the country down into the panhandle of Texas. As the result of that introduction of the hard durum wheats, costing probably about $10,000 altogether, there was produced this past year 50,000,000 bushels of that kind of wheat, all entirely from the original introduction of six or seven years ago. That wheat is probably worth 75 or 80 cents per bushel. The estimated value of last year's durum wheat crop was at least $25,000,000. That is a concrete case of the introduction of a crop from a foreign country resulting in the building up of an industry in this country in a section where nothing had been grown before.

Mr. FLOOD. How much do you grow to the acre?

Doctor GALLOWAY. About 20 bushels to the acre. But you understand that it grows in a region where no other crops will grow, and if we attempt to move that wheat into a humid region it is not successful. It is primarily and preeminently a dry crop. We have been at work for some little time upon the problem of growing our own. plants for the manufacture of matting-floor matting. We import every year about $5,000,000 worth of matting, mostly from Japan, and that matting is all made from a plant, a rush, which grows in low land or swamps. We have the plant in this country, but we do not have the highest developed type that the Japanese have. We tried to secure the type that they have there by importing seeds, but we found that they did not grow true to seed; just as with other plants that have been highly developed and selected, we would have all sorts and all forms.

So that the problem was to secure a sufficient quantity of the roots of the desirable types from Japan to enable us to establish the industry here. We have had an explorer this past year in Japan, and he has succeeded in bringing over some of the roots. We have gotten them over, and they are being further increased in California at one of our gardens. The introduction of the roots does not round out the problem, because if we had to depend on hand machines and looms. to weave this matting the cost would be prohibitive. Manufacturers here became interested, and have developed machines which

(Witness: Galloway.)

are highly effective in weaving this rush. One of these American machines can do as much work in a day as an oriental machine will do in thirty days. We have sent the manufacturers samples that we have grown, and they have used them successfully. So that we want, if possible, to establish our own matting industry in this country, and to keep here as much of that $5,000,000 as we can.

The CHAIRMAN. Will that plant, if you get it developed and acclimated so that it will be an agricultural proposition, utilize a lot of hitherto waste country..

Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes; that is one of the important points connected with it. The crop is adapted to lands in the South. The rice lands of South Carolina will have to be largely abandoned, because the planters can not compete with those in Texas and Louisiana in growing rice. The abandoned rice lands are well adapted to rush, and it is there we are making our experiments. We wish to put out some demonstration plats in Louisiana. When I say plats" I mean four, five, six, or seven acres, so as to have a commercial quantity produced.

66

The CHAIRMAN. How long has your Department been engaged in experiments in connection with this rush?

Doctor GALLOWAY. Two years, now. We are going on with the third year.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the expense that has been involved in that? Doctor GALLOWAY. It has cost us about $5,000 a year. It has cost us the labor of one or two assistants, and their traveling expenses. The CHAIRMAN. Have you reached a commercial result?

Doctor GALLOWAY. Not yet.

The CHAIRMAN. Not yet?

Doctor GALLOWAY. That, is we have not reached the point where farmers themselves are in position to secure the raw material in sufficient quantity to plant it, but this importation we hope will accomplish this, and if we can get started here there will be enough every year. If the crop is grown, there will be just that many more plants for division, because we can split the roots apart.

The CHAIRMAN. You have demonstrated that it can be used? Doctor GALLOWAY. That it can be used, and we have the machinery to make the matting.

The CHAIRMAN. You have demonstrated as a fact that it can be grown in commercial quantities?

Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. And that it can be used?

Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes; and now we want to secure a sufficient number of people who are interested in the work to produce the raw material for supplying the machines that have been devised or invented.

I might also mention the date industry as one of interest and value. We import from $200,000 to $300,000 worth of dates every year, and we have expended $15,000 or $20,000 with the object of determining where we can grow dates. That problem has been pretty well worked out, and we have sent our explorers into the date countries for the plants.

The date is grown from suckers. It can not be grown from the seed. The finest varieties are produced from the suckers only. Our

(Witness: Galloway.)

first efforts were made through agents abroad upon whom we thought we could depend; but we found that after we had grown the dates we did not have anything but seedlings. So we sent our own men to the Sahara and other date regions, and brought the types wanted. They were shipped over here, and we have planted them in a number of places. This year the garden at Tempe, Ariz., produced nearly a thousand pounds of very choice dates, and we are gratified to discover that the very best kinds, like the Deglet Noor, that comes as bright and clear as honey, can be grown there. One of the interesting points is that we can grow the date in a region where it is too hot and dry to grow almost anything else. The date will also grow in a soil strong with alkali.

The CHAIRMAN. That also utilizes hitherto waste land?

Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes; that utilizes hitherto waste land. In this connection I might say that we have, in cooperation with other branches of the Department, studied these alkali soils throughout the western part of the United States, and have been securing crops for such soils. There are alfalfas and certain grasses that are alkali resistant-resistant from the fact of natural selection in their original homes. One of the most interesting and striking examples of our practical work is the success secured in camphor growing. Our camphor is nearly all from the island of Formosa. It is a Japanese monopoly, the camphor being secured by the destruction of the trees, which are cut down, the camphor being distilled from the wood. Thirty years ago the Department began sending out camphor-tree seeds, and they were planted through the West and South wherever the climate was not too severe. Camphor will stand 10° or 15° of frost. We put out numbers of the trees in Florida, and a few years ago we began to study the question of extracting camphor from them. We put a pharmacologist, one of our best men, on the problem and he has demonstrated the possibility of extracting the gum from the trimmings of the trees alone. The work has been so successful that a large manufacturing concern in this country which uses in the neighborhood of half a million dollars' worth of camphor every year has taken our expert at a good salary and put him in charge of the work in Florida.

The CHAIRMAN. The trees reproduce these trimmings from year to year?

Doctor GALLOWAY. Yes; that is one point different from the oriental plan. We are further arranging to put out camphor hedges in regions of the South. Camphor makes a very beautiful hedge, and it can be trimmed just like a privet hedge. The trimmings can be used at once for the extraction of camphor, or they can be dried and shipped a considerable distance to a central factory.

A very different line of work which we have been engaged upon, and which has had very striking practical results, is in connection with the handling and transportation of fruit.

The CHAIRMAN. While I think of it, does your Bureau do anything in the line of analyzing soils and producing fertilizers?

Doctor GALLOWAY. No; the Government does nothing of that kind now. The fruit industry in this country has developed so rapidly that it has become necessary to consider the question of opening up foreign markets to our fruit growers. One phase of our work has