The Government, through the Department of Agriculture, has given a great impetus to plant introduction, and you cannot of course expect to rival or approach it, with its enormous funds and staff of experts, but you can experiment with the new crops it introduces. Hitherto, in this country, where the soil was too dry for corn or wheat, or too moist for potatoes, it has been neglected altogether; but the present movement includes finding crops suitable for these lands. The Government has introduced the durum wheat which yields crops in regions suffering from drought, and in 1905 the United States exported 6,000,000 bushels of it; Japanese Kiushu rice is doing well in Louisiana and Texas rice fields; the Japanese salad plant, the udo, is being tested from Maine to California and giving good results; Kafir corns from Abyssinia, India and East Africa are being grown in Kansas and other western sections; while the English broad bean, Hungarian paprika, and fruits from all parts of the world, are being tested in all sections of this country. Those 400 different types of soil should mean limitless diversifications of crops, and it is fair to assume that the real day of agriculture, in this country at least, is only just dawning. The Government is now testing profitable crops for the farms of New England which have been abandoned to the mortgagees. Areas there are too small to grow corn[2] and wheat in successful competition with the great farms of the west, but there are other crops which will yield even better results and command the market. You, who are now coming into the great calling of earning your living from the soil, could not have chosen a better moment for entrance. Keep in touch with the Department of Agriculture. It is your department, a sort of college or training school which you maintain, and anything you want to know the Department will gladly try to tell you. If you want to know what is best for you to plant on your patch, send a sample of your soil, tell where your farm is located, what are your means and experience, and the suggestions made will fit your particular case. If you send any of your requests, whether for advice or for bulletins, addressed simply to the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., you will get a reply, and will find out who is the head of the special department your request was referred to. The Department is doing needed work, and by corresponding with them and getting advice, you can give proof of your interest. FOOTNOTES: [2] NOTE.—But corn growing is on the increase in New England and at the great Omaha Corn Show a Connecticut farmer won three first prizes. The Flint varieties are especially adapted for the New England climate and soil and open up new possibilities for the New England farmer. CHAPTER IV. LOCATION.