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Show Utah to be Enriched By Strange Fruits Coming From Africa Utah Is to be enriched bj strange fruits and vegetables from Africa, nc-lording nc-lording to a late bulletin of the department de-partment of agriculture. They are the result of a nooo-mlle trip b Dr. H. I. Bhantic, agricultural explorer, botanist of the office or foreign seed and plant I Introduction, with the Smithsonian Ati lean exploration parly. Dr Shuntz i found man) new varieties f units. ?r.ilns :mil grasses, including soi'K-Ihums, soi'K-Ihums, x tuch max be Introduced Rn this si.it-- very shortlx Since I'tah barf a climate varying through nil the degrees de-grees Of growing temperature, therr Is strong possibility that the journey of 'exploration of Dr. Shantz will ex. ntu-ally ntu-ally benefit this slat, eqoallj if not Imoro than any other state in the west. I The principal purpose of Dr. Shantx' Itrlp was to study the native agrlcul-On agrlcul-On xxith an ,ye for new fruits, nut plants, forage crops (especially those adapted to our south und West), new. lorghum. and especially wild sorg-J hum riasses of types similar i Sudan grass, Which has proved such an lin-porta lin-porta nt forage crop in the semiarldJ districts of the western part of the I nlled States that 10.ooo,ono worth1 of it was grown last year. The party, which left New York July li'ly. billed dlreetl) to the iCape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa, and from there to Cape Town, where the) arrived August IS. From there the joilinex o( n ui; BOOf) lulles x:,s made almosi i-nt ii. l through th ! heart of Africa, sometimes 100n miles Inland, xxith occnslohal expeditious to the coast for observations of z.-tnzlbnr 'tmi oth r islands, and I Lourenzo Uarquea and Bi Ira Much of th' countp which Uvlng-stone Uvlng-stone painfnlly traveled something more than half n century ago ta now jopen to the traveler with comparative comfort on the South African railway.) jThere are still fastness s however. Where the party was coihpelled to go ,700 or R00 miles away from any rall-'xvays rall-'xvays and often through Hi,- jungle. ' where Improved roads were unknown.! The Caps to Cairo mad Is still to u, large extent a.s much B creature of the imagination as when first cdhceiVed In the mind m the South African de-i veloper. Cecil Ithodes. Ixing stretchesj wore covered by steamer.man) of them1 primitive transportation svstems, I where the tsaveler merely bought j..is-soge, j..is-soge, providing himself with bed, Shelter, Shel-ter, food and even the wood with which to cook It. PROVE lll l.l'i i i The expedition has given to th. department de-partment of agriculture a rather Intl-mate Intl-mate knowledge of the agriculture, not' unlx ..f the white, but of the native : tribes, of the regions' visited. Manv "f the practices theer observed will doubtless prove helpful In connection I xyiih practice in this country. Dr. i Shantz also formed the acquaintance 'i nf manysagrlculturlsti and men in va Irloua sections of the dnrfc continen iwho can in t ho future be useful to th dejpsrtmenl by eending in plants whicl are desirable and which could not oth lerwtse be secured. Th. direct tanglbli 'results conNi ,-- , ,., or nvng ma t ir Is ' of more tlian moo dlfferen' 'speclen or varieties of plants, many oi which had not previously been Imported Im-ported into the rjnlted state.v. and from which it lx only reasonable U suppose some important grain. forag or fruit crops mav be developed. IMVOR1 riONS M mm i.iion Ground for such belief Is furnished bj pnsl 1 1 cords, notably I he work ol the late Frank N. Meyer, who sent thousands of plants from China, many cr which even now rank among our most desirabU products, ihe large i.imup n persimmon from China, now ommonlv met on the market, and ih. Chinese Jujube arc among bis trophies, While from Africa we have secured the long ztaplf Egyptian cotton and Sudau ,grass. Rhodes grass and many of the 'more important Kafir corns and sorghums, sor-ghums, crops which mean approximately approxi-mately $50,000,000 in crop values to the United States each year and the development of semiarld lands not adapted to previously grown agricultural agricul-tural crops. In e'apo Colony Dr. Shantx wont eOSl to Port Blliebeth, where the famous fam-ous Add., bush occurs. .Many plants r,. secured, one of the most interesting inter-esting being th0 Speckboom, which is "' 1 !' "Vet ,n-i..,r t.int i ..,.) v ,,i i , . - elephant. It covers whole hillsides with Its succulent growth. Cattle and sjiecp are fond of it. and tin re is u chance of Its becoming of value In southern California. Spcckboom will grow under un-der practically the same conditions as the utterly worthless chaparral of southwestern California j .! S mil: DES1 Kl M.- then passed northwest ovr the' Karroo desert, similar to ours in th.-great th.-great basin, but differing in the re-l spect that most of the plants foi m excellent ex-cellent forage for cheep, cattle and ostriches, and It seems probable that oine of the more desirable of these! lescrt plants may be utilized in our1 -jdeseri country to improve the range. t The route lay east and north through the Kimberley diamond rc- gion and the goij mining country of 'Johannesburg and Pretoria, the gov-ernmenl gov-ernmenl headquartere of Union South 'Africa There he visited the agrlcul-Ulural agrlcul-Ulural departments for a comparison of I notes on the agriculture of the two coutitrie and to arrange r, mutual ex-II ex-II change of planta. This section Is the center of the great Tranavaal agricultural area, and here corn, known as mealies, is the ilef crop. Or.e of the most important letlea la our own Boone County White, a gift from America of considerable consid-erable value to the farmers oT the Tratrsxaal. In the low veldt at Nclsprult are large orchards of subtropical trees and fruits, manv vari. M, . bave not been grown In the l ulled States i)0v ro kin :i The txvo men proceeded down as far is KiihHi. which is sltu.,tr. about mid way between the Atlantic and Indian 01 cans, and about three degrees south of the equator. rrom here they proceeded to lake Tanganyika by way. of Albertsvtlle. This was int. resting country because j here was located ujiji, where Stanley Found I ..Kingston, and a few mil. north. Kigonia. the terminus of the! railway hue leading from the Indian' icccun at Dar-es-Salam, Here werei 'found the finest mangoes yet encountered, encoun-tered, fruits of unusual size and ria-' vor, as well as many interesting types of beans castor-beans, cassava ftapio-' ,ca. and many wild grasses which ma I I prove to be of forage value in thcl Southern puts of the United States. CISIT TO IRIMH. A xiit to the new Belgian territory Of Irundl offered opportunity to study (probably the finest grazing land in all Africa, a region which supports millions mil-lions of natives, who rely almost en-tirely en-tirely upon cattle which graze upon the natural grasses of this great up-lund up-lund country. At Tabora, farther east, known as the horn, of tho mango, wonderful trees and fruits were found. At Dar-es-Solam tho cocoanut palm is one of the most Important crops and has beenli planted on tiie sandy lands which ex-tend ex-tend for many miles back from the coaat. In Zanzibar, principally noted for the production of cloves and for th 'extensive groves of cocoanut palm and manv tropical and subtropical plants Di Shants obtained and sent home seeds arid plants of a number of important im-portant fruits; and also many of the rtapli grains and legumes grown In various parts of the east coast of Af-rli Af-rli i .nd sold on the Zanzibar market Returning to the mainland at Tan-'ga. Tan-'ga. Dr. Shantz proceeded across Oer-man Oer-man Baat Africa to near Kilimanjaro. oile of tho most wonderful mountains in tho world, at the base of w hich Is la very rich agricultural country. Here are great plantations of sisal, rubber land coffee, and many Important forage grasses. vi i s n riD herds. , Jr'rom her. tho party passed through , Voy and from Voy to Nairobi, the scat of the agricultural department for East Africa, and here much help was Set urcd from the local authorities. An extensive trip was also made into the desert country north and east of Mount ICenia, and the principal varieties of tropical crops grown bv the nativei In this section were secured. Dr. Shantz also secured here a notable nut plant called telf'.'ria, which forms a large gourd two or three feet long containing contain-ing a large number of seeds of a delicious de-licious nutty flavor, about an Inch In diameter and one-quarter of an Inch through, which taste something Ilkej our butter-nut. oo |
