::: ::: Rice 　　Breeding new varieties of high yield with superior grain quality is the main objective of rice research. To improve cultivation practices suitable to grow rice on the diverse geographical conditions is another objective of rice research. On-farm experimental sites are often served as the field demonstration plots for newly selected promising lines as well as newly registered high-quality rice for farmers, such as Tai-Keng No. 14, 15, 16, and 17. The planting area of high-quality rice in Miaoli County increased to 6,200 hectares in the first crop and 5,600 hectares in the second crop that shares about 60% of paddy field in Miaoli County. 　　Production of organic rice has recently been emphasized. In addition to applying a large amount of compost, 4 tons/ha of silicate slag is recommended to apply on the organic field to inhibit the epidemic of bacterial blight disease based on the result of research findings of this section. Development of the disease resistant rice varieties with good grain quality for organic production will remain to be the main research subject in the future.   Upland Crops 　　Rotate rice with other upland crops is presently very much encouraged. The paddy rice-dry land crop rotation system developed after the repeated experiments is now widely adopted by farmers. Currently, green manure, such as vegetable soybeans, hyacinth bean and sesbania, are recommended after the harvest of first crop of rice. Sweet corn is rotated with strawberry for better pest management. In addition to the technical aspects, the Station is also helping the farmers to sell their products through various markets. In the future, researches will be focused on the variety improvement of upland crops such as tuber-use sweet potato, leaf-use sweet potato, peanut, sweet corn, edible cassava, pigeon pea and some newly emerged green manure plants. Research to improve the cultivation practices for these crops will also be carried out.   Special Crops 　　Chrysanthenum, Angelica, wild grape, perilla, leaf-edible Chinese wolfberry, wild bitter gourd, wild yam and mesona are special crops of economic importance in Miaoli County. Cultivation methods such as pest management, methods of pruning trimming, and harvesting, and fertilizer management are the major concerns of the study for these crops. Recently much emphasis is laid on the post- harvest technologies such as processing, grading and packing of the farm products. A 2-day symposium on packing of agricultural products was organized by this Station in June 2000, to evaluate the research findings of packing technologies. The Station hasset initial project on food processing research with special regard to fruit wine making to solve the problem of over produced fruits in Miaoli County. In the meantime, trials are carried ow on collected medicinal plants or health crops with regard to their agronomic traits, their adaptability to different climatic conditions as well as their economic values of the new crop. Collection of germplasm of economic importance will be continued in the future.   Vegetables 　　Vegetable researches are focused on organic cultivation of different vegetables, such as strawberry, bitter gourd and wild vegetables, under the field and greenhouse conditions. A supply system for disease-free strawberry seedlings will be established. Harvest time of strawberry can be managed through the cold treatment of small seedlings, to regulate the flowering time. This technique will enable to prolong the harvesting period；thus the good price of strawberry is insured. High-ridged bed is recommended to farmers to grow strawberry so that to facilitate the rotational cropping of strawberry with other dryland crops. 　　A simple net house has been recommended to farmers to grow bitter gourd with a very good result. Predators such as lacewings, predatory stinkbugs and mantis are released in the net house to control insect pests and reduce the application of pesticides. Honeybees are also moved in the net house for pollination to increase gourd quality and save labor cost on hand pollination. 　　Some wild edible plants are being tested for their potential table use. They include hornwort, water cress, madeira vine, nodding burn weed, gynura, vegetable ferns, purslane, coral flower, white jute, Okra, bird nest fern (Asplenium nidus), white mugwort, winged bean, mountain taro.   Fruit Trees 　　Research are mainly concentrated on the improvement of cultivation technique for local fruit trees such as sorosis, persimmon, litchi and jujube. In general, sorosis is harvested once a year between March and April, but it can have another harvest in December when the growing method is improved. Presently, organic farming of fruit tree is much emphasized in order to establish Farm Tourism. Bitter persimmon has an open and high canopy that makes the work of picking fruit very difficult and tedious. In order to improve this disadvantageous situation, an experiment is going on to use Fu-yu variety as an intermediate stock for grafting to dwarf the bitter persimmon tree. This lately developed technique will be eventually widely adopted by the farmers to save cost on harvesting. 　　Litchi is a high priced tropical fruit. Miaoli area is near the northernmost limit for litchi cultivation. In order to increase fruit set of the late maturing litchi variety, No-Maz-Chee, various physiological aspects of researches are being carried out at this Station, with regard to its cultivation technique, effect of growth regulators on the flowering performance and fruit quality, fertilization management, and assimilate partitioning in the plant. 　　Chinese Jujube is a special fruit in Kung-Kuan Township. As a part of promoting tourism in Miaoli County, efforts are made to dwarf tree plants so that the visitors can easily pick the fruit. Organic farming coupled with biological control to produce pesticide-free high-quality fruit is also the main subject of research.   Ornamental Flowers 　　With the recent economic growth, the business of ornamental flowers in Taiwan is steadily increasing. Selection of ornamental plants of economic importance for Miaoli County is the primary objective of this project. Seedling production and supply of selected ornamental plants is crucial in the development of floral industry. Bulbs are used to propagate the local orchid variety Pleione formosana. Planting big and uniform bulbs is a key to produce the high-quality flowers. Studies are therefore directed to the method of producing large bulbs for distribution. Based on our research findings, the bulbs of Pleione formosana orchid are now propagated on the seed beds in layers with the selected cultivation substrates. 　　Gladiolus and lily bulbs are propagated with a promising result after treatment of temperature and chemical that also enhances their resistance to disease. Technology has been developed to dwarf the mulberry plants. which can be adjusted to become "Bonsai" type ornamental mulberry for commercialization.