The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1899-08-05
tOn r'OvD 1u-AnAo.
Government Officials Are Hunting
in South America.
Those That Are Found in That Coun-
try VIII BE Cultivated In the
United States-Drug and Fiber
Plants Also Sought.

DIR. d. G. Fairchild, Of the depart
ment of agriculture, has gone to South
America in search Of new food plants,
which will be introduced into the
United States. If these plants can be
successfully cultivated here a revolu-
ton will result in the character and
amount of our food supply According
to Prof. n. l.. Britton, of Columbia, DR..
Fairchild will make a careful study of
South American plants of all kinds,
such as can be grown in this country.
Il refer, of course" he said, ito plants
of utilization-the invaluable commodi-
ties that commerce deals in and which
are essential to the we'll being and COM
fort of civilization. There are vast
tracts of desert lands in our west where
nothing grows, and where, it is be-
lieved, nothing can grow. l expect that
this state of affairs will soon be
changed and that before many years
these desert lands-hundreds of thou
sands of square miles of waste--will be
made to blossom like fertile garden.
"1There is a vast desert in Chilli, SINH
lar to the deserts in this country, where
various plants of great use to civiiza-
ton flourish. We believe that these
plants can be transplanted to our des-
ert here, where the same conditions
obtain pretty much as in the CHILEAN
desert of Atacama, and these immense
stretches of unproductiye land will be
converted into tracts of great fertility.
From the isthmus down to Patagonia
there is variety of plants Of immense
value. None of these is produced now
within the territory of the United
States, but they can be.
'"Ihere is food plant known as
guinea. This grows high on tie Andes
and produces a great quantity of small
black seeds which the natives grind
into meal. 1t serves the mountain men
as bread food, and a very good food it
is. too. 1t is starchy stuff and takes
the place Of our own grain, corn and
bUckwheat. 1t is a low plant like buck
wheat and lis cultivated at high alti-
tudes. This plant is unknown in this
country, but we believe it can be grown
everywhere in the high attitudes in this
country, where no other kind Of food
plant will flourish, and also in Alaska.
The introduction of this plant alone
will transform what are now cold, I'M
inhabitable, cherries and barren
stretches of land into farms of great
productiveness. l myself grew this
plant next to my house here last sum-
mer, but it didn't ripen to seeds. 1t
does not thrive in warm spots.
Besides a number of other South
American food plants which can be
grown in this country, according to the
section, climate and altitude there are
the drug and fiber plants. The indis-
pensable quinine and the expensive ipe-
cac are now imported and grow no
where within our borders. The Gin
chona bark is carried in British or Ger
man ships mainly from Brazilian ports
to ports in Great Britain or Germany,
where it is ground into quinine pow
der and then exported to this country.
Now, the trees from which quinine is
extracted can be cultivated properly in
Porto Rico, Cuba and doubtless in the
Philippines. Here is trade worth I'M
told millions that can be, and undoubt-
eddy will be, placed right within our
own borders. So with ipecac, which is
expensive because the fierce compe-
titiOn for it has well nigh exhausted the
roots. Balsam of copaibav TONGA beans,
Peruvian balsam-these and many 9th
er drug plants, yielding a tremendous
revenue to our merchants and a great
gain and benefit to our people, all can
be cultivated in United States terri
tory. IN. Y. Journal.