The St. Louis Republic., 1904-06-26

| Special Correspondence of The Sunday Republic.
Washington. June 24-"Fresh dates will
| some day be as common in this country
| as bananas are now"
These were the words of David G. Fair
child. the agricultural explorer who re-
| Gently returned from Persia. where he was
| sent to look up date culture in the interest
of the United States Mr.. Fairchild is one
! Of the first. and. may say, the chief of
ms profession. Educated as a botanist,
he worked for time as such in the De-
partfnent OF Agriculture, and then resigned
10 go to Buitenzorg, Java, and study
plants and fungus diseases in the botanical
garden there, the largest and-flRest garden
Of the world. The expenses of this trip
were furnished by Mr.. Barbour Lathrop OF
Cmcago, at whose suggestion and under
whose patronage Mr.. Fairchild later on be-
gan to hunt the world over for new plants
Tor the United States.
PHILANTHROPY IN SEEDS.
Andrew Carnegie's philanthropy runs to
libraries, Stanford's millions were swal-
lowed UP in his great California University
and John ROckefeller'S sUrplus-a small
part OF 1t. l fear-goeS to the Baptist
Church and his famous Chicago college
Barbour Lathrop. although a poor man in
comparison with these three. has devoted
his surplus to a pursuit which may result
IN greater value TO the United States than
all the others. Born rich, his life before
he met Mr.. Fairchtld had been largely de-
voted to travelling up and down the world
Tor MS own study and amusement. \ typi-
cal American, with practical business
sense, he investigated the vegetation of
other lands. and as he went conceived the
Idea that many foreign plants might be
prohtably grown in the United States. He
mad been travelling thirty years before he
came to the conclusion to put this thought
into action. and ii was with this idea
that he sent Mr.. Fairchild to Buitenzorg,
ana later took him with him as a plant
expert. and Travelled from continent TO con-
tlnent, seeking new seeds and plants for
Uncle Sam. All this was done without
cost TO the Government, save that the re-
suits were distributed through the Agricul-
tural Department.
Almost at the same time Secretary Will
son became interested in the subject In
deed, he had taken it up about the time
that Mr.. Lathrop began his active inves-
ugauons, and since then the work of the
two men has gone on side by side. The
secretary has established a bureau for
the Introduction of valuable plants and
seeds, and he has to-day a number of
agricultural explorers travelling over the
At present Mr.. Fairchild is here at
washington in charge Of this bureau
working directly under the Secretary, al
though most of his work as an explorer
has been under the sole direction of Mr.
LathrOp and in connection with him. /
first met Mr.. Fairchild in 1897, Just before
l started out on O newspaper trip of 2l.-
OcO miles. which was to cover the South
American Continent. and at his request /
sent him corn and other seeds from about
Lake T1ticaca and other parts of the
Andes. 1 afterwards tramped over his
track in Siam and Java, and found him
Just ahead of me in Sumatra. New Gui-
pea' n australia and the Ffjis; Since then he
has explored South America has gone
up and down the coast Of Africa, and late
ly TO Arabia and Up the Persian Gulf to
tBagdad;; the land Of dates and the Ara
DATES FOR EVERYONE.
Yes said Mr.. Fairchild. I'VE viii have
fresh dates. and no one who has not
tasted the date fresh from the tree knows
what that means Dates are of as many
varieties as apples. and some are SO de-
hci9us that they will form one Of the IA
Vorlte fruits Of our tables. We have in
PRODUCED date palms on the high, dry
lands of the Southwest, and now know
that they can be as well grown in some
parts OF Arizona and California as in the
Desert OF Sahara and Mesopotamia. In
deed, President Roosevelt and members
OF his Cabinet have eaten dates thus
grown In America, and We have men in
the West who are going into date raising
as business. The new irrigation works
which are being established will open up
a large area of possible date country, and
dates may in the future be one Of our
most profitable fruit crops"
M2 Wsifar WgGa vii dsIGS ray to the acre.?
ugated date culture in the Sahara, esti-
mates that 1900 pounds can be annually
produced on an acre of land, and that
penses the net profit from them will be
$50 per acre. As 1t is now, we use only
about 100000 pounds of dates a year;
but If they We're raised here and sold fresh
the consumption would be enormously
increased, and the profits can hardly be
estimated.
SEEDLESS DATE AND ORANGE
1--WE have introduced a number of DIFF
ferent kinds of dates into the West" con-
tinued Mr., Fairchild, "and we are raising
some as delicious as any l have tasted
in Persia. l have heard lately. however,
OF a seedless date. and am trying to get
suckers to plant in Arizona or in Califor-
MIA. So far L have not been able to trace
ii, but there is no reason why II should
not exist. No one knew of navel oranges
until an American woman, travelling along
the coast of Brazil, was given a seedIess
orange while her ship stopped at Bahia.
She asked about it and was told that 1t
was cultivated by the people of that
State. When she came to Washington
culture and told Mr.. Saunders about it.
The old gentleman was very polite, ami
although he evidently doubted the state
ment, he sent down to Bahia, asking
about this orange and for slips of the
tree. Some came, and they were planted
in the department garden. They grew
into trees. and upon them were produced
the first navel oranges ever seen in the
United States. Slips from those trees
were sent to California and Florida, and
our enormous seedless orange crop OF to-
cation Of California fruit growers visited
Washington. They called at the depart-
ment garden, and one of them said:
:" Those navel orange trees have given
more to the United States than the cost
of the Agricultural Department since its
beginning"
NEW FRUITS FOR PORTO RICO.
81 should think that such things might |
be grown in Porto Rico, Mr.. Fairchild,"
said /.
Not the date. for that requires a dry |
country" said Mr.. Fairchild. But the |
navel orange can undoubtedly be grown |
there. Porto Rico is virgin field for |