The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-09-15

To hunt for new things in foreign
lands, and 10 give what you find away
what could be more fun than this
To make an occupation of it, to be
paid a living salary for doing it, and
to be an official of a great govern
ment because you are doing it. is to
be an agricultural explorer OF the
United States Department of Agricul-
ture.
TO travel simply in search Of new
sensations is interesting indeed. but
it cannot satisfy an active, intelligent
mind very long. One can have some
hobby, collect paintings, bric-a-brac'
or write books of travel, but the
paintings are kept in galleries for a
few people to look at. the ~bric-a-orac
is shut up in cabinets. and the BOOKS
one writes afford amusement or in
struction to a circle of readers when
generally grows smaller every year..
But it is different with plants. II
one gets these. no matter how rare
they are, they can be divided and
half given away, and in a few months
there will be just as many as before.
There is, of course, a feeling in hui
man nature that one likes to have
things that others have not. and this
is why the orchid hunters OF the
Guiana forests. for instance, brave
the dangers of fever and starvation
in search of a new kind of orchid
one that cannot be reproduced from
seed. But I cannot sympathiZe with
those collectors who, with great cere-
mony, take one through their conser-
~yatories to show some rare plant. un-
less it is something they are propa-
eating in order to give away. DO
not believe that to feel you have the
only thing of it's kind in the world
can give as mucu pleasure as to know
you have given a new pleasure to
thousands.
What the Purpose Is.
Then, too, the day of the great
geographic explorers is past. there
are no new worlds waiting to be dis
covered by new Columbuses. Every
continent on this small globe has
been crossed and ~recrossed; every
archipelago of islands, great or small
has been drawn on some published
map. The barren wastes of the arc
tic regions and the deserts alone re-
main, with, perhaps. some tropical
interior of a we'll known coast line.
Nor should the new agricultural
explorations be confused in the mind
with the botanical surveys of the
world that have been carried out by
the national museums and botanical
gardens. These were in search OF
new plants, it is true, but with the
prime object of describing them,
of putting their pressed flowers,
fruits and leaves into collections OF
dried specimens. or, occasionally, OF
growing them under the restricted
conditions of a botanical garden.
To these explorers a new plant,
whether it was good for anything or
not, was valuable on account OF the
light it threw on the relationships OF
plants and on their distribution owe
the earth.
Times have changed, and over the
world there has swept a wave OF IN
terest in agriculture and Q realiza-
ton of its possibilities for wide
awake, intelligent men. A deeper
knowledge of what he can do with
plants by breeding. by scientific cul-
tivation, has made the American far
mer eager to try new things. to set
if he cannot get more out OF his
land.
Wild plants. that until now have
been practically valueless, have be-
come of great value for breeding pur-
poses, furnishing some character.
such as a fruit without seed or a stem
with spines, that in the new plant
created may appear as a valuable
characteristic. Here, then, is a new
reason, a new stimulus for the e K
~ploration of the world, and one in
which the American farmers son is
taking an active part. The prairies
and forests Of the world must again
be ranged over by trained men who
know what they are after. and this
time it is the living seeds and plants
which they will search for and i'm
port.
What a fascination the life of these
trained men presents,
There is the continual change OF
scenes and faces. the visits to beau
tiful gardens and interesting forests,
trips up and down fascinating
streams, and numberless inspections
of market stalls, to ia nothing of
the exciting work If following up the
clew to some rare thing that one has
got trace of in a market or in some
interview-and all the time out un-
der the open sky.
On the other hand. this life alone
in strange lands and among hostile,
suspicious peoples is sometimes one
of extreme danger and hardship.
Let me give, from Mr.. Frank Mey-
er's letters which, have recently come
in. the picture Of an explorers life
in Manchuria and China.
For three months he saw no white
face save that of an occasional mis-
sionary; he was always surrounded
by curious and impairment natives;
sleeping in inns that nc human be-
ing should sleep in for the vermin;
living on what the people of the Coun-
try live on; forced to cover great dis
tances on foot, making long and