Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-04
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT is DOING

II AA i i ILL s.UVx i
| David Fairchild. agricultural explorer
in charge of the Office of seed and plan,
| introduction of the
| Passion Fruit United States Depart.
!; r.1A:A ment of Agriculture
wants to interest
farmers and fruit growers of the United
/, States in the production. on CONNER
cial scale in this country. of the famous
passion fruit. a table delcacy which is
/! common to South America, the West In
| dies. Australia, South Africa and several
| other countries.
The passion fruit, whose scientific name
i is passi-flora, is a delicious fruit. which
| has taste resembling that of the grape
but which usually grows as large as an
| ordinary peach. AT present 1t thrives in
i the open only in tropical countries. Mr.
Fairchild has hopes that there can be
developed a variety of the fruit which
will be hardy enough to withstand the
| climate of the southern half of the
United States. To fruit growers who are
!. interested in experiments along this line
he has suggested the crossing of the
! May pop" a wild relative of the pas
sion fruit which grows in the southern
states, with the finer varieties of the
passi-ffora, which now grow only in the
tropical countries. If a new hardy va
riety can be developed through the proc
ess of crossing. the production of pas
sion fruit on a commercial scale, with It's
sale on the markets of the United States
will be made possible, and perhaps the
building frlllt-RrOWlng l.
duStry Will result.
The passion fruit is eaten as are
grapes. and is also used considerably in
many countries in the
Fruit Used making of ices and fruit
salads. In the West In
AOA 0o1"uS' dies, the countries OF
South America. South Africa, Australia
and New Zealand the fruit is now raised
in the open and sold for table purposes
Experiments have shown that the South
American varieties can be grown in the
open in southern California. 1t is -lr.
Fairchilds hope that through expert
ments which have been started both by
government experts and by fruit grow
ers it will be possible to grow passion
fruit throughout practically all the states
south of the Mason and Dixon line.
In some countries the growing OF pas
sion fruit in greenhouses has become a
profitable industry. A few years ago,
when Mr.. Fairchild was in Edinburgh
Scotland, he was surprised to find that
there the passion fruit is grown proht-
ably in greenhouses. Since that time the
government has distributed plants of the
OF men owning large private greenhouses
and interested in plant breeding The
fruit can be grown in greenhouses only
when it is artificially pollinated. POllina-
ton in the open. as Is generally known, is
brought about by insects and bees travel
ing from one blossom to another. In green
houses this process has to be done with
camels hair brush, which experts say
is quite easy when the process Is under
stood.
Cncle Sam is now prepared to furnish
information on the construction of mod
ern, sanitary buildings
Wants Better for the housing of all
Buildings kinds nnrv Of h live st stock * a ind
present time Congress has not provided
any bureau with money to collect and
disseminate information on the construc-
ton OF modern and safe buildings to be
Used for human habitation or for COM
mercial or industrial purposes.
This fact was brought out during the
past week by Richard L. Humphrey of
Philadelphia, who has been in conference
with officials of various bureaus of the
Interior Department, in which he was
formerly enrolled as a structural en-
gineer in the technologic branch of the
geological survey. Mr.. Humphrey was In
charge of the structural materials in
vestigation Of the technOlogic branch un-
der the direction Of DR.. Joseph A.
mines. at the time of the San Francisco
fire. when he was sent to the Pacific
coast to investigate for the government
the behavior of various structures and
structural materials under the conditions
of earthquake and fire.
The waste of structural material is one
of the worst wastes of natural resources
according to Mr.. Humphrey. In his opin-
ion, the great need OF today is the en-
enlargement of the construction Of build
ings which are proof against fire, earth
quake, tornado and flood A building
which is fireproof and well constructed,
Mr.. Humphrey points out, is likely to be
strong enough not to be affected by flood,
earthquake or tornado Speaking of the
need Of disseminating information on
methods and materials which will bring
about better building, Mr. Humphrey
said:
x
The government should take a leading
part in the better building movement, and
direct the people how to
Losses Due construct safer buildings
r in which to live and
" work. An excessive loss
of structural material today is due to
fire. Government investigations show
that the present loss through fire waste
is more than 100000 a day. Fire loss
per capita in the United States is higher
than in any other country in the world,
running from $50 to $3.50 year. In
Europe it is approximately one-eighth as
much. This means that when the fire
loss in this country amounts to $500 :
$4,000 a year, and most years 1t is much
more. seven-eighths, or $262,JOOO0 of
this amount can be saved annually il our
buildings are as nearly fireproOf as those
in Europe are.
"Since 1904 Congress has appropriated
money for restricted Investigations of
structural materials for the use of the
government This work was first carried
on in the geological survey, and Is now
done by the bureau of standards. l hope
that the time will come when these in
vestigations car be broadened out so
that they will cover both structural ma
terials and methods of construction of
private buildings to be used Tor all pur-
poses. including residences, factories and
Office buildings What is needed is some
thing in the way of standard method
of constructing which will bring about
rlncfa Mt al h,ti n mr. Wi a q