Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1922-05-12

industry, of which William A. Taylor
is the chief.
There are Americans Of less than
middle age who ought to remember
Capt. Mayne Reid's story. "The Plant
Hunters" Captain Reid was an Eng
lishman and the heroes of his tale
were English plant hunters sent out
on exploring and collecting expedi-
tons, just as the United States today
sends out American explorers and
collectors.
It is the work of the explorers Of
the department to find somewhere in
the world useful plants which can be
transplanted and made to grow in the
United States for the benefit of its
people. The bureau is responsible for
the date palm in the Southwest; for
some dozens of varieties of alfalfa
now fourishing in places in the United
States where it was not supposed that
alfalfa would grow; for bountiful
bearing fruit trees in many parts of
the country where fruit of the kind
was thought to be an impOssibility,
and for many other shrubs and plants
and trees which have been OF service
to men elsewhere and which today are
proving of like service to the people
of this country.
Plant hunters in the employment
Of the American government undergo
all kinds of hardships. 1t was not
long ago that Frank N. Meyer died.
He was one of the most intrepid and
Industrious of Uncle Sans plant men.
What They Must Undergo.
Some few years ago Meyer under
took a trip Of 1000 miles in the in
terests of the needs of his fellow
countrymen. His journey began at
st. Petersburg and ended in eastern
China This has been written of his
Journey:
HE has frozen and melted alter
nately as the ATTITUDES have changed.
He has encountered wild beasts and
men nearly as wild. He has scaled
glaciers and crossed chasms of dizzy
ing depths. He has been the subject
of the always alert suspicious of for
eign government officials and of
strange peoples, jealous Of intrusion
into their lands, but he has found
what he was sent for"
The plant hunter has to carry with
him mental map of his home coun-
try. When he discovers a species of
plant useful for food or for raiment,
he must know by instant reference to
the chart in his head what section of
the United States 1t is in which the
discovered species may have chance
to flourish. "He gathers with full
knowledge of the locality in which one
day Americans may sit under the
shade of a Himalaya tree or gather
fruit from a Himalaya vine"
The Himalaya mountains have yield
ed much to plant life which has proved
serviceable to the American people.
A species of poplar which has strong
drought-resisting power has been
transplanted from Asia into semi-arid
regions of the United States where irri-
cation is not possible. There it is
doing service IS a shade tree. 1t has
helped in the process of home making
in places where it was thought there
could be no homes.
Bring New Varieties of Fruits.
Down in the southwestern parts Of
our country some of the people in the
proper season are picking and eating
cherries whose native habitat is south
n n
would grow in the sections where the
Asiatic cherry now is flourishing. The
fruit has a flavor and juiciness like
that of the best New England product
and in eating it man ought to, if he
does not, think of him who underwent
hardships on his account.
The bureau Of plant industry has
developed a puckerless and seedless
persimmon. A good many years ago
one of the plant hunters found such
a persimmon in the interior of China.
He took cuttings of the trees and
shipped them to the Agricultural de-
partment, where the experts succeed
ed in making them grow rapidly and
eventually to bear abunhantly. It is
said today that in parts of the South
there are under cultivation acres of
puckerless, seedless persimmons. The
importation of the Chinese fruit
proved to be a success.
Something has been written of the
Importation of species of alfalfa which
have been found growing in other
countries. The explorers have found
alfalfas growing in foreign lands I'M
der climatic conditions which were
unfavorable to the various species of
the plant which already were under
cultivation in the United States. These
varying alfalfas were brought into
this country and introduced in places
where the conditions of climate were
like those of their native heaths. The
result has been that good many dis
tricts of the United States have been
made rich with alfalfa, districts in
which it was not thought that the
plant could survive for a single sea-
son.