Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-28
DIR. FAIRCHILD TO GET HIGHEST
HORTICULTURAL AWARD IN u. S.
Botanist and Agricultural Ex-
pIorer Named for White
Medal.
Massachusetts Society, Old
est of Its Kind in America,
BeStoWS Prize.

DR.. David Fairchild, botanist and
agriculture explorer now attached TO
the ONCE of Foreign Plant Introduction
Of the Department Of Agriculture, has
been awarded the George Robert White
medal, the highest horticultural award
in America, the National Geographic
Society announces.
The award has been bestowed upon
DR.. Fairchild by the Massachusetts,
Horticultural Society, which is described
as the oldest and most distinguished
society of its kind in the United States.
Research Covers 3S Years.
Thirty-three years ago, DR.. Fairchild
organized the work in the Department
of Agriculture which, crystallized in the
ONCE of Foreign Plant Introduction,
has introduced into the United States
more than 10000 separate speciss and
varieties of useful plants. In 1906,
after eight years of exploration, he
resumed charge of the office and IS now
attachsd to it as special agricultural
explorer, with Offices in Washington
and Winter home in Cocoanut Grove,
Fla, where in the large Federal Plant
Introduction Garden and in his own
private garden he experiments with the
many useful exotic tropical plants,
shrubs, trees and flowers he collects on
his pilgrimageS to distant parts OF the
world.
AS young graduate of the Kansas
State Agricultural College, DR.. Fair
child was called upon by Secretary Of
Agriculture James Wilson to organize
the work of foreign plant introduction.
His first work In that field was as an
explorer attached to the expeditions Of
Barbour Lathrop. Since then. under
I'D yie{A III a
ton, more than 80 expeditions have
been sent out.
Plant Tntroductions Listed.
Among the plant introductions made
by these groups were the dry-land elm,
brought by Mayer from China, now
thriving from Louisiana to the Ca
madam border; superior varieties of the
Chinese and Japanese persimmonS, once
a curiosity, now frequent on American
market stalls: the popular sorts of the
avocado ALLIGATOR pearl, which Popence
found after two years search among
the mountains Of Guatemala; the
pistache nut of the Levant and the soy
100000 acres of land all over the
United States.
The ONCE of Foreign Plant Introduce
ton under DR.. Fairchild's direction has
accumulated the most extensive COL
lection of original field descriptions Of
useful crop plants in existence, the
largest seed collection of economic plant
species and the greatest collection of
photographs Of useful plants in the
world.
OF the plants which he personally
collected, one of the most important Is
probably the Feterita sorghum from the
Sudan, an important grain and forage
crop for Arizona and California, several
million dollars worth Of which are now
being grown annually. He also brought
in the Persian Gulf dates from Bagdad,
and the tung oil tree introduction from
China, whose nuts furnish the wood
oil" OF the paint and varnish industry.
Oriental Bamboo Established.
The National Geographic Society, of
which DR.. Fairchild Is q trustee, credits
him with having been largely RESPONSE
BILE for the establishment in this country
Of groves of the Oriental bamboo.
DR.. Fairchild also Is q medalist of
the French Societe d'Acclimatation, q
member of numerous botanical and other
learned societies in this country and
abroad, and he has written The Book
Of Monsters" contributed many tech
meal papers to scientific periodicals,
and is author of the recent book, "Ex-
ploring for Plants"
His quest for new plants has led him
through the Dutch East Indies and the
South Sea Isles, into Siam, New
Guinea and Ceylon, along the border
land Of the Persian Gulf, and has ex-
tended in southern ATTITUDES to the in
teriors Of New Zealand and Australia.