New Britain herald., 1930-12-11
PLANT GEOGRAPHY
 0F U.S CHANGED
H0rtiCulturiStS Honor Man Who
 Introduced Varieties

anist and agriculture explorer, of the George Robert White medal, highest horticultural honor in America, bestowed by the Massa- chusetts Horticultural Society, old est and most distinguished society of it's kind in the country, calls at tention to the vast changes in the plant geography of the United States.
 'Thirty-three years ago. Dr. Fair child organized the work in the de- partment of agriculture which, crys- tallized in the office of foreign plant introduction. has introduced into the United States more than S0,000 separate species and varieties of use full plants,' says a bulletin from the Washingt on, D. C.. headquarters of the National Geographic Society.
 "These new plants have added to the beauty and variety of the public parks and private gardens from coast to coast, and have enhanced the value of agricultural products by millions of dollars annually.
 Corn Flair and Good
 From the days of the Pilgrims, Americas first plant explorer, who found Indian baskets, filled with corn, some whereof was in ears, fair and good, of divers colors,' until to- day when only train or airplane ride, or walk through city parks or countryside reveals immigrant plant life, the plant geography Of the United States has teen vastly. and continually transformed.
 But it was not until the young man from one of the country's first great agricultural colleges, that of the State of Kansas. became identi fled with the department of agricul- ture, in Washington. and was called upon by Secretary James Wilson to organize the work of foreign plant introduction that the government engaged, systematically and scienti- fically, in this basic work of eco- homie agriculture.
 Seek Plants fn Jungle and Desert
 "Dr. Fairchild engaged in his first searches for new plants to in troduce as the agricultural explorer attached to the expeditions of Bar bour Lathrop. Then, and since, he and his associates have penetrated jungles, marshes and deserts to dis cover plants which would yield new food and fruits for the American table, raw materials for American {1 rt oII nnJnr and form to our gardens.
 "In 1906 after eight years of for eign exploration he resumed charge of the office of foreign plant intro duction. an office which has engaS ed inA one of the most adventurous, romantic and useful tasks of any government bureau. He now is at tached to it as a special agricultural explorer, with his office in Wash ington, and a winter home in Coco nut Grove, Florida. 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 col lects on hls pilgrimages to distant parts of the earth.
 The Magellans of Plant Exploration
 Under his supervision or with his cooperation more than thirty expeditions have been sent out, with such explorer as Frank Meyer, T. H. kearney. w. T. Swingle, Mark Carleton. Joseph F. Rock, Neils Hansen, Wilson Popenoe and P. H. Dorsett as leaders. They have brought back plants, shrubs, trees. vegetables, grains and forage crops which have beautified or made more valuable hundreds of thousands of acres of gardens. parks and farm lands of the country.
 Among these introductions were the dry land elm. brought by Meyer from China, now thriving from Louisiana to the Canadian border; superior varieties of the Chinese and Japanese persimmons, once curiosity, now frequent in American market stalls; the popular sorts of the avocado (alligator pearl which Popenoe found after two years search among the mountains of Guatemala; the pistache nut of the Levant, and the soy bean of the Orient. now grown on three million acres of land all over the United States
 "Thc office of foreign plant intro auction under Dr. Fairchild's direc- ~. l. extensive collection of original field descriptions of useful crop plants in existence, the largest seed collcc- tion of economic plans species, and the greatest collection of photo graphs of useful plants in the world.
 Sorghum, Dates and Bamboo
 "Of the plants which Dr. Fair child 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 is now being grown annually.
 He also brought in the Persian Gulf dates from Baghdad and the tung/ oil tree introduction from China, whose nuts furnish the wood oil of the paint and. varnish indus try.
 Tt is largely through the initia- tive of Dr. Fairchild that groves of the Orinetal bamboo have been es- tablished in America.
 Tropical Plants in Demand
 More and more do industry, medicine, and food purYeyors look to the tropics for sources of supply such tropical crops as srubber. which makes possible the automo- bile; quinine, which is mans first