The Food Explorer

by Daniel Stone

  written instructions that only mature trees would fruit: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Section of Seed and Plant Introduction. Inventory of Foreign Seeds and Plants. By O. F. Cook. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1899.

  Hollywood in 1886 or near Miami in 1894: Condit, Ira J. History of the Avocado and Its Varieties in California 2. California Avocado Association, 1916: 105–44.

  a twentieth-century variety called Fuerte: Condit, Ira J. History of the Avocado and Its Varieties in California 2. California Avocado Association, 1916: 105–44.

  a mail carrier in Fallbrook, California: Gollner, Adam Leith. The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession. New York: Scribner, 2008, p. 10.

  an artist to sketch his avocado: Hass, Rudolph G. R. G. HASS Plant Pat. 139. US Patent Office, filed April 17, 1935, and issued April 27, 1935.

  neighborhood of La Habra Heights: Year Book of the California Avocado Association. Los Angeles: California Avocado Society, 1971, p. 16.

  name it after himself, Rudolph Hass: Year Book of the California Avocado Association. Los Angeles: California Avocado Society, 1934, p. 24.

  His posture and attire and the coif of his mustache: Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. Adventures in a Green World: The Story of David Fairchild and Barbour Lathrop. Coconut Grove, FL: Field Research Projects, 1973, p. 24.

  His mule slipped: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 131.

  and soft-wooded evergreen tree named bella sombra: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  the United States’ diplomatic residence in Petrópolis: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 132.

  a distinctive dwarf mango called Itamaraca: Fairchild, David. “Reminiscences of Early Plant Introduction in South Florida.” Proceedings of the Florida State Horticultural Society 51 (1938): 11–13.

  “flattened like a tomato”: Fairchild. Pocket Notebook. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  originated in the East African tropics of Ethiopia: Wild, Antony. Coffee: A Dark History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005, p. 25.

  red dust from coffee fields: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 134.

  CHAPTER NINE: Grapes of a Venetian Monk

  to drink alkaline water: Buck, Albert H., and Thomas Lathrop Stedman. A Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences: Embracing the Entire Range of Scientific and Practical Medicine and Allied Science. New York: William Wood, 1900.

  “crusty person”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 162.

  repeated enemas of tea: Keating, John McLeod. A History of the Yellow Fever. The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878, in Memphis, Tenn. Memphis: Howard Association, 1879, p. 69.

  Windsor broad beans, also known as fava beans: Berkeley, M. J. The Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of London. London: Ranken & Co., 1877, p. 172.

  A woman had offered him: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  the city’s zoo had a single horse: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 137.

  “more extensive trial”: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Section of Seed and Plant Introduction. Inventory of Foreign Seeds and Plants. By O. F. Cook. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1899, p. 28.

  To bemuse each other: “Postcard.” Walter Swingle to David Fairchild. 1899. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  $338.50 after twelve months in transit: Harris, Amanda. Fruits of Eden: David Fairchild and America’s Plant Hunters. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015, p. 52.

  “It has puzzled me”: Ibid.

  450 new plants sent by Fairchild: U.S. Department of Agriculture. Secretary of Agriculture. Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1900. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1901, p. 5.

  “Through the generosity of Hon. Barbour Lathrop”: Ibid.

  he credited not just himself: “Field Reports.” United States. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Section of Seed and Plant Introduction. Inventory of Foreign Seeds and Plants. By O. F. Cook. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1899.

  slow-moving swirls of straw, eggshells: “Venice As It Is To-Day.” New York Times, February 21, 1896.

  The monk escorted him: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  Fairchild took his portrait: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 138.

  The seedless grape variety: Bradford, Dr. Kent. UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences. “Plant Reproduction and Cloning.” Interview by author. April 3, 2016.

  A California horticulturist: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, pp. 263–82.

  potential of tweaking genes: Smith, Jane S. The Garden of Invention: Luther Burbank and the Business of Breeding Plants. New York: Penguin Press, 2009.

  He imagined that a plum with no pit: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 139.

  Hotel Bauer-Grünwald: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  “To my delight, the gondola turned”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 139.

  The man promised: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden. Unpublished draft. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  Adding to the pleasantly sweet taste: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  “This grape should be given the most serious attention”: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Section of Seed and Plant Introduction. Inventory of Foreign Seeds and Plants. By O. F. Cook. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1899.

  the most popular grape in America: “Thompson Seedless.” UC Integrated Viticulture. Accessed September 8, 2015. http://iv.ucdavis.edu/Viticultural_Information/?uid=132.

  The crème-colored building: “Shepheard’s Hotel: British Base in Cairo.” Life Magazine, December 14, 1942, 119–23.

  the greatest outpost in the world: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, p. 84.

  Turkish soldiers passed by: Peters, Elizabeth. Crocodile on the Sandbank. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1975. (Fictionalized description of Shepheard’s Hotel based on personal visits in 1900.)

  Their expertise in farming: Postel, Sandra. Pillar of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last? New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999, p. 3.

  “The seed is used as a medicine”: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Section of Seed and Plant Introduction. Inventory of Foreign Seeds and Plants. By O. F. Cook. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1899, p. 26.

  the Egyptian pea: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, p. 89.

  It had originated sometime around 3000 BC in Pakistan: Cotton’s true origin remains largely a mystery, as it is believed to have been domesticated independently on both sides of the world. Evidence of cotton has been found in caves in Mexico as well as in Egypt’s Nile Valley, both dating back more than five thousand years, before the Vikings or Columbus arrived in the Western Hemisphere. Such a coincidence would be a little like the ancient Greeks and the ancient Moche culture of South America each inventing algebra on their own, without ever knowing the other existed.

  Upland cotton, the yellow-flowered relative: Pauly, Philip J. Fruits and Plains: The Horticultural Transformation of America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007, p. 101.

  Muhammad Ali, had been given cotton: Rivlin, Helen Anne B. “Muḥammad Ali.” Encyclopedia Britannica.

  “Paris
on the Nile”: Myntti, Cynthia. Paris Along the Nile: Architecture in Cairo from the Belle Epoque. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1999.

  “a variety with a long”: Fairchild, David. “Our Plant Immigrants.” National Geographic, January 1906, p. 190.

  The long fibers were: Cook, O. F., Argyle McLachlan, and Rowland Montgomery Meade. A Study of Diversity in Egyptian Cotton. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1909, pp. 18–22.

  became known as “Egyptian cotton”: Manufacturers, National Association Of. Transactions of the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers. Vol. 69. Place of Publication Not Identified: E. L. Barry, 1900, p. 168.

  “If you think it is such a good thing”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 141.

  “superior, both in amount of flesh”: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Section of Seed and Plant Introduction. Inventory of Foreign Seeds and Plants. By O. F. Cook. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1899, p. 65.

  “ripened for the table twenty days earlier”: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Section of Seed and Plant Introduction. Inventory of Foreign Seeds and Plants. By O. F. Cook. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1899, p. 66.

  “recommended for irrigated Western lands”: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Section of Seed and Plant Introduction. Inventory of Foreign Seeds and Plants. By O. F. Cook. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1899, p. 68.

  “grows in regions which are dry”: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Section of Seed and Plant Introduction. Inventory of Foreign Seeds and Plants. By O. F. Cook. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1899, p. 791.

  “gives a brilliant color”: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Section of Seed and Plant Introduction. Inventory of Foreign Seeds and Plants. By O. F. Cook. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1899, p. 66.

  A. J. Chandler was at the time: “David Fairchild and the Introduction of Egyptian Cotton.” Chandlerpedia, Chandler Museum Arizona. Accessed August 1, 2015. http://archive.chandlermuseum.org/Exhibits/Cotton_and_Goodyear/01._David_Fairchild_and_the_Introduction_of_Egyptian_Cotton.

  A new, long-grain variety raised: Crago, Jody A., Mari Dresner, and Nate Meyers. Chandler. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2012, p. 73.

  CHAPTER TEN: Citrus Maxima

  The Netherlands India Steam Navigation Company: Bemmelen, J. F. van, G. B. Hooijer, and Jan Frederik Niermeyer. Guide Through Netherlands India, Comp. by Order of the Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij (Royal Packet Company). London: T. Cook & Son, 1906.

  Even Lathrop, one of the nineteenth century’s: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  He and Lathrop were technically researchers: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  “The native market yielded little”: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  “At each place we met”: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  A dog with no hair: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  “the feuds of poor whites”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden. Unpublished draft. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  The artillery didn’t work: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  The captain sent a second officer: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 150.

  “Joke and do comic ridiculous things”: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  a citrus fruit shaped curiously like a pear: Krieger, Louis Charles Christopher. Citrus grandis. USDA Pomological Watercolors, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD.

  “Seeds of a large and very sour variety”: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry. Seeds and Plants Imported During the Period September, 1900, to December, 1903. By B. T. Galloway. Bulletin No. 66, 5501–9896. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1905, p. 15.

  The spoils of the war: “The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War.” Hispanic Division, Library of Congress. http://loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/intro.html.

  five hundred million Chinese: Grubin, David, and Judy Crichton. “Spirit of the Age.” Transcript, quote by Walter Lafeber. In America 1900. PBS. November 3, 1998.

  giving a razor to a babe: Halsall, Paul. “Albert Beveridge: The March of the Flag.” Modern History Sourcebook, Fordham University August 1997. http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1898beveridge.asp.

  After an American soldier: Grubin, David, and Judy Crichton. “Spirit of the Age.” Transcript, quote by Walter Lafeber. In America 1900. PBS. November 3, 1998.

  Andrew Carnegie, who offered: Edge, Laura Bufano. Andrew Carnegie: Industrial Philanthropist. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 2004, p. 95.

  “An American military presence”: Wilson, James. Letter to David Fairchild. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. 1900.

  “The time is not yet ripe”: Fairchild, David. Letter to James Wilson. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. March 5–14, 1900.

  McKinley sent a portly federal judge: White, William Allen. “Taft, a Hewer of Wood.” American Magazine, May 1908, p. 19–32.

  For forty centuries, China: King, F. H. Farmers of Forty Centuries: Organic Farming in China, Korea, and Japan. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2004.

  its population, which seemed to rise: Banister, Judith. “A Brief History of China’s Population.” In Poston, Dudley L. Jr., and David Yaukey, The Population of Modern China. Boston: Springer, 1992, pp. 51–57.

  Chickens hung, often alive: King, F. H. Farmers of Forty Centuries: Organic Farming in China, Korea, and Japan. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2004.

  “an overpowering stench”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 144.

  Worthy of consideration: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry. Seeds and Plants Imported During the Period September, 1900, to December, 1903. By B. T. Galloway. Bulletin No. 66, 5501–9896. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1905, p. 194.

  “Surely only a nightmare could fill my brain”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, pp. 157–58.

  “which so well illustrates Mr. Lathrop’s warm heart”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 159.

  “He will not be moved”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden. Unpublished draft. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  Prinz Heinrich that had two smokestacks: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 161.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN: Lemons, Leaves, and the Dawn of New Light

  one thousand plants, including foods, shrubs, and trees: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden. Unpublished draft. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  But the Department’s chief: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 166.

  Fairchild cautioned that denying Lathrop: Harris, Amanda. Fruits of Eden: David Fairchild and America’s Plant Hunters. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015, p. 57.

  Beer had been around: Damerow, Peter. “Sumerian Beer: The Origins of Brewing Technology in Ancient Mesopotamia.” Cuneiform Digital Library Journal, 2012. cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlj/2012/cdlj2012_002.html.

  Over centuries, Bavarian and nearby Bohemian breweries: Harlan, H. V., and M. L. Martini, “Problems and Results in Barley Breeding.” In Yearbook of Agriculture: 1936. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1936.

  American beer, by contrast, was full of harsh bitterness: Geiling, Natasha.
“In Search of the Great American Beer.” Smithsonian.com, July 30, 2014.

  in the Pacific Northwest: Schwartz, B. W. “A History of Hops in America.” In Steiner’s Guide to American Hops. New York: Hopsteiner, 1973.

  “American hops may be dismissed”: Geiling, Natasha. “In Search of the Great American Beer.” Smithsonian.com, July 30, 2014.

  The nearby growers had formed a cartel: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 168.

  the Semš hop was new: Valeš, Vladimir. From Wild Hops to Osvald’s Hop Clones. Issue brief. 2015. Hop museum in Žatec. Translated by Naďa Žurková and Steve Yates. Prepared for the author.

  In 1853 Semš saw sprouting in his yard: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry. Seeds and Plants Imported During the Period September, 1900, to December, 1903. By B. T. Galloway. Bulletin No. 66, 5501–9896. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1905, p. 29.

  “How could I hope to convert them”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 168.

  “I suggested that a tablet”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 169.

  The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union: “Early History.” Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Accessed February 3, 2016. http://www.wctu.org/history.html.

  The United States entered the new century: Cooper, John Milton. “Enhanced Transcript.” Transcript. In America 1900. PBS. November 3, 1998.

  the magic of telephones: John, Richard R. “Telephony.” Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago 2005. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1236.html.

  moviemakers began to populate: Lacey, Nick. Introduction to Film. Houndmills, U.K., and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, p. 92.

  the Washington Monument: United States. Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army. War Department. Report of the Chief of Engineers U.S. Army. Vol. 3. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1910, pp. 2673–74.

  The presidential election of 1900: Miller Center, University of Virginia. “William McKinley: Campaigns and Elections.” Accessed October 9, 2016. https://millercenter.org/president/mckinley/campaigns-and-elections.