The Food Explorer

by Daniel Stone

  a candidate for a new American garden shrub: Fairchild. Pocket notebook. November 1904 to January 1905.

  Washington Charity Ball: Washington Charity Ball. New Willard Hotel, Washington D.C., January 1904. Dance card and program found by the author.

  He wrote “supper”: Washington Charity Ball. New Willard Hotel, Washington D.C., January 1904. Dance card and program found by the author.

  Marian made regular trips: Harris, Amanda. Fruits of Eden: David Fairchild and America’s Plant Hunters. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015, pp. 104–105.

  Marian had been drawn: Fairchild, David. TS “Marian,” Fairchild Papers, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  a collection of finely sculpted angels: “The Shattered Angels.” New York Times, October 15, 1905.

  “a self-reliant and beautiful woman”: Harris, Amanda. Fruits of Eden: David Fairchild and America’s Plant Hunters. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015, pp. 104–05.

  Clara Barton . . . invited eighteen-year-old Marian: Johnson, Ryan. “Angel of the Battlefield.” American Red Cross. Accessed March 26, 2014. http://www.redcross.org/news/article/Angel-of-the-Battlefield.

  “accomplish no good”: Harris, Amanda. Fruits of Eden: David Fairchild and America’s Plant Hunters. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015, p. 103.

  her parents worried about: Muller, Hugh. “Daisy Bell.” Interview by author. July 2015.

  Fairchild took her hand: Fairchild. Pocket notebook. November 1904 to January 1905.

  “That music was so deep”: Letter from David Fairchild to Marian Bell. January 13, 1905.

  He knocked over a candle: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 311.

  Charles Lang Freer wanted to donate: Harris, Amanda. Fruits of Eden: David Fairchild and America’s Plant Hunters. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015, p. 103.

  “Did you ever look at a friend’s photograph”: David Fairchild to Marian Bell. January 31, 1905. Washington, D.C. Letter found by the author.

  “There is no use in my trying”: David Fairchild to Marian Bell. February 13, 1905. Wilmington, NC. Letter found by the author.

  “My friend—you know who”: David Fairchild to Marian Bell. February 13, 1905. Washington, D.C. Letter found by the author.

  “Uncle Barbour, this is Marian”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 457.

  an engagement necklace: “Current Comment.” The Wilmington Morning Star, May 16, 1905.

  “My dear Daddysan”: Fairchild, David. The World as Garden: The Life and Writings of David Fairchild. Edited by David W. Lee. West Charleston, SC: Createspace, 2013, p. 109.

  Marian’s dowry could be: Harris, Amanda. Fruits of Eden: David Fairchild and America’s Plant Hunters. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015, p. 110.

  two tickets to Roosevelt’s inaugural ball: Inaugural Ball. Pension Building, Washington D.C., March 4, 1905. Ticket and dance card found by the author.

  creamed oysters, French peas: Program for the Inaugural Ball. Washington, D.C., 1905.

  The blooms were Marian’s: Epstein, Beryl Williams, and Sam Epstein. Plant Explorer, David Fairchild. New York: J. Messner, 1961, p. 124.

  “My Marian, my own darling”: David Fairchild to Marian Bell. April 24, 1905. Washington, D.C. Letter found by the author.

  who traded seasons: Muller, Hugh. “Daisy Bell.” Interview by author. July 2015.

  white accordion chiffon dress: “Diplomats Join in Merry Dance.” Washington Times, May 11, 1905.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Cherry Trees with No Cherries

  In the 1880s, he watched: “San Jose Scale.” California State Integrated Pest Management Program. March 15, 2016.

  an expedition to Asia: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Entomology. How to Control the San Jose Scale. By Charles L. Marlatt. Washington, D.C. 1900.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Ladybug”: “Ladybugs Are Shielded.” The Nebraska Advertiser (Nemaha, NE), June 13, 1902.

  In the 1870s, it had been Marlatt: Pauly, Philip J. Biologists and the Promise of American Life: From Meriwether Lewis to Alfred Kinsey. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.

  his scale-hunting trip: Marlatt, C. L. An Entomologist’s Quest: The Story of the San Jose Scale; The Diary of a Trip Around the World, 1901–1902. Washington, D.C.: Monumental Printing Co., 1953.

  infestations of periodical cicadas: Marlatt, C. L. The Periodical Cicada: An Account of Cicada Septendecim, Its Natural Enemies and the Means of Preventing Its Injury. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Division of Entomology, 1898.

  They wanted space: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 313.

  Bells gifted them an automobile: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 313.

  a wartime ambulance driver: Pancoast, Helene. “Daisy Bell.” Interview by author. July 2015. Coconut Grove, Florida.

  “Like children, we waded”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 316.

  chickpea muffins: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  Fairchild ordered 125 of them: Yokohama Nursery Company. Botanical Catalog. 1901. The Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University.

  Uhei Suzuki, was so pleased: Ariyoshi, Kazuo. “Sakura trees.” Interview by author. February 2016. Yokohama, Japan.

  just ten cents apiece: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, unpublished draft. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  He carried his camera: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 415.

  “We are much given to claiming”: “Gives Washington Pride a Setback.” Washington Herald, May 5, 1910.

  beaches, polo fields, baseball diamonds: “Washington’s Parks.” Washington Post, November 8, 1914.

  a consular officer in Japan: Parsell, Diana. “Eliza Scidmore.” Interview by author. March 2016. Washington, D.C.

  “Why bother with cherry trees”: Fairchild, David. “Our Flowering Cherry Trees.” MS, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Date Unknown.

  Every tree Fairchild imported brought demand: “Garden Sites in Streets.” Washington Post, May 7, 1910.

  one boy from each school: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 412.

  “the most noted writer on Japan.”: Fairchild, David. “Our Flowering Cherry Trees.” MS, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Date Unknown.

  “Washington would one day”: Rutkow, Eric. American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation. New York: Scribner, 2012, p. 205. And in “Arbor Day.” Washington Star, May 1908.

  Japanese and Korean people . . . into segregated schools: Pauly, Philip J. Fruits and Plains: The Horticultural Transformation of America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007, p. 148.

  a fireworks display in his honor: Samuels, Gayle Brandow. Enduring Roots: Encounters with Trees, History, and the American Landscape. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999, p. 78.

  “There is nothing in the American life”: “Cherry Trees of Japan.” New York Times, August 31, 1909.

  three hundred finest cherry blossom trees: Fairchild, David. “Our Flowering Cherry Trees.” MS, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Date Unknown.

  three hundred trees turned into two thousand: U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees of Washington, D.C. By Roland Jefferson and Alan Fusonie. National Arboretum Contribution No. 4. Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research Service, 1977, p. 9.

  they rose to the highest levels of government: U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees of Washington, D.C. By Roland Jefferson and Alan Fusonie. National Arboretum Contribution No. 4. Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research Service, 1977, p. 4.

  thirteen-day trip to Washington: U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees of Washi
ngton, D.C. By Roland Jefferson and Alan Fusonie. National Arboretum Contribution No. 4. Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research Service, 1977, p. 10.

  trouble making up his mind: Miller Center, University of Virginia. “William Taft: Impact and Legacy.” Accessed May 7, 2016. http://millercenter.org/president/taft/impact-and-legacy.

  [Taft description]: “American Experience: TV’s Most-watched History Series.” PBS. Accessed October 7, 2015. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/presidents-taft/.

  a stodgy introvert: Miller Center, University of Virginia. “William Taft: Life Before the Presidency.” Accessed February 8, 2016. http://millercenter.org/president/biography/taft-life-before-the-presidency.

  the prospect of catastrophe: U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees of Washington, D.C. By Roland Jefferson and Alan Fusonie. National Arboretum Contribution No. 4. Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research Service, 1977, p. 10.

  vulnerable to corrosion: Fairchild, David. “Our Flowering Cherry Trees.” MS, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Date unknown.

  “Young stock would undoubtedly”: Letter from Charles Marlatt to James Wilson. January 19, 1910. Bureau of Entomology, USDA, Washington, D.C.

  “serious infestations”: Letter from Charles Marlatt to James Wilson. January 19, 1910. Bureau of Entomology, USDA, Washington, D.C.

  Chinese Diaspis: U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees of Washington, D.C. By Roland Jefferson and Alan Fusonie. National Arboretum Contribution No. 4. Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research Service, 1977, p. 10.

  wood-boring lepidopterus larvae: Stebbing, Edward Percy. Departmental Notes on Insects That Affect Forestry. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1902, p. 44.

  “Every sort of pest imaginable”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 413.

  a surge of support for people like Marlatt: Samuels, Gayle Brandow. Enduring Roots: Encounters with Trees, History, and the American Landscape. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999, p. 68.

  the president ordered the trees burned: U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees of Washington, D.C. By Roland Jefferson and Alan Fusonie. National Arboretum Contribution No. 4. Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research Service, 1977, p. 15.

  A news item: “Destroy Tokio Gift Trees.” New York Times, January 29, 1910.

  “To destroy the cherry trees”: “Topics of the Times.” New York Times, January 31, 1910.

  Ozaki received David Fairchild: Fairchild, David. “Our Flowering Cherry Trees.” MS, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Date unknown.

  “We are more satisfied”: McClellan, Ann. The Cherry Blossom Festival: Sakura Celebration. Piermont, NH: Bunker Hill, 2005, p. 34.

  “memorial of national friendship”: U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees of Washington, D.C. By Roland Jefferson and Alan Fusonie. National Arboretum Contribution No. 4. Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research Service, 1977, p. 19.

  Three thousand and twenty trees: National Park Service. “Cherry Blossom Festival.” U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Accessed May 10, 2016. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/cherryblossom/index.htm.

  trees were fumigated twice: Letter from Yoshinao Kozai to L. O. Howard. January 29, 1912.

  “minute and careful examination”: Letter from Spencer Cosby to Yukio Ozaki. April 4, 1912.

  The wife of the Japanese ambassador: U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees of Washington, D.C. By Roland Jefferson and Alan Fusonie. National Arboretum Contribution No. 4. Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research Service, 1977, p. 37.

  Gardeners planted extras: U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees of Washington, D.C. By Roland Jefferson and Alan Fusonie. National Arboretum Contribution No. 4. Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research Service, 1977, p. 20.

  a shipment of flowering dogwoods: U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees of Washington, D.C. By Roland Jefferson and Alan Fusonie. National Arboretum Contribution No. 4. Washington, D.C.: Agricultural Research Service, 1977, p. 44.

  bright white blooms: U.S. Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Service. “Flowering Dogwood” Plant Guide. By Sarah Wennerberg. USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center.

  a cottage industry around them: Litterst, Mike. “Cherry Tree Maintenance.” Interview by author. March 3, 2016.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN: The Urge to Walk

  the only reason she married him: Fairchild, David. “Early Days of SPI.” Speech, Washington, D.C., October 9, 1922.

  “no more tramps together”: Douglas. Adventures in a Green World, p. 41.

  “envoys of agriculture”: Farlow, Laura. “Envoys of Agriculture.” The Strand, May 1908, pp. 385–91.

  “Don’t waste time and postage”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 157.

  Missouri Botanical Garden: Shurtleff, William, H. T. Huang, and Akiko Aoyagi. History of Soybeans and Soyfoods in China and Taiwan. Lafayette, CA: Soyinfo Center, 2014, p. 2601.

  something practical, like making musical instruments: Cunningham, Isabel Shipley. Frank N. Meyer: Plant Hunter in Asia. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1984.

  “It was a characteristic sight”: Fairchild, David. “Exploring the Klondike of China’s Plant Gold.” Date unknown. TS, Meyer Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  sweating so profusely: Photograph of Frank N. Meyer Collection, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD.

  “His eager face was sparkling”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 315.

  “What don’t we know of the world”: Fairchild, David. “Exploring the Klondike of China’s Plant Gold.” Date unknown. TS, Meyer Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  “Better small and fine”: Fairchild, David. “Exploring the Klondike of China’s Plant Gold.” Date unknown. TS, Meyer Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  Alexander Graham Bell could tell: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 316.

  “makes its appearance on the Peking market”: Fairchild, David. Early Days of the Seed Distribution Program. Unpublished essay. Date unknown.

  Chinese outlaws, murderous thieves: “Capital’s Columbus Starts This Week On a World-Wide Two-Year Search.” Washington Post, August 15, 1909.

  “I am pessimistic by nature”: Cunningham, Isabel Shipley. Frank N. Meyer: Plant Hunter in Asia. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1984.

  “a beautiful job”: Harris, Amanda. Fruits of Eden: David Fairchild and America’s Plant Hunters. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015, p. 126.

  “to enrich the United States of America”: Frank Meyer to David Fairchild. October 11, 1907. Peking. National Agricultural Library.

  Drummond: Douglas. Adventures in a Green World, p. 40.

  “I . . . never dreamed”: Letter from Barbour Lathrop to David Fairchild. February 5, 1904. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  “The work of plant introduction”: Douglas. Adventures in a Green World, p. 45.

  to protect their design: McCullough, David G. The Wright Brothers. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015.

  “I don’t trust him an inch”: McCullough. The Wright Brothers, p. 190.

  large board of tetrahedral cells: Author visit to the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site. Baddeck, Nova Scotia. July 2015.

  an equal hunger for detail: Muller, Hugh. “Alexander Graham Bell.” Interview by author. July 2015.

  large discoveries were the sum of small ones: Burleigh, Nina. The Stranger and the Statesman: James Smithson, John Quincy Adams, and the Making of America’s Greatest Museum: the Smithsonian. New York: Morrow, 2003, p. 3.

  “
I sensed vaguely in 1907”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 333.

  the June Bug: “Record Flight of Aeroplane.” Morning Tribune (Altoona, PA), June 23, 1908.

  “frail but trim, with its struts”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, pp. 341–42.

  the feat had been accomplished: “Wins Aeroplane Trophy.” Washington Post, July 5, 1908.

  “the sky would be full of aeroplanes”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 344.

  Frank Meyer returned from China: Shurtleff, William, H. T. Huang, and Akiko Aoyagi. History of Soybeans and Soyfoods in China and Taiwan. Lafayette, CA: Soyinfo Center, 2014, p. 550.

  his fingernails so long: Fairchild, David. “Exploring the Klondike of China’s Plant Gold.” Date unknown. TS, Meyer Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  they curled upward: Harris. Fruits of Eden, p. 134.

  a thin-skinned watermelon: “Kansas Man’s Discovery.” Leavenworth Times, July 8, 1909.

  feed for livestock, food for humans: Department of Agriculture inventory reports. National Agricultural Library. Beltsville, MD. 1905–1908.

  He arrived with twenty tons: Cunningham, Isabel. Frank Meyer, Agricultural Explorer. Arnoldia 44, no. 3 (1984): 25.

  two rare white-cheeked gibbons: Cunningham. Frank Meyer, Agricultural Explorer, p. 10.

  “western devil”: Harris. Fruits of Eden, p. 126.

  heavy boots and a round wool hat: Fairchild, David. “Exploring the Klondike of China’s Plant Gold.” Date unknown. TS, Meyer Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.

  hungry bears, tigers, and wolves: “Capital’s Columbus Starts This Week on a World-Wide Two-Year Search.” Washington Post, August 15, 1909.

  He imitated the bandits: Constance Carter. “Plant Hunters.” Journeys and Crossings, Library of Congress. Accessed May 12, 2016. https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/journey/planthunter-tran script.html.

  “Hotel of 1000 bedbugs”: Cunningham, Isabel Shipley. Frank N. Meyer: Plant Hunter in Asia. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1984, pp. 34–35.