The World Was My Garden: Travels of a Plant Explorer
Product Description
By David Fairchild
David Fairchild wrote this book to describe his extensive world travels and his work introducing new plant species to the United States. In addition to sharing his legendary tropical botanical expertise, Fairchild provided graphic accounts of native cultures he was able to see before their modernization. He was an accomplished photographer and illustrated the book himself.
This is his personal story of his experiences, traveling endlessly, absorbing information about plant life and sending back cuttings to experiment with, investigating plant disease, and so on. His training and experiences in European laboratories and his travels brought him into contact with most of the people in his own field, and this narrative is full of human interest material, and anecdote.
Fairchild worked for the USDA in its infancy, was one of the first to investigate microbial causes of plant disease, and traveled the world documenting agricultural practices. He was a humorous and modest man who lead a fascinating life.
David Grandison Fairchild (April 7, 1869 - August 6, 1954) was an American botanist and plant explorer. Fairchild was responsible for the introduction of more than 200,000 exotic plants and varieties of established crops into the United States, including soybeans, pistachios, mangos, nectarines, dates, bamboos, and flowering cherries. Certain varieties of wheat, cotton, and rice became especially economically important.
Table of Contents
I. Background
II. Kansas
III. I Enter Government Service
IV. I Meet Barbara Lathrop And Reach Naples
V. Breslau, Berlin, And Bonn
VI. Java Ho!
VII. The Lathrop-Fairchild Odyssey Begins
VIII. The Cannibal Isles
IX. American Interlude
X. The West Indies And South America
XI. Cotton In Egypt
XII. Across The Java Sea
XIII. From Finland To Dalmatia
XIV. Land Of The Pharaohs
XV. Malta, Tunis, Algiers, And Spain
XVI. England, America, And West To The Orient Once More
XVII. The Persian Gulf And Bagdad
XVIII. A Glimpse Of Saigon And A Long Stay In Japan
XIX. I Visit Luther Burbank And Circumnavigate Africa
XX. I Meet Alexander Graham Bell
XXI. A Grand Tour Of These United States
XXII. Mostly Personal
XXIII. Washington, Madeira, And “In The Woods”
XXIV. Baddeck, Nova Scotia
XXV. Mostly Aviation
XXVI. Lacquer And Wild Wheat
XXVII. Aaron Aaronsohn And Joseph Rock
XXVIII. More Plants, Introduction Gardens And Mr. Bell
XXIX. Florida In 1912
XXX. Monsters Of The Backyard
XXXI. The Flowering Cherry Trees Are Planted In Washington
XXXII. Quarantine Increases And War Begins
XXXIII. Seeds From Afghanistan
XXXIV. The Plains Of Canada
XXXV. The War And Dried Vegetables
XXXVI. The Allison Armour Expeditions
XXXVII. Aloha
Index
David Fairchild wrote this book to describe his extensive world travels and his work introducing new plant species to the United States. In addition to sharing his legendary tropical botanical expertise, Fairchild provided graphic accounts of native cultures he was able to see before their modernization. He was an accomplished photographer and illustrated the book himself.
This is his personal story of his experiences, traveling endlessly, absorbing information about plant life and sending back cuttings to experiment with, investigating plant disease, and so on. His training and experiences in European laboratories and his travels brought him into contact with most of the people in his own field, and this narrative is full of human interest material, and anecdote.
Fairchild worked for the USDA in its infancy, was one of the first to investigate microbial causes of plant disease, and traveled the world documenting agricultural practices. He was a humorous and modest man who lead a fascinating life.
David Grandison Fairchild (April 7, 1869 - August 6, 1954) was an American botanist and plant explorer. Fairchild was responsible for the introduction of more than 200,000 exotic plants and varieties of established crops into the United States, including soybeans, pistachios, mangos, nectarines, dates, bamboos, and flowering cherries. Certain varieties of wheat, cotton, and rice became especially economically important.
Table of Contents
I. Background
II. Kansas
III. I Enter Government Service
IV. I Meet Barbara Lathrop And Reach Naples
V. Breslau, Berlin, And Bonn
VI. Java Ho!
VII. The Lathrop-Fairchild Odyssey Begins
VIII. The Cannibal Isles
IX. American Interlude
X. The West Indies And South America
XI. Cotton In Egypt
XII. Across The Java Sea
XIII. From Finland To Dalmatia
XIV. Land Of The Pharaohs
XV. Malta, Tunis, Algiers, And Spain
XVI. England, America, And West To The Orient Once More
XVII. The Persian Gulf And Bagdad
XVIII. A Glimpse Of Saigon And A Long Stay In Japan
XIX. I Visit Luther Burbank And Circumnavigate Africa
XX. I Meet Alexander Graham Bell
XXI. A Grand Tour Of These United States
XXII. Mostly Personal
XXIII. Washington, Madeira, And “In The Woods”
XXIV. Baddeck, Nova Scotia
XXV. Mostly Aviation
XXVI. Lacquer And Wild Wheat
XXVII. Aaron Aaronsohn And Joseph Rock
XXVIII. More Plants, Introduction Gardens And Mr. Bell
XXIX. Florida In 1912
XXX. Monsters Of The Backyard
XXXI. The Flowering Cherry Trees Are Planted In Washington
XXXII. Quarantine Increases And War Begins
XXXIII. Seeds From Afghanistan
XXXIV. The Plains Of Canada
XXXV. The War And Dried Vegetables
XXXVI. The Allison Armour Expeditions
XXXVII. Aloha
Index