126 



with plant diseases and also with the important campaigns in 

 disease eradication. In 1913 he organized the Journal of Agri- 

 cultural Research and for ten years was chairman of the edi- 

 torial committee. 



Dr. Kellerman was born in 1879 at Gottingen, Germany, of 

 American parents and was brought to this country by his par- 

 ents when a year old. He graduated from Cornell University in 

 1900. 



An expedition has been sent to Central Asia by the U. S. 

 Dept. of Agriculture to find superior drought-resisting pasture 

 grasses. 



"As leader in charge of the expedition to the Hingan Moun- 

 tains and the plains adjoining the Gobi, the Department of 

 Agriculture has secured the collaboration of Prof. Nicholas 

 Roerich, the internationally recognized authority on Central 

 Asia. For the last eleven years Prof. Roerich has made extensive 

 expeditions into Sikkim, Kashmir, Tibet, Chinese Turkestan, 

 Mongolia, the Gobi desert and the Altai region where his ex- 

 haustive studies of the scientific and cultural backgrounds of the 

 entire Asiatic field have been second to none. Since 1929 he has 

 also been interested in botanical expeditions into western Tibet, 

 studying especially the medicinal plants of this region. 



"Accompanying Prof. Roerich are his son, George Roerich, 

 an expert on Central Asiatic tongues, and H. G. MacMillan 

 and J. L. Stephens of the Bureau of Plant Industry, who are 

 fundamentally trained in the study of American grasses." 



Secretary Wallace states that "On the edge of the Gobi des- 

 ert in Central Asia are great pasture lands where the summer 

 temperatures often go above 100 degrees and the winter tem- 

 peratures more than 40 degrees below zero. The rainfall in this 

 area is less than 16 inches annually but apparently there are 

 certain pasture grasses which through thousands of years of 

 natural selection have learned to adapt themselves to an en- 

 vironment as severe as that of our Great Plains states this past 

 year. These grasses are presumably able to go dormant in times 

 of great drought, heat and cold, and then spring very rapidly 

 into growth under the influence of summer and fall showers. 



Secretary Wallace has formally designated the field activities 

 at Beltsville and at Bell, Aid., as the "Beltsville Research Cen- 



