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ment's search for new varieties of sugar cane with which to 

 revive the industry in Louisiana and other parts of the South. 



Not only does it mark the close of the first chapter, but of 

 the most thrilling chapter. Doctor Brandes' party, which in- 

 cluded Dr. Jacob Jeswiet of Holland, C. E. Pemberton of 

 Hawaii, and Richard Peck of Illinois as pilot, was the first 

 scientific plant-collecting expedition to utilize an airplane as the 

 principal means of transportation in an unexplored region. The 

 seaplane, equipped with pontoons for landing on lakes and 

 rivers, carried the party more than 10,000 miles over the jungle- 

 covered areas of New Guinea in the course of which they dis- 

 covered 14 lakes and two rivers never before mapped. Numer- 

 ous visits to tribes of pigmies and head hunters who were to see 

 white men for the first time gave the party some interesting 

 adventures and resulted in one of the natives taking a flight 

 with them to Port Moresby where efforts will be made to de- 

 velop him into an interpreter for the local Government. 



But now the party has dispersed and the seaplane returned 

 to its owner; the second chapter begins in tedious work re- 

 quiring time and patience to develop the new cane varieties 

 into something of value to the sugar industry. Out of the ton of 

 green material collected from the wilds, containing cuttings of 

 221 varieties of two different species, may come the "super 

 cane" which will restore the sugar-cane industry to its former 

 stage of prosperity by successfully resisting the mosaic and 

 other diseases which brought about the depression. 



