ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 17 



got this pear seed, our explorer, Mr. Frank N. Meyer, reported that 

 we must get these at once or they would be gone. In the interval 

 between his two trips the forests of these wild pears had been cut 

 down. F. H. Wilson said the same thing to me recently in regard to> 

 the Formosan Conifer, which he has just brought over and which 

 the arboretum is distributing in the extreme South. 



Mr. Moore. Do you distribute to botanical gardens now ? 



Mr. Fairchild. Extensively. 



Mr. Moore. But you have no adequate place in Washington? 



Mr. Fairchild. We have a place in Washington, but on a rental 

 basis. We shall be obliged to leave our present site in about eight 

 years, and you can imagine the encouragement which this short lease 

 gives to one in the planting of these foreign trees and shrubs. 



Senator Knox. Where is that place located? 



Mr. Fairchild. Near Eockville, between Kockville and Washing- 

 ton, on the Rockville Pike. 



The Chairman. How extensive is it? 



Mr. Fairchild. We have the use there of about 200 acres of land. 

 We bring in about 2,000 species and varieties a year, and we have 

 been forced, I say, with a great deal of feeling, to send these all out 

 to different places in the country, where Ave have small gardens — - 

 California, the Puget Sound region, Florida, Georgia, and other 

 places, where we have tracts of land which have been deeded in trust 

 to us and which Congress is now acting upon; and we trust they 

 will accept these small parcels of land. 



Mr. Fess. Do climatic conditions force 3^011 to go to various sec- 

 tions? 



Mr. Fairchild. Certainly. Not all the plants in the world can be 

 grown here, but we can grow a larger variety of interesting plants 

 here in this region, exclusive of conifers, than in most of the gardens 

 in the United States to-day. 



Mr. Fess. Does the Government support or own the various gar- 

 dens in various sections of the country under your jurisdiction? 



Mr. Fairchild. Those are what I am speaking of. Those were 

 given to the Government,, or an attempt was made to give them to the 

 Government by the owners of the land, but the Government had no 

 authority to accept them, and we are getting that authority now from 

 Congress. 



The Chairman. For this purely utilitarian use to which you re- 

 ferred, why do you not ask Congress, if you have not already asked 

 them, to appropriate for lands in the country, which would be well 

 enough for you to plant these importations in until distributed? 

 You do not need a botanical garden or a park for that sort of work,, 

 do you? 



Mr. Fairchild. We do, indeed. 



The Chairman. Why? 



Mr. Fairchild. Because of the length of time required to grow . 

 these plants. We have recently acquired a small tract between here 

 and Baltimore for the propagation of these plants, which we send 

 out to the amount of about 250,000 a year, but such a tract as that 

 is not adequate for the maintenance of these long-lived plants. An 

 arboretum or botanical garden of this character comes into its full 

 ulness in about 25 years. The big trees, the important trees, 

 186037— 20— vt 1 2 



