16 ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 



can get from a Chinese species of pear, which is, in our opinion, the 

 best species that has ever been introduced into this country for a 

 pear stock on which to bud our cultivated varieties of pears. You 

 all realize that the greatest difficulty in pear growing in this country 

 is caused by the destructive disease known as the pear blight. Mil- 

 lions of dollars are spent yearly in the fight against pear blight. We 

 have found among these Chinese pear trees certain strains ; they are 

 not even species — that is, they are varieties of species which when 

 grown in this country have proven resistant to this disease — and 

 the nurserymen want these pears for stocks to-day on which to bud 

 the ordinary pear. Because of the difficulty of getting pear and 

 apple stock plants from Europe the nurserymen are asking us to 

 study these Chinese pear trees, and the demand is coming for their 

 seeds and the old tree. in the Arnold Arboretum will be extremely 

 valuable because it can furnish authentic seeds of this species. 



Mr. Gould. Do most of the pear seeds come from Europe ? 



Mr. Fairchild. Yes. 



The Chairman. Is this Chinese strain immune from blight? 



Mr. Fairchild. It is very resistant to the disease, as discovered by 

 a very remarkable man in Oregon by the name of Reimer, who, by 

 means of artificial inoculation, determined the immunity or resist- 

 ance to disease of the Chinese stocks. 



The question of area of such a garden is an extremely important 

 one. If you are looking at a full-grown pear tree, or apple tree, 

 or oak, or any one of the many species of trees we propose to grow 

 in these gardens you will find that they will cover about 40 feet 

 square of ground. When you divide 400 acres by the area which it 

 is necessary to give one good-sized oak tree you discover that there 

 are places for about 10,000 full-grown trees. Inasmuch as it is un- 

 safe to put less than two specimens of a kind in a collection — it is 

 the rule in all botanical gardens I know of to put at least two — in 

 view of the fact that to-day, as Mr. Swingle will show you in con- 

 nection with his extensive breeding experiments, we must not only 

 have the species but the strains or varieties, which differ somewhat 

 less from each other than the species, but sufficiently to be of im- 

 mense importance, you will soon discover that 10,000 trees are not 

 enough for a botanical garden. 



I should urge at least 400 acres, and to put it on a par with our 

 rival in the south, Rio. we should have 2,000 acres. I presume many 

 of you realize that Rio de Janeiro, because of its scenic beauty, as 

 well as the broad-minded policies they have adopted in the develop- 

 ment of their arboreal vegetation, is rapidly becoming the most 

 beautiful capital in the Western Hemisphere. 



Another important factor in the utilization of botanical gardens 

 arises from the actual disappearance of species. I have had the 

 pleasure of helping to preserve from extinction a valuable tree, a 

 relative of the cotton plant, occurring in the Hawaiian Islands, 

 allowed to be browsed upon by the cattle of those islands. It took 

 an edict from the governor and special fences to preserve those last 

 survivals, and we got their discoverer to send seeds from the islands 

 of this relative of the cotton plant, and we have distributed it to the 

 onlv places that are safe, the botanical gardens of the world. 



It is a mistake to think that these valuable species are not disap- 

 pearing, and they are extremely valuable. In China, even where we 



