Exploring for plants

by David Fairchild

"Exploring for Plants" is taken from notes of the Allison Vincent Armour expeditions for the US Department of Agriculture 1925-1927. David Fairchild, who became a director of the National Geographic Society, travel edfrom the Asia to Africa on the hunt for plants.

591 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1930

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good for the plants and Fairchild’s intrepid explorations, considering he was in his late 50s, and for a view of life around the world between the wars. Not many people have had Fairchild’s knowledge of plants and his personal experiences with plant exploration. Deeply anachronistic in both its desire for wild introductions and some of its racial attitudes, and Fairchild’s obvious embrace of eugenics, common in its day but depressing to read regardless. It is infrequently expressed in the book, fortunately.

[John Sgammato · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to give this book 4 stars and 3 stars, depending on the reader's interests. If you want to know deep details of life all around the world before WWII and its changes, this is easily four stars.
If you want the charm and philosophical reflection of his later books, that's not here... It's a unique and encompassing travelogue, not a memoir.
I was a bit taken aback, after a thousand pages of general good-nature to all, to see many references comparing African natives to American "darkies", until I realized that Fairchild was using the less pejorative term of his day and people. He's a rather colorblind fellow, until 1920s political correctness gets in the way of communication!