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[[newspaper article left side]]
Party Traveling 10,000 Miles To Fish for Rainbow Trout

Fishermen Insist They Grow to Prodigious Size in Argentina

[[May 3]]

Bearing gifts for South American zoos, Dr. William M. Mann, director of the National Zoological Park is en route to points in Brazil, Argentine and Uruguay to collect birds, reptiles and animals.  Among those on board his ship is William. H. Shippen, jr., feature writer of The Star staff, who here presents the [[underline]] eighth[[/underline]] of a series of articles about Dr. Mann's expedition. 

By W.H. SHIPPEN, Jr.,
Star Staff Correspondent

ABOARD THE S.S. URUGUAY. - "That's a long way to go to catch a fish! Suppose they aren't biting when you ge there?"
[[image - W.H. Shippen, Jr.]]
Caleb E. S. Burns grinned and settled back in his deck chair. "In any event," he said, "you'll have to admit we fisherman are getting a pleasant ride!"

And so they were - a 10,000-mile ride. From their home on the island of Kauai, in Lihue, Territory of Hawaii, Mr. and Mrs. Burns crossed to Vancouver in a Canadian boat and flew to New York in time to catch this ship for an additional jaunt of 6,000 miles and more.

From Buenos Aires they will go by train to Mahuel Huapi, a national park in the lake region of the Andrean foothills, to fish for a trout native to the United States--the rainbow which (if you would listen to fishermen) has grown to prodigious size after it was transplanted to the Argentine.

[bold] Son Will Join Party. [/bold]

Even the prospect of fighting a big rainbow in a mountain stream fed by melting snow is not quite as exciting to Mr. and Mrs. Burns just now as the prospect of getting a radiogram from their son, Caleb, jr., 23, a sugar technician, who is planning to take a Hawaiian Clipper, fly down the West Coast of North and South America and join his parents in the Southern Andes.

With Mr. Burns, who is general superintendent of the largest sugar plantation in Hawaii, is Charles Aloysius (Father) Brooks, an executive of the sugar company and a great spinner of fish yarns while not organizing deck sports. Mr. Burns, a native of Maine, takes quite a bit of kidding from "Fahter" about how many potatoes he dug as a boy - before Maine and Vermont withdrew from the Union in 1936, etc. Being a Yankee, he bides his time until he gets an opening and then makes every shot count.

The globe trotters on board say Mr. Burns is one of Hawaii'smost genial hosts. His home overlooks the Pacific on the island which he manages - one terrace faces the harbor and another a beach where long rollers come curling in. Here "Father" Brooks displays his form on the surf board - none too smartly, if you would like to his best friend and severest critic.

Mr. and Mrs. Burns call their home Kauapaupili, which, translated, means "the mist that hands like a grass skirt over the islands." One Hawaiian legend is that Kamehamena III, first Christian king of the islands, used to take his followers into the mountains to collect "pili" grass with which to build churches.

[bold] Mist Turns to Rain. [/bold]

On one of these trips, the story goes, the water supply ran out and the king and his followers nearly died of thirst. Whereupon the king prayed. A mist formed on the mountainside. Presently the mist turned to rain and the party was saved. Since that time the mist which drapes the mountains like a grass skirt is called kauapaupili, a name given by the king.

Mrs. Burns, an active and gracious matron, who swims and dances with the youngsters on board, is of island stock, a decendant of the early missionaries.  "It is a saying on the islands," Mrs. Burns remarked with a smile, "that when the missionaries first came the natives owned the islands and the missionaries went to church, and now the missionaries own the islands and the native go to church. But don't misunderstand me...that is not my saying. I merely quote somebody else."

Last year the Burnses went to New Zeland to fish for trout. "We had fine luck," Mr. Burns said. "People believed our fish stories when we got home.

"But with Father Brooks along - he's pretty well known as a story teller (too well known) - I think we had better bring back a few trophies!"

"I'll catch them faster than you can stuff them!" said Father Brooks.

[[line]]

[Italicized] (Tomorrow:  Plants with the potential strength of armies.) [/Italicized]

[[newspaper article right side]]
Scientist on Zoo Ship Carries Tiny but Might Cargo to Brazil

U.S. Horticulturist's Gifts May Benefit A Whole Nation

Bearing gifts for South American zoos, Dr. William M. Mann, director of the National Zoological Park is en route to points in Brazil, Argentine and Uruguay to collect birds, reptiles and animals.  Among those on board his ship is William. H. Shippen, jr., feature writer of The Star staff, who here presents the [[underline]] ninth[[/underline]] of a series of articles about Dr. Mann's expedition. ^ [[May 4]]

By W.H. SHIPPEN, Jr.,
Star Staff Correspondent

ABOARD THE STEAMSHIP URUGUAY. - The potential strength of the tiny plants which Dr. Walter T. Swingle nourishes in his stateroom may equal that of battleships and armies.

The Department of Agriculture horticulturist is going south in this ship to help Brazil get back her own again - quinine and rubber. The scientist also is importing adecorative palm discovered by President Roosevelt.

It seems incredible that plants which originated in Brazil and neighboring countries, and which are so much needed in South America, should be returned now from the other side of the world - from the East Indies, where they have been cultivated and improved for almost a centry.

How Dr. Swingle got his quinine seed from the East Indies in something he won't talk about. The East Indians have a monopoly; they control the output, and the price is high - too high, often, for the poor of Brazil, who need quinine badly in the malarial areas. The export of the seeds of the best quinine species is jealously guarded.

[bold] Story of Quinine. [/bold]

The Indians of South America knew the curative quality of quinine before the Spaniards and Portugese arrived. They taught it to the white man. The discovery of the best quinine ever found is an interesting story, Dr. Swingle says:

About 1860 an Indiana found a particularly potent cinchuna tree, from which quinine is derived, in the high country of Bolivia. He gave the seeds to his English master, an exporter of Peruvian bark, who sent them to London. Later, it was said, the local officials learned about it. They beat the Indian who had given away the seeds so badly that he died. No one else has been able to find that tree.

The British, who (since the days of Capt. Bligh and the good ship Bounty) have been alive to such opportunities, sent the seeds to India and started quinine culture there. The Dutch in some manner acquired them for their possessions in the East Indies. For generations they have cultivated the trees and kept the price at a substantially high level.

Dr. Swingle, who has friends in all parts of the world, got his quinine seeds from a collector in the East Indies whose name he will not mention. Dr. Swingle for years had been after the collector to get him the seeds of a vigorous species of litchi, a delicious fruit with a rough, paperlike shell inclosing an aromatic pulp. The Washington scientist is a persistent man.

[bold] A Gift Grows. [/bold]

Then one day (Dr. Swingle won't say where or when) the collector came to him and said: "Here's a gift for you. Now will you shut up about those blankety-blank litchi seeds?"

"When I learned what I had (quinine seeds)," Dr. Swingle said, "I shut up!"  Dr. Swingle's seeds were planted in a departmental greenhouse in Washington. They matured enough last year for export to Puerto Rico, but a thousand plants of the two most desirable varieties were sent to Brazil.

One Brazilian planter, upon learning the seedlings were arriving, flew to Rio to meet the ship. Since he was first, he was allowed a few plants by the Brazilian government, although his region, from what was then known of quinine culture, had too low an altitude. Dr. Swingle, however, is convincened that this planter's seedlings (as well as others planted in the higher regions of Brazil) will do well.

[[image - Dr. Walter T. Swingle.]]

Dr. Swing said that a recently new system of growing quinine trees close together has been discovered. By the old system the trees were set 20 to 30 feet apart, taking about 10 years to grow large enough to yield a pay crop.

[bold] To Advise on Rubber Also. [/bold]

"We learned," Dr. Swingle said, "That the improved species can be grown thich when young. As the trees grow up they can be thinned out yearly. This thinning begins about the third year and young trees cut away after that will produce enough quinine to pay for the thinning. I am sure fine quinine can be grown in Brazil for distribution at a low price. I hope to see the day when every resident of South American - no matter how poor - can have all the quinine he needs."

This expert on new crops plans to discuss with Brazilian scientists discoveries that may make rubber culture profitable in Brazil.  Already South American plantations are developing a new technique in rubber culture, he says.  Although the rubber trees originated in Brazil (the Indians used rubber for centuries to make balls for a game they played), the plant was taken to London by an Englishman and later commercialized in the East Indies.

There another monopoly was developed.  Firestone now is growing rubber in Liberia, and Ford has a thriving plantation of young trees on the Papajos River, not far from the Amazon, in Central Brazil.  Today in Brazil the only rubber trees (except those cultivated by Ford) are wild.  Brazil produces only enough rubber in a year, Dr. Swingle said, to last the United States for a day.

[[bold]] A Reserve Supply for U.S.? [[/bold]]

In event of a general war the United States might be cut off from her rubber supply in the East Indies.  Rubber and quinine would be important.  Dr. Swingle hopes to see Brazil producing them both in commercial quantities in a few years-as well as many other tropical plant products which can be imported to the United States.

He seems the sort of man who gets what he wants.

The expert is on "loan" to the Brazilian government.  He is a distinguished explorer in plant fields and has traveled the world for years looking for the fruits and vegetables likely to benefit America.

He brought the first varieties of improved date palm to California and Arizona, and by years of work established date culture on a commercial scale in the two States.  He also co-operated in the establishment of Egyptian cotton culture on a 10,000-bale-a-year scale in Arizona.  While working in Florida he hybridized the grapefruit with the tangerine and produced the "tangelo," a breakfast delicacy mush esteemed by epicures throughout the United States-and especially in Washington.

[[bold]] Has New Palm for Brazil. [[/bold]]

Dr. Swingle went to school in Kansas with Dr. David Fairchild, author of the best seller, "The World Is My Garden."  The two have been friends and associates for the last 50 years.

In Dr. Swingle's stateroom is a small, triangular-shaped greenhouse designed by the English botanist Ward 150 years ago for plants in transit.  In it he has the quinine and other tropical plants, including several beautiful ornamental palms new to Brazil.  He also has tiny seedlings of a new palm discovered by naturalists who accompanied President Roosevelt last year on a trinp to the Galapagos Islands.  This palm probably will be named in honor of the President, an enthusiastic amateur naturalist.  Dr. Swingle hopes the palm will thrive in the famous Botanic Garden at Rio, which has one of the most famous palm collections in the world.

To aid in his co-operative educational work Dr. Swingle is taking along a microfilm projector developed by Science Service in Washington to show enlarged photographs of reading matter on a screen.  Thus a series of tiny photographs of the pages of a book can be studied at leisure without the necessity of having the original volume at hand.

[[bold]] Wants Closer Ties With Brazil. ]]/bold]]

Many books of a technical nature cannot be loaned, but are held within the shelves of the great libraries in Washington.  However, even a good-sized volume can be photographed in half an hour and the film is light enough to be sent by airmail at a small cost.  If Dr. Swingle or a Brazilian expert co-operating with him should desire a copy of a certain volume in Washington it could be quickly received by airmail.

Dr. Swingle is anxious to promote closer relations between the United States and Brazil.  "Brazil is a friendly country," he said.  "It's larger than the United States and has more land which can be cultivated.  Brazil's climate is the best of any large tropical country, thanks to its plateau character, and takes up where our's leaves off-that is, about New Orleans or Southern Florida.

"Brazilian products, except for cotton, do not compete with ours.  The United States and Brazil can supplement each other if they only would.

"More Americans should speak Portugese now that thousands of Brazilians know English.  I would like to see Portugese taught in all of our colleges.  It is spoken by as many people in South America as Spanish."

At this point Dr. Swingle excused himself.  He had an engagement with his school teacher, and, being a good scholar, did not want to be tardy.

The scientist is studying Portugese, and how hard he studies!

[[italic]] Tomorrow: Good-by to a huntsman. [[italic]]