U.S. Plant Introduction Garden Records

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Historical Sketch
• Scope and Content Note
• Container List
• Publications
• Selected Bibliography

Introduction

The U.S. Plant Introduction Garden Records cover the period from 1895 to 1951, with the bulk of the material produced between 1908 and 1919. The collection occupies 5.75 linear feet of shelf space. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Subtropical Horticulture Research Station in Miami, Florida transferred these records from its library to the Special Collections of the National Agricultural Library (NAL) in 2014.

The materials in the collection are in fair to good condition and may be used without restrictions. The supplementary reports on the Miami station and specific crops were removed from their original cloth-covered binders because of water damage. These reports were re-housed in acid-free folders and document boxes. Some of the USDA publications transferred with this collection, including Farmers' Bulletins and Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletins, were discarded because they were in poor condition, and copies already exist in NAL's general collection.

This collection was arranged and described by Diane Wunsch in 2015.

Historical Sketch

The USDA established a Plant Introduction Garden on six acres of rented land on Brickell Avenue in Miami, Florida in 1898. David G. Fairchild, chief of the USDA's Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction at that time, led an effort to build field stations for adapting imported plants in different regions of the country. He planned the Miami facility as a place to test, develop, and distribute plant material brought back by USDA plant explorers from around the world.

The original garden site soon became crowded. In 1914, the USDA's Bureau of Plant Industry leased an additional 25 acres in the Buena Vista subdivision of north Miami in order to expand. As the department's plant exploration activities continued, the garden quickly outgrew the combined Brickell and Buena Vista sites. On Fairchild's recommendation, the USDA obtained permission from the War Department to use part of the abandoned Chapman Field Military Reservation for the plant introduction garden.

The first permanent planting was made at the Chapman Field site in 1923. Over the next three years, many of the plants grown at the Brickell and Buena Vista gardens were transferred to the new location. In 1926, a hurricane swept through Miami, causing severe damage to the early gardens. They were soon abandoned, most of their plants having been established at Chapman Field.

In a departmental reorganization in 1972, the Chapman Field facility was renamed the Subtropical Horticulture Research Station (SHRS). In 1987, the plant collections at SHRS were formally designated as part of the National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS), and Chapman Field became a National Germplasm Repository.

Scope and Content Note

The U.S. Plant Introduction Garden Records comprise materials from files, reports, manuscripts, and publications transferred from the USDA's Subtropical Horticulture Research Station in Miami, Florida. The records in this collection contain original and copy correspondence, notes, reports, plant inventories, photographs, lists, books, and drawings that record the early activities of the Miami research station.

The bulk of the files contain materials, primarily notes, correspondence, photographs, clippings, and pamphlets, on the subject of mangoes. The documents in the files were kept in their original subject order without any apparent format or date arrangement. One box of files contains original handwritten and typewritten correspondence from David G. Fairchild to T. B. McClelland, Harold Loomis, R. A. Young, and others at the Miami station between 1939 and 1951. There are also carbon copies of replies from station personnel to Fairchild. Other records include documents from Fairchild's 1939-1941 Pacific expedition, and two handwritten and illustrated notebooks of F. Wilson Popenoe recording his observations of mangoes in India. In addition, there are a few items related to the investigation of cryptostegia as an alternative source of rubber during World War II.

The supplementary project reports cover the following tropical crops: Annona (anona), artichoke, avocado, carob, chayote, lychee (litchi), mango, and papaya. There are also three volumes of supplemental reports on the Miami plant introduction garden's activities, and a list of rubber-producing plants.

Among the bound volumes are reports of David Fairchild's trips to the Florida plant introduction station in 1913, 1914, and 1915. The collection also includes a few volumes of bulletins of the Bureau of Plant Industry and the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, and proceedings of the American Pomological Society for 1891 and 1895.

Container List

Box 001 - Fairchild files. 1936-1951, undated.

Box	Folder	Title	Date(s)
001	001	David Fairchild correspondence	1939-1944
001	002	David Fairchild correspondence	1945-1951
001	003	Photograph of David Fairchild testing spray equipment	undated
001	004	Fairchild Expedition, notes sent to Washington, D.C.	1939-1941, 1943
001	005	Fairchild Expedition, original notes (1 of 2)	1939-1941
001	006	Fairchild Expedition, original notes (2 of 2)	1939-1941
001	007	Charles Torrey Simpson library, bibliographies	1936, 1943, 1945

Box 002 - Mango files. 1889-1919, undated.

Box	Folder	Title	Date(s)
002	001	Mango (1 of 2)	1889-1919
002	002	Mango (2 of 2)	1889-1919
002	003	Mango (1 of 2)	1908-1916, undated
002	004	Mango (2 of 2)	1908-1916, undated
002	005	Mango (1 of 2)	1909-1916, undated
002	006	Mango (2 of 2)	1909-1916, undated
002	007	Mango	1903, 1907, 1911-1918, undated
002	008	Mango varieties, L	1903, 1908, 1910, 1915, undated
002	009	Mango varieties, M	1911, undated
002	010	Mango varieties, N	1903, 1916, undated
002	011	Mango varieties, O	undated

Box 003 - Mango files. 1889-1922, undated.

Box	Folder	Title	Date(s)
003	001	Mango	1889, 1903-1915, 1922, undated
003	002	Mango	1889, 1903, 1909-1916, undated
003	003	Mango	1913, 1915, undated
003	004	Mango	1913-1917, undated
003	005	Mango	1900, 1907-1912, 1915
003	006	Mango	undated
003	007	Mango	1911-1915, undated
003	008	Mango	1911-1915, undated
003	009	Mango notebook, Bombay, F. Wilson Popenoe	1912
003	010	Mango notebook, Calcutta, F. Wilson Popenoe	1912

Box 004 - Mangoes, California fruit and nut crops, and cryptostegia (rubber) investigation files. 1890-1942, undated.

Box	Folder	Title	Date(s)
004	001	Mangoes, bananas, and plantains: reports	1890,1928
004	002	Mango varieties and commercial scores	1903, undated
004	003	"The Mango" by G. Marshall Woodrow, manuscript and correspondence	1903
004	004	Mango introductions	1907-1909
004	005	Correspondence related to Sandersha mangoes	1909
004	006	Literature and correspondence course materials on fruit and nut crops in California (1 of 2)	1915, 1925, undated
004	007	Literature and correspondence course materials on fruit and nut crops in California (2 of 2)	1915, 1925, undated
004	008	Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction progress report	1922
004	009	Photograph panel albums	1942, undated
004	010	Cryptostegia literature	1934, undated
004	011	Cryptostegia program of SHADA in Haiti	1942

Box 005 - Supplementary project reports. 1907-1919.

Box	Folder	Title	Date(s)
005	001	Annona (1 of 2)	1906-1916
005	002	Annona (2 of 2)	1909-1916
005	003	Annona	1917-1919
005	004	Artichoke and chayote (1 of 2)	1907-1915
005	005	Artichoke and chayote (2 of 2)	1907-1915
005	006	Avocado (1 of 2)	1909-1912
005	007	Avocado (2 of 2)	1909-1912
005	008	Avocado (1 of 2)	1914
005	009	Avocado (2 of 2)	1914

Box 006 - Supplementary project reports. 1910-1921.

Box	Folder	Title	Date(s)
006	001	Carob (1 of 2)	1910-1918
006	002	Carob (2 of 2)	1910-1918
006	003	Chayote (1 of 2)	1916
006	004	Chayote (2 of 2)	1916
006	005	Chayote (1 of 2)	1917-1918
006	006	Chayote (2 of 2)	1917-1918
006	007	Chayote (1 of 2)	1919,1921
006	008	Chayote (2 of 2)	1919,1921

Box 007 - Supplementary project reports. 1907-1919.

Box	Folder	Title	Date(s)
007	001	Lychee (1 of 2)	1907-1915
007	002	Lychee (2 of 2)	1907-1915
007	003	Lychee (1 of 2)	1916-1919
007	004	Lychee (2 of 2)	1916-1919
007	005	Mango (1 of 2)	1908-1912
007	006	Mango (2 of 2)	1908-1912
007	007	Mango (1 of 3)	1913-1914
007	008	Mango (2 of 3)	1913-1914
007	009	Mango (3 of 3)	1913-1914

Box 008 - Supplementary project reports. 1912-1919, undated.

Box	Folder	Title	Date(s)
008	001	Papaya (1 of 2)	1912-1914
008	002	Papaya (2 of 2)	1912-1914
008	003	Papaya (1 of 2)	1915-1919
008	004	Papaya (2 of 2)	1915-1919
008	005	List of rubber producing plants	undated

Box 009 - Supplementary reports. 1907-1918.

Box	Folder	Title	Date(s)
009	001	Miami Plant Introduction Garden (1 of 2)	1907-1914
009	002	Miami Plant Introduction Garden (2 of 2)	1907-1914
009	003	Miami Plant Introduction Garden (1 of 2)	1915-1916
009	004	Miami Plant Introduction Garden (2 of 2)	1915-1916
009	005	Miami Plant Introduction Garden	1917-1918

Box 010 - Reports from David Fairchild's Florida trips. 1913-1915.

Box	Folder	Title	Date(s)
010		Report of Florida Trip in 1913	1913
010		Report of Southern Trip, Spring of 1914	1914
010		Report of Florida Trip in 1915	1915

Publications. 10 volumes. 1886-1923.

Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction. Bulletin of Foreign Plant Introductions. Vol. 1-50. Plant Immigrants. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, 1908.

Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction. Bulletin of Foreign Plant Introductions. Vol. 51-100. Plant Immigrants. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, 1910.

Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction. Bulletin of Foreign Plant Introductions. Vol. 101-150. Plant Immigrants. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, 1914.

Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction. Bulletin of Foreign Plant Introductions. Vol. 153-176. Plant Immigrants. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, 1919.

Proceedings of the Twentieth Session of the American Pomological Society Held in Grand Rapids, Mich., September 9th, 10th and 11th, 1885 . s.l.: American Pomological Society, 1886.

Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Session of the American Pomological Society Held in Washington, D.C., September 22-24, 1891 . Ann Arbor, MI: The Register Publishing Company, 1891.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry. Bulletins 54-57. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1903-1905.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry. Bulletins 66-69. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1904-1905.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry. Inventory of Seeds and Plants Imported by the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction. Vol. 61-66. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1919.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry. Inventory of Seeds and Plants Imported by the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction. Vol. 67-76. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1921.

Sources used for this finding aid

Fairchild, David. "Reminiscences of Early Plant Introduction in South Florida." Proceedings of the Florida State Horticultural Society 51 (1938): 11-33. Condensed and reprinted by USDA Agricultural Research Service, https://www.ars.usda.gov/southeast-area/miami-fl/subtropical-horticulture-research/docs/reminiscences-of-early-plant-introduction-in-south-florida/

Loomis, H. F. "Activities of the U.S. Plant Introduction Garden." 1957. Reprinted by USDA Agricultural Research Service, https://www.ars.usda.gov/southeast-area/miami-fl/subtropical-horticulture-research/docs/activities-of-the-us-plant-introduction-garden/.

McGuire, Raymond G., Raymond J. Schnell, and Walter P. Gould. "A Century of Research with USDA in Miami."Proceedings of the Florida State Horticultural Society 112 (1999): 224-32. Reprinted by USDA Agricultural Research Service, https://www.ars.usda.gov/southeast-area/miami-fl/subtropical-horticulture-research/docs/a-century-of-research-with-usda-in-miami/