Science: Roerich Returns

Distressed by the fact that the disappearance of hardy grass from the U. S. great plains was releasing numberless tons of soil on the wind and making vast reaches of new desert, Secretary of Agriculture Wallace last spring sent an expedition to the Gobi Desert where, he knew, were sturdy grasses which could outlive extremes of cold and heat and drought. Expedition leader was bald, goat-bearded Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich, painter, mystic, founder of Manhattan’s Roerich Museum, habitué of Central Asia (TIME, Aug. 20, 1934).

Last week, after five months in the wastelands and some unpleasantness with the Japanese military who thought he was leading a pack of White Russians, Nicholas Roerich appeared in Kweisui, Suiyuan Province, ready to start home, his work done two months ahead of time. With him he brought seeds of 300 drought-resisting grasses, some of which may soon begin to carpet the naked patches of the U. S.