647 



wrote you was from Chita. I paid visits to Mr. P. M. 

 Tolmatchoff, acting director of the local museum and ar- 

 ranged with him to see the botanical collections the next 

 day. Then I hunted up a Mr. A. M. Suvari who is the Govern- 

 mental Agronomist for the Chita district. This last gentle- 

 man speaks German very well and we spoke about a good many 

 topics. The Russian Government is going to establish an 

 experimental station near Petrofski Savod to the west of 

 Chita, as the soil immediately around this last town is too 

 sandy to be of any use for agriculture. Mr. Suvari himself 

 does not know very much as yet about local Eastern Siberian 

 conditions as his field for many years was the Steppe-ter- 

 ritory of S. W. Siberia which he knows very well. He told 

 me that way off of the beaten tracks one finds that in old 

 Kirghiz settlements varieties of grains are being cultiv- 

 ated, like wheats, barley and millets which are quite dif- 

 ferent from any sorts he ever saw. Especially in the dry 

 Karakalinsk district one finds them. This is to the S. W. 

 of Semipalatinsk. Mr. Suvari also told me that the Govern- 

 ment has intended to experiment with local wild grasses but 

 .they find it almost impossible to obtain seeds enough to 

 v/ork with, native people being too indolent and too dull; 

 Mr. Suvari had offered as much as ten roubles for a tumbler 

 full of wild lucerne-seed and not even a thimble full had 

 been brought in. I asked about this Amur wild rice, Zizania 

 latifolia, but Mr. Suvari did not quite know it; we have 

 written now to the Agricultural Society at Blagowestchensk, 

 where this grass occurs. I also went to the Office of the 

 International Harvester Company and heard that agriculture 

 is slowly spreading over the whole of Siberia and that more 

 and more machines are sold every year. To obtain however, 

 native grasses and forage plants is a thing one would have 

 to go after himself in that short season, called late 

 summer, which is very short indeed in Siberia. 



"I saw Mr. Suvari also again, he had promised me some 

 samples of a good rye, that grows some distance away from 

 Chita. He had not been able to obtain it but he will send 

 it to you at Washington. Mr. Suvari likes to obtain from 

 us names of firms dealing in grains and forage plants from 

 the most northern parts of America. I suggest to open up 

 correspondence with him, especially when the Agri . Exept . 

 Station there near Petrofski Savod will be established, as 

 he may supply us with seeds of local fodder grasses. 



"The next day I left Chita, which possesses a fine, 

 sunny, dry winter climate, and we took our tickets to 

 Harbin, or rather to the Sta. Manchuria, as for some reason 

 or other they would not sell us thro' tickets, apparently 

 in connection with delays at the Manchurian frontier. And 

 we were delayed for many many hours, but on Friday, Feb. 

 21, we arrived here in this town." 



