1155 



tree. For the last three years they have fruited pro- 

 fusely. Pollock is by far the better of the two and is, 

 to my mind, the best avocado I know of." 



Mr. Frank N. Meyer writes from Kingmen, Hupeh, 

 China, September 27, 1917: 



"To get exact temperatures of places here in cen- 

 tral China where the Tung oil tree occurs, is a very 

 hard matter. Around here in Kingmen, there are several 

 trees and last winter the ice was 7 to 8 inches thick. 

 Mr. Joel S. Johnson, a Swedish-American missionary 

 here, estimates that it probably was 10 above zero 

 for several nights this past winter. In the mountains, 

 however, it must have been zero and yet, even there 

 one finds Tung oil trees. Of course, we here in China 

 do not have cold waves like America experiences them. 

 Temperatures rise and fall very gradually. It is the 

 sudden falls of the mercury that do the damage. 



"I'll try to get more information regarding qual- 

 ity of oil from various localities. Strange, that 

 Californian oil indicated adulteration. Could a semi- 

 arid, subtropical climate produce that effect? Here 

 is what I have found out; climate makes or destroys a 

 race; after climate, soil influences most; after soil 

 surrounding influences come and last of all the orig- 

 inal stock tells. 



"Your statement that out of Tung oil a valuable 

 rubber-substitute is made, brings up an interesting 

 point which I have not told you yet. This is the thing: 



"After I had given a lecture in the church of the 

 missionary community at Mokanshan, Chekiang Province, 

 in July, 1915, a number of people came around me and 

 told me various experiences. One missionary from 

 South Chekiang informed me that once having been out 

 in the country he had his long rubber boots with him 

 for many weeks. Upon coming back these boots had been 

 packed up roughly and deposited somewhere and forgot- 

 ten. After many months' lapse this missionary found 

 them and he . discovered to his dismay that they had 

 bad cracks in them just above the ankles. Just as he 

 was intending to cut them off, so as to save the 

 nether parts for goloshes, his servant said to him, 

 'Don't do this, I can have them repaired for you!' 

 'Well, the missionary said, 'even we white folks do 

 not know how to repair rubber boots so that they are 

 reliable, so how could Chinese do it who haven't even 

 got rubber? 1 But he allowed his man to have them re- 



