1286 



many weeks, shipping off seeds and specimens. Then 

 when the heat gets too intense, I may move up to some 

 quiet place on the coast of Shantung and work up the 

 herbarium specimens I have collected these past 18 

 months. When chestnuts commence to come in by the end 

 of September or early October, I may purchase several 

 hundreds of pounds and ship them, and possibly seeds 

 of Pyrus ussuriensis might be brought to us. I shall now 

 try to answer various items which your many letters 

 contain: 



"Your item of putting 300 acres in soy beans at 

 Yarrow interests me greatly. It shows how food sup- 

 plies slowly crowd out mere ornamental propositions. 



"Concerning my giving you a careful analysis of 

 Chinese food situations - Well, as you realize, China 

 is a big land and feeding the multitudes presents prob- 

 lems that are at times purely local. As a whole, how- 

 ever, I can say that from my personal observations I 

 can testify that here in Central China, rice forms 

 three-fourths of the to.tal amount of food the ordinary 

 people take in; meat and fish supply a mere fraction 

 and the rest is taken in the form* of beans, peas, 

 lotus-rhizomes, various roots and tubers and in leafy 

 vegetables, the last in bulk often looking predomi- 

 nant, but being only coarse matter, really amount to 

 a small percentage of the total. 



"Concerning Dr. McCollum's idea that leafy green 

 vegetables are essential in the human diet, well, this 

 is a mooted question. The Russians at large use but 

 few leafy herbs and thousands of cowboys, especially 

 in the Argentine, live on an almost pure meat diet. 

 Of all the leafy greens, the Chinese love especially 

 those belonging to the cabbage and mustard group; it 

 seems that the race has found out that they supply 

 some essential factors. Spinach also is in great de- 

 mand but it is a much dearer vegetable than various 

 cabbages . 



"Concerning Chinese substitutes for dairy pro- 

 ducts, well, the 101 different manufactures of the soy 

 bean supply this protein, but I must admit that it 

 will take some time for the white races to acquire a 

 taste for the very large majority of these products. 

 We are still at it, but being without an interpreter 

 I don't find out as much as I would like. 



"I am glad to notice your statement regarding the 

 Feitcheng peach. And having come true from seed cer- 

 tainly surprises me. 



