NORTH EASTON, MASS. 
that I cannot renew a contract with you on the present basis frr 
a third, year. 
So far as orchids are concerned it may be that you are in 
an unfavorable situation. But as for woody plants the situation is 
different. Unless you are in a sand barren, I think your output should 
be greater. I have no desire to prevent you from going to profitable 
country. I simply objected to the Guatemalan border. If you had 
written to say that the region round San Pedro Sula would be extremely 
rich and in any event you would like to try it; then I should not have 
objected, be cannot tell from this point what you may find the best 
territory. We have to depend on your judgement, e simply suggest 
what we think may be best. But your decision is final. 
Bou speak/ of the difficulties of the game. Collecting is 
difficult. I have done it under exceptionally favorable conditions and 
I have collected when food and water were scarce, lerrlll collected 
on mount Halcon in Lindoro when it rained for the entire time of the 
fourteen days he was out. He lived on monkey flesh. He brought back 
beautifully fried specimens including fifty new species of orchids. 
Orchids were a very minor part of his collection. 
The check promised for July has been sent. It was ordered 
to go by air-mail. 
You refer to the sale of living orchids to buyers in Hew 
York. Of course that business is entirely different fro what you are 
doing now. It would hardly prove profitable in the long run because 
the Honduran flora outside of two or three species is not of the type 
that appeals to horticulturists. If however, you feel that it would be 
to your advantage to deal in living plants and it would open up profit¬ 
able avenues of endeavor, I should not wish to hold you to your present 
contract after you had given value received for the money that has 
been paid over to you. indeed, if you feel that you cannot collect 
more than two thousand numbers a year, as a botanical collector, it 
would be wise for you to try something else. Two thousand numbers 
at fifty cents per specimen would only be £1,000,00. How take your 
pencil and see what your specimens for your first year have cost the 
Arnold Arboretum. 
I dislike very much to have to write to you in this way, but 
your letters regarding your work and the greater advantages in collect¬ 
ing for several institutions, deserve serious comment. A dissatisfied 
collector is the most unprofitable assistant and institution can have. 
And when he feels that he knows more about his job than the men who 
have followed the same kind of work for over forty years, and knows 
more about prices and values than they, he may well expect to get 
enlightened. From the beginning I have tried to be fair to you. I have 
given you much praise for the quality of your work in making orchid 
specimens, although, as I have written more than once, the experts at 
the Arboretum do not think much of your woody plant specimens. You have 
done a good job as far as it goes. In the beginning I made many allowan© 
and tried to help you with suggestions and advice. At the beginning 
of your second year on the Arboretum staff you should know that you 
still have the job of proving ypurself . 
