January 4, 1934 
| 
My dear Mr, Edwards* 
I am sorry that the cheek sent in November 
has not yet reached you. The only thing to do is to send another 
check with the hope that the missing one will turn up in the course 
of time. It is sad, indeed, to have financial troubles come along 
at a time when we are in despair regarding the results of our ex¬ 
penditures. You still feel, I doubt not, that we have no reason to 
expect more of you, but in this regard I must tell you that in a 
letter to Mr, Rehder, my friend Paul Standley expressed surprise 
at the number of things he knvwv you had misfed in regions he had 
passed through. I am deeply discouraged and utterly unable to ex¬ 
plain why you have failed sosignally. Cnee more I beg of you to 
collect intensively and to increase production. Saying nothing of 
woody plants, the number you have collected being too small to 
mention, it is a sad statement that in two years, or nearly two 
years, you have not been able to collect more than seven hundred 
numbers. And consider the cost! A man and his wife are to collect 
for us in northern Mexico for six months and they have set their 
price for the work at two hundred and fifty dollars! I doubt not 
but in that length of time they will make a collection of two or 
three tousand numbers. 
I note what you say about going into the field 
as a general collector after you have finished your present year 
with the Arnold Arboretum. Your suggestion that you have failed to 
make a good showing for us and feel that you should continue to 
work for the Arboretum free of charge after your year is up until 
you have made, up what we had every right to expect in your second 
year of effortls very kind. If you wish to carry out this suggestion 
I feel that you should collect on a per specimen basis rather than 
on a time basis, counting orchids worth# twenty cents and other 
specimens worth fifteen cents each. These are the regular rates that 
we are accustomed to pay and are fair. I realize that you have referred 
to these rates as ridiculous, but you will remember that I wrote to 
you that these were the prices set by Chaplain Clemens for his Born¬ 
ean plants, bhen orchids are accomp-nied by specimens in alcohol I 
think twenty cents each is very fair if we pay postage. Of course I 
do not feel that you should obligate yourself in any way. When you 
nave completed your contract time, that is all we have any right to 
expect. If, on the other hand, you really believe that you have fallen 
far short of giving value received, then it is your right to make 
up any deficiency you desire to make up. In any event we should 
wish to receive specimens when you collect for your own account, but 
we should maintain our price level. It would be for you to collect 
or not on this basis as you saw fit. 
Jbe specimens just arrived are very good indeed, 
1 ©W two nun *ers are new to your ltet. The others are simply 
repetitions of previous numbers. 
Very sincerely yours, 
