8 
pear seed if practicable. The journey itself 
to Ichang would not consume very much time, 
according to Reimer, and according to Meyer, 
who discussed it with Reimer. The doubtful 
part of the journey is the length' of time it 
will take to secure the fruits and get the 
seed out and back. You will have to decide 
these matters with all the facts before you; 
that is, you will have to decide as to whether 
Meyer is really going to the Philippines. It 
may be necessary to cancel this part of the 
trip in order that he may go south after the 
pear seed. I am getting very much interested 
in this matter of stocks for our fruits. After 
seeing what Reimer has done, and knowing a lit- 
tle of what Husraann has accomplished with his 
graipes, it would appear there is a very big 
field here. In the propagation of many of our 
fruits, we have simply gone forward in the old 
empirical way, using all kinds of stocks with- 
out regard to their adaptability to the many 
widely varied conditions of climate in this 
country and without much regard to their abil- 
ity to resist insects and diseases; in fact, 
without much regard to anything, excepting mere- 
ly a fairly well established tree in the nursery. 
You will remember our very early work in Frank- 
lin Davis and Company's nursery, where we were 
treating French pear stock and Japanese pear 
stock. You will remember the great differences 
in these stocks in the matter of leaf blight. 
You will probably also remember the great dif- 
ferences in the vigor of the different varieties 
of pears when grown on the two kinds of stocks. 
I have thought sometimes that it would be of 
interest and value, as a preliminary, to make 
some surveys of orchards put out in different 
parts of the country on different soils of trees 
worked on the two kinds of stocks. We could 
easily work through nurserymen and get records 
of such orchards. I know, in certain parts of 
the country, the Japanese stocks have not been 
successful; in other parts, they have been suc- 
cessful. Here on the coast, the interest all now 
seems to be in Japanese stocks, as they are find- 
ing them resistant to wocQly aphis. 
"Please send copy with memo on Reimer' s work 
to Mr. Taylor." 
December 31, 1916. 
