18 
I am in receipt of your letter of February 9 
in which you refer to the walnuts, chestnuts, Ju- 
ju"bes, and davidiana peaches that you have "been 
forwarding to us . We had your shipments stopped 
at San Francisco, inspected by Mr. Maskew's force, 
and then sent to Chico. This saved the long trip 
across the continent and enabled us to get the 
seeds into the ground sooner. 
Mr. Dorsett has already written you in regard 
to the chestnuts and other seeds we requested and, 
therefore, I will not attempt to do so. I am sorry 
to have to say, however, that a lot of your material 
has reached us in very poor condition, due, I sup- 
pose, to the length of time they have been delayed 
in China, and, it seems to me, you have been using 
a little more water in the packing than formerly; 
as the scions have shown signs of decay and a num- 
ber of them were entirely dead, as has been pre- 
viously explained to you. I am happy to be able 
to tell you, however, that as far as the Federal 
Horticultural Board is concerned, they are very 
much more lenient v/ith material that is reaching 
us and if there is any life in the plants or scions 
when received we are almost sure to get them to 
grow. A lot of your material which comes in in a 
weakened condition is not f\xmigated or treated, 
but is put in a quarantine greenhouse where we are 
saving quite a lot of it. ?/e have another green- 
house known as the detention greenhouse, where ma- 
terial can be held, which is ordered held because 
of suspicion. Go ahead, therefore, and collect all 
that you can, and put your mind at rest as far as 
the inspection of the material is concerned. I 
know that you do not wish to be responsible for 
introducing into this country new plant insects or 
diseases any more than I do, and it is only to try 
to keep such things out, that the inspectors are 
as rigid as they are. With all of this inspection, 
as stated above, we are saving quite a lot of your 
material and, therefore, I strongly urge that you 
do not get discouraged but reassure yourself with 
the knowledge that we here at Washington are look- 
ing' after the material as it reaches us and doing 
everything we can to save as much of it as it is 
humanly possible to do. I am looking forward to 
the time when you will return and see thousands of 
young plants that are being grown from seeds that 
you have collected in China. 
Doctor Galloway and I, while at Chico last 
fall, had the pleasure of looking over several 
thousand young plants of the Pinus bungii , seed 
December 31, 1917. 
