34 
that an employee will te discharged from the 
service when he confesses he has handled an 
orange that hadn't a big blue Government stamp 
on it, showing it was pronounced free from can- 
ker-spores by a well-paid Federal inspector. 
Ye Gods, beware of Doctors! I am glad you all 
will try to save as much as possible of my in- 
troductions. You know of course, what stand I 
have taken upon this whole problem, that is, 
for so far as my ow^n personal work is concerned. 
On April 11, 1917, Mr. Fairchild v/rote Mr. Meyer the 
following letter: 
Mr. Gordley was just in here, and I have 
just received a letter from Mr. Reimer. They 
are both very much disap-oointed that you did 
not secure a large quantity of seed of Pyrus 
usBuriensis , and I think they cannot avoid the 
impression that, if you had been able to get in 
there earlier, you would have secured them. Mr. 
Keimer wants very much indeed to go over and see 
for himself what the different species of Pyrus 
look like in China and Japan. Personally, I 
think he should be allowed to go, and I am sure 
that if arrangements are made next summer for 
him to spend several months over there, you will 
do all you can to assist him to see these dif- 
ferent species of Pyrus and study them with a 
■dew to the resistance they may have to the pear 
blight. 
We are in the midst of preparations for the 
great war and none of us know exactly v/hat we are 
getting into nor hov; long it will last, but the 
general consensus of opinion is that it is likely 
to last for some time yet. I think the thing to 
do is to keep cool and make no rash jumps and do 
v;hat we can to bring the war to a speedy close. 
Everybody here is busy trying to increase the 
food production of this country, and any sug- 
gestions which you can make from your store of 
knowledge of how the Chinese produce large quan- 
tities of green vegetables from small areas of 
land will be very welcome indeed. A careful 
study of typical small farms in China would be 
very interesting to our large land owners, al- 
though the differences in the price of labor 
make them only partially comparable. 
Trusting that your health has improved 
December 31, 1917. 
