39 
this fact. I could v/rite these Consuls myself 
and advance them the money, hut then, I am not 
sure that it is the pai ts'ai you want and 
whether special northern strains are desired. 
Here in the Yangtze Valley we have loose varieties 
of Chinese cabbage, far different from those up 
North and lacking flavor and substance. 
Pai ts'ai seed ripens in North China tov/ard 
the end of June and is not sown until August, so 
there is some time yet. 
I am sorry I cannot write you anything more 
positive this time concerning these two problems 
mentioned in the telegram. Perhaps later on we 
can get things. 
Mr. Fairchild replied to this on June 7, 1917, as follows: 
With regard to the poppy seed, I owe you a 
dinner in a Chinese restaurant or any other place 
you desire to name. The thought never occurred 
to me that you might be nabbed and put in prison 
for trying to buy poppy seed in China. I should 
have reasoned it out, but it did not occur to me 
that an American agricultural explorer would lay 
himself liable to arrest on this account. I had 
totally forgotten that the soldiers, when they 
arrested you before in the Kansu Province, ac- 
cused you of being an opium smuggler. Since this 
is the case, you will be obliged to carry this 
poppy seed business in the back of your head, and 
unless some particularly favorable opportunity 
arises for you to secure a good quantity of poppy 
seed, you will not need to make any further at- 
tempts with regard to the matter. Doctor Stock- 
berger thinks he can produce enough seed here this 
coming season to supply any possible demand which 
may arise. 
The next letter from Mr. Meyer was his of April l6, 1917. 
also written at Ichang, Hupeh, China, as follows: 
The day before yesterday I returned here 
from a sixteen days' trip into the mountains 
and plains of this section of the immense Hupeh 
Province, investigating mainly problems con- 
nected with PyruS ' calleryana , Pistacia chinensis , 
Aleurites fordii , and some minor things. 
Me had changeable weather, real hot and 
sultry days followed by chilly, dark and windy 
weather and at the end of the joxirney for four 
days rain off and on. I find Hupeh a terribly 
December 31, 1917. 
