52 
your letter of April 11, 1917. 
Yes, I realize that Messrs, Cordley and 
Reimer were very much disappointed at I not 
getting any large quantity of seeds of the wild 
Pyrus ussuriensis . So _I ^ myself too j Could I 
have left Washington, dT C,, in early July I 
probatly could have gotten quite a quantity; as 
it was now, with late leaving, sickness and de- 
lays, I simply was more than two months too late. 
I now realize that it might have "been better for 
Prof. Reiner to have gone himself in I916 and to 
have tried his own hand at this game of collect- 
ing large quantities of seeds of wild trees here 
in China, without having made previous arrange- 
ments. I surely hope he will come over this 
early fall; we have made it easy for him, since 
I have v/ritten about him to Mr. J. C. Huston, 
of the American Legation in Peking, who will col- 
lect from 50 to 100 catties of seeds of Pyrus 
ussuriensis for us. In how far Prof. Reimer will 
command these seeds T cannot say; he needs them 
more than v/e do, so I am in favor of letting him 
get them. I'll try to stick to the calleryana 
pear here, which is a much better all-around stock 
and out of which some nurserymen may make a hand- 
some amount of money one of these coming years. 
Prof. Reimer sent me a very pleasant letter, 
dated March ?3, 1917, and which I answered in a 
1? page message on May 2A-, I917. giving him full 
directions. I am enclosing his letter herewith 
for your perusal, but I like to get it back again. 
In your letter of April 11, li^l?, you ask me 
for a few suggestions how to produce more food 
from the land. Well, I cannot give you much news 
in this line, but here are a fev/ hints: 
Conserve all night soil by modern and by 
primitive methods and bring it to the land. 
Let the people buy large jars and pots, in 
which they can preserve various vegetables when 
they are abundant. The Dutch country people pre- 
serve in such jars various varieties of string 
beans, endive, white cabbage, cucumbers and purs- 
lane. The Chinese pickle all sorts of strains of 
Brassica and Sinapis, eggplant, young Lagenaria 
and Luff a fruits; garlic, chives, chili -peppers, 
peanuts, apricot kernels, turnips, succulent let- 
tuce stems and what not. The Russians pickle 
various species of edible fungi; the Italians 
tomatoes and olives. 
December 3l, 191? . 
