57 
wind, some are pickled with salt and spices; 
some are salted and dried, and the German R. C. 
missionaries in Yen chow foo, Shantung, make a 
fine "sauerkrout " (am I allowed to use this word 
nowadays?) out of them. The dry-salted variety, 
cut into small strips, is very appetizing; the 
wet-salted ones, however, are rather "rich" in 
odor and look at times peculiar, to say the 
least. In King's "Farmers of Forty Centuries" 
on p. 1?9 you'll find a picture of wet "salted 
cabbage" such as is made from loose-headed pai 
ts'ai and from some species of Sinapis. 
Of all things, however, good pai ts'ai is 
not a vegetable to be grown by an araateur in 
some old back-yard. Neither is broccoli and 
similar high-class vegetables; they can only be 
grov/n by those "who mix brains with the soil". 
As regards ginger-rhizomes, yes, we will 
send some this fall, when the right shipping 
season has arrived. I am surprised that a few 
plants of Shantung ginger pulled thru' the whole 
winter at Brooksville. I suppose they were 
covered up like sugar-cane stximps in Louisiana. 
Northern ginger needs less heat and less moisture 
than the ordinary Louisiana sugar-cane. --If only 
I could nurse some of my own plant introductions! 
Perhaps late in life it may yet come about.' 
Letter of May ?, If 17 (the last that has 
come in), together with enclosures. I notice 
the general preparedness spirit and the groping 
about what-to-do-idea. I do wonder what may come 
up in which you need my advice or assistance. 
The thing America is in now is so gigantic that 
a few v/ords of an individual somewhere in China 
have less effect than the braying of an ass in 
some desert. 
•^s regards conservation of manures, I wrote 
you already. The bucket system, on the farm and 
in suburbs, and tank system, in cities and towns, 
have to be introduced with the utmost speed. In- 
stead of washing everything away with water, dry, 
sifted soil and dry ashes have to be used. Tank 
R.R. cars and tank-wagons should bring the mal- 
odoriferous material from the towns to the country. 
Intense cultivation, long hours of work, little 
recreation, these are the things that make for 
great harvests of luscious vegetables. As re- 
gards using liquid manures,- yes, in China their 
use is universal, but they are quite dangerous on 
December 31. 1917. 
