63 
So, China, of course, can never give, us as 
much as the north and central parts have done. 
Her climate is too mild for that; witness the 
destruction done ty the last freeze in the South, 
which seems to show that lychis protably never 
can be grown on the mainland of the United States; 
that is, never commercially. 
Another problem: I would like to get a list 
of subjects on which fotographs are desired, so 
as to guide me here in China in taking fotos of 
such things only as are desired. (This list to 
be made up in cooperation with Messrs, Fairchild, 
Dorsett, Bisset, Young, Henderson, and others 
v/ho work on field problems.) 
I hear but little any longer from Mr. Pair- 
child. His long periods of absence from the 
Office and the great amountjof accumulated v/ork 
he has to wade thru when he' returns explain of 
course his inability to write. I v/ish I v/as in 
closer contact with various specialists who 
could ask me specific questions; it would give 
me a lot of guidance. 
Some very well-to-do friends of mine in 
Holland want me to go to Sumatra in a highland 
district where it is cool enough to raise po- 
tatoes and I v/ould become some sort of a lord 
there; that is an Agricultural Advisor, and T 
would be given liberty to collect specimens, 
perhaps wherever I v/anted to go, 
Mr. Wm. Purdom is in Peking, where he has a 
three years contract with the Chinese Government 
as a forestry expert, at the salary of $600,00 
Mex. per month, which at the present rate of 
exchange is close to $5i000.00 U. S. gold per 
an nvm . 
My intentions are to leave for the Mountains 
of IT. W. Hupeh, above Hsing chan, within a v/eek 
or so, when I am thru with my extensive ad- 
ministrative labors and v/hen the seeds and speci- 
mens have all been shipped off. It will be hot, 
I know that J V.'e are having here the mercury up. 
to between 85 and 95 every day and when one has 
to march over slippery cobblestones at that tem- 
perature all day long and has to sleei) at night 
in inns infested with vermin and having syph- 
ilitic people all around, observing one's habits, 
one does not always feel happy, ^^ell, that's 
exploration work and should one meet with an ac- 
cident one is kicked out of the service v/ithout 
a pension, like naval and military people at 
least receive. 
December 31, 191?. 
