7P 
of the public towards all these questions of 
foods which is taking place in America. There 
never was such an awakening of interest in all 
kinds of foods as there is in this country now. 
Of course the question which every one asks in 
regard to the new foods is whether they will "be 
cheaper than something with which he is familiar. 
The question of expense is naturally upperaost 
in everyone's mind. 
You will do a real service if you will in- 
vestigate and report, with excellent photographs, 
of any of the uses of the soy bean. I have en- 
couraged Mr. Henderson to try experiments in 
sprouting the soy bean, the mung, the lima and 
other beans. I believe there is something to be 
done along this line, and I believe that people 
can easily be taught how to sprout these beans 
and use them in the winter in place of fresh 
vegetables. If there are any other Chinese 
methods than those which you have already 
described, we would like to have them. In look- 
ing over the descriptions which you sent in, Hen- 
derson failed to find that they completely covered 
the whole process, and he had to work out certain 
methods of his own, better adapted perhaps to our 
own conditions. 
I have written you about soy bean cheese, and 
I think I have also written you about the dried 
fruit proposition. I do not know that I mentioned 
a study of the preserved fruits, canned fruits and 
vegetables used by the Chinese, - I am not sure 
that there is anything in their methods that is 
applicable to American conditions. 
There is one big subject of interest that we 
have overlooked. I was reminded of it the other 
day when I took my friend Mr, George up to show 
him some of our flowering mume trees. I found on 
the ground a handful of ripe fruit, - not a single 
one of these fruits had been attacked by cur- 
culio and not one of them showed any signs of rot. 
I understand there are a great many varieties of 
these mixmes in Japan, and that they came originally 
from China. I think a thorough study should be 
made of this whole question of Prunus mume and its 
introduction into America as a fruit tree. The 
fruits produced on my place v/ere delicious; they 
were not sour as I expected to find them. They 
reminded me more in flavor of the American wild 
plum, and my friend was delighted with them. 
December 31. 1917. 
