76 
the whole climate of Asia and especially in China. 
The vegetation does not av/ake prematurely 
and it seems that only at rare occasions 'blossoras 
of early flowering trees get frozen. Dry winds 
hovj-ever at times do much damage to the setting 
of fruit and as regards the tung oil trees, the 
Chinese say that there v/ill be a short crop this 
year on account of an unusual dry and windy 
spring in Szechuan and Western Hupeh, which made 
the flowers dry up without making them set. As 
a result tung oil is rising steadily in price 
and just now is 15 Hankow Tls. p. picol (about 
U.S. gold $14.75- p. 125 I'bs.) Three years ago 
it was Tls. 6.00 p. picol, as Mr. Mann, of Gil- 
lespie, told me a fevr hours ago. 
Tung oil tree cultivation in America borders 
on gambling. It may , it may not , become a suc- 
cess] From an official standpoint it is somewhat 
risky to advise private parties to go in for it.' 
Mountain slopes in Porto Rico might be fine places 
for this tung oil tree; they also have cheap and 
abundant human labor there. 
I am certainly very much interested to hear 
that Mrs. Kin has obtained a commission from the 
Bureau" of Chemistry to investigate the bean- 
cheese industry. I hope to see her observations 
one of these days. Perhaps I ought not to have 
spent as much time and labor upon this subject 
as I have done, but then — a subject like this 
is too fascinating to leave it alone. 
I do not think Mrs. Kin will find that bac- 
teria play much of a role in this bean-cheese af- 
fair; it seems a mould does the work. 
Strange to say, ray new interpreter tells me 
that in the Kiangsu province a vegetable cheese 
is made from pounded taro , which is stronger 
than bean-cheese. V/hat do you think of that? 
If it is correct then we can make cheese from. 
potatoes also and from peanuts, from grains and 
from v^at not. What a new series of food- 
products' v;e are going to obtain then. Please 
give these suggestions to the specialists in 
the Bureau of Chemistry. 
It pleases me very much that you and almost 
everybody to whom you served the bean-cheese, 
like it. Here in the East foreigners consider 
one a little bit peculiar if one happens to like 
a Chinese preparation and everything Chinese is 
ke-Dt away from their tables. Strange.' 
Did Mrs. Kin put you in touch with a N. Y. 
firm of Chinese products where this bean-cheese 
can be obtained? 
December 31, 1917- 
