104 
something In the neighborhood of a billion dol- 
lars. I was told some time ago that the War 
Department was making every effort to secure 
castcr-oil beans and was still many millions 
of bushels short. China has long been growing 
this crop and you have already sent in some in- 
teresting types. Under existing labor conditions 
and under labor conditions that are likely to 
exist after the w^ar we are of the opinion that if 
this crop is to be successfully grown in this 
country it will have to be more or less on a 
machinery basis, that is, hand picking and hand 
threshing of the crop will be too costly for 
practical purposes. With these points in mind it 
would seem highly desirable to secure if possible 
good dv/arf castor beans, which could be cut and 
harvested like cowpeas or soy beans and threshed 
after somewhat the same fashion. We have one or 
two dwarf kinds grov/ing' this year. Of course 
along with the dwarf habits there should neces- 
sarily be prolificacy, so far as the beans are 
concerned, and also prolificacy so far as oil- 
producing capabilities are concerned. 
Prof. ,T. B. S. Norton, of the Maryland Agri- 
cultural College, has just turned over to the 
Office his valuable set of castor bean seed, which 
he has been bringing together and collecting for 
the last five or six years. There are ?90 dif- 
ferent types. It is planned to test these out 
in a preliminary way at Yarrow and place the best 
types v/here they can have more extensive testing 
in^the field. 
Anything that you might find, therefore, in 
the way of castor beans having special value 
would be very useful to us. 
Hoping that you are well and that you are 
prospering so far as one can prosper in a far- 
distant country among strangers, I remain, 
On October ?9, I917, from Kingmen, Hupeh, Mr. Meyer wrote as 
follows regarding Prof. Reimer's arrival and his work: 
Prof. Heimer arrived here on the ?6th of 
October and ever since we have discussed the 
pear situation and gone out to look at wild and 
at cultivated pear trees. 
December 31, 1917. 
