110 
On November 8, 1917, Mr. Pairchild wrote Mr. Meyer as follows; 
Replying to your letter of September 8 from 
King men, I am glad to read between the lines 
that you are in good spirits. I had not thought 
of the effect of the war on the railroad con- 
ditions in China. Evidently the ramifications 
of this war reach to every part of the planet. 
Mrs. Kin is tack again from China, with a 
lot of information in regard to soy sauce, tean 
curds, etc. I have only had a short talk with 
her, Tout she is more enthusiastic atout the soy" 
tean than ever. She is writing a report for 
the Bureau of Chemistry, and I believe she then 
goes on the stump as a lecturer. I am urging 
her to talk about these bean cheeses and arouse 
our people's interest in them. 
I am rather sur-orised that Mr. Reiraer did 
not let you know why he could not reach Hankow 
in September. I know, however, that a man's 
first experience in a foreign country somewhat 
upsets his plans, and he is not entirely re- 
sponsible. Do not be discouraged in regard 
to the amount of time and funds you have put 
into these pear seeds, for there are others as 
well as Mr. Reiraer interested in them. The v/ork 
of producing better hybrids between the Chinese 
and European pear is an iraportant one and is be- 
ing pushed by Doctor Van Fleet, as you will see 
by the long letter which Doctor Galloway has 
just written you. 
I am glad to see that you have twenty-five 
pounds of clean seed of Pyrus calleryana . I be- 
lieve these will hardly fail to have in them 
something of extreme value for this country. 
The collection of these wild species of Pyrus 
reminds rae to inform you that one of Doctor Har- 
perv's students has discovered a Xylaria disease 
which attacks the apple. He is now working out 
methods for testing the immunity of different 
apple stocks to this Xylaria disease. He says 
that ?'% of the trees in Virginia are often at- 
tacked by this parasite and that 75^ of replants 
succumb to it. He finds no orchard where the 
replants are successful. He is planning to put 
out, just as Reiraer did, an orchard of different 
species of Malus and other closely related genera, 
such as Pyrus and Crataegus , which are promising 
as stocks for the apple, and by means of inocu- 
lations test the immunity of these different 
species. If you run across any wild species of 
December 31, I917. 
