10 
With respect to the bamboo situation, I am 
leaving for the South tonight and am going to 
hunt for a certain piece of land in the Missis- , 
sippii delta on which to plant a grove of bamboos 
which will really shov/ what the bamboo is capable 
of doing in this country. 
In regard to your question respecting chances 
for advancement, I do not know what to say. Things 
are in something of a tangle, as you may v;ell 
imagine. The men drafted for the army are getting 
small pay and the unskilled laborers employed 
by corporations are getting unheard-of wages. The 
whole question of the ad.iustment of the scale of 
services is in the air. Very few increases of any 
character whatever are being made by the govern- 
ment at this time. In fact, we are now on a war 
basis and are not expecting any changes immediately 
along the line of promotions. Your work, however, 
has been so satisfactory, and you have made such 
a name for yourself, that I shall see to it that 
you are given the regular advancement and as rapid 
advancement as can be arranged for through the Com- 
mittee, of which I am a member. There is no set 
limit for the pay of an explorer. 
In regard to Groff 's visits here in Wash- 
ington, they were not entirely satisfactory so 
far as the outlining of any definite program was 
concerned. I have felt very strongly that we should 
cooperate with Mr. Groff in the building up of the 
best facilities possible in Canton through which 
later v/e can get material from southern China. 
Anything you can do to assist in the creating of 
a center of botanical and horticultural interest 
there will be along the line of our work. The 
particular subject with which Mr. Groff has con- 
cerned himself, the litchi, is a fascinating one. 
I only wish that the plant were a hardier species, 
for it is now limited in its distribution to 
various small areas in Florida and possibly in 
southern California. I do not know that this fact 
should deter us from making a thorough study of 
its possibilities, however. 
When T was in southern China, I had my attention 
attracted to the Chinese species of yams. Do you 
suppose there is any possibility of growing those 
commercially and utilizing them for flour pro- 
duction? My attention has been attracted to the 
quick changes which have come in Trinidad as a re- 
sult of the war and the shift which has been made 
by the Inhabitants from rice and corn-meal to the 
tropical yam, Dioscorea, probably D. alata . If 
September ?1, I9I8. 
