1155 
tree. For the last three years they have fruited pro- 
fusely. Pollock is by far the better of the two and is, 
to my mind, the best avocado I know of." 
Mr. Prank N. Meyer writes from Kingmen, Hupeh, 
China, September 27, 1917: 
"To get exact temperatures of places here in cen- 
tral China where the Tung oil tree occurs, is a very 
hard matter. Around here in Kingmen, there are several 
trees and last winter the ice was 7 to 8 inches thick. 
Mr. Joel S. Johnson, a Swedish-American missionary 
here, estimates that it probably was 10° above zero 
for several nights this past winter. In the mountains, 
however, it must have been zero and yet, even there 
one finds Tung oil trees. Of course, we here in China 
do not have cold waves like America experiences them. 
Temperatures rise and fall very gradually. It is the 
sudden falls of the mercury that do the damage. 
"I'll try to get more information regarding qual- 
ity of oil from various localities. Strange, that 
Californian oil indicated adulteration. Could a semi- 
arid, subtropical climate produce that effect? Here 
is what I have found out; climate makes or destroys a 
race; after climate, soil influences most; after soil 
surrounding influences come and last of all the orig- 
inal stock tells. 
"Your statement that out of Tung oil a valuable 
rubber-substitute is made, brings up an interesting 
point which I have not told you yet. This is the thing: 
"After I had given a lecture in the church of the 
missionary community at Mokanshan, Che'kiang Province, 
in July, 1915, a number of people came around me and 
told me various experiences. One missionary from 
South Chekiang informed me that once having been out 
in the country he had his long rubber boots with him 
for many weeks. Upon coming back these boots had been 
packed up roughly and deposited somewhere and forgot- 
ten. After many months' lapse this missionary found 
them and he discovered to his dismay that they had 
bad cracks in them just above the ankles. Just as he 
was intending to cut them off, so as to save the 
nether parts for goloshes, his servant said to him, 
•Don't do this, I can have them repaired for you!' 
'Well, the missionary said, 'even we white folks do 
not know how to repair rubber boots so that they are 
reliable, so how could Chinese do it who haven't even 
got rubber?' But he allowed his man to have them re- 
