1285 
The following letter was the last received from 
Mr. Meyer; and since it is so characteristic and con- 
tains so much information on the agricultural sit- 
uation, it was felt that our cooperators would be in- 
terested: 
"At last I have been able to break through the 
lines around Ichang and walked to Kingman, got the 
stored seeds and baggage there and settled the pay- 
ments for the pear seeds; then we marched down to 
Shasi and took a steamer from there and arrived here 
on the 15th. We were held up a few times and some un- 
pleasantries were indulged in, but on the whole we 
could have fared far worse. Of course we passed through 
villages that had been looted and burned and food was 
hard to obtain, but to an old hand out here, like my- 
self, these things have so often been encountered 
that one is used to them. 
"I did not write you from Ichang of late, because 
I was not sure that I really could make the trip. The 
whole country is so fearfully upset that travel has 
become a perfect gamble. Sometimes travelers get 
through, but of ten they have been held up for days and 
weeks. Prom Ichang westward all traffic is stopped 
and products from Szechuan do not come through any 
longer for months and months. The losses the people 
at large suffer must be gigantic; right now tung-oil 
does not reach Hankow any longer, neither do hides, 
drugs, silks, etc. 
"Well, personally I am awfully glad that I got 
away from Ichang; the situation began to depress me. 
One cannot live for months In an atmosphere of sus- 
pension without feeling the effects. And as I had 
cheerless, uncomfortable quarters and lack of sub- 
stantial food at times, one had both mental and physi- 
cal discomforts. 
"Well, I just received your very sympathetic 
letter of February 26. Uncontrollable forces seem to 
be at work among humanity, and final results, or pos- 
sibly purposes, are not being revealed as yet, that 
is, for so far as I can look into this whole titanic 
cataclysm. 
"Now concerning my own plans, of which you want 
an outline by about the first of July - well, I can 
say this, that my ideas are to leave here within a day 
or two, visit Kiuklang for tung-oil plantations which 
have been set out nearby, then go down to Nanking pos- 
sibly, and from there to Shanghai, where I may stay 
