1286 
many weeks, shipping off seeds and specimens. Then 
when the heat gets too intense, I may move up to some 
quiet place on the coast of Shantung and work up the 
herbarium specimens I have collected these past 18 
months. When chestnuts commence to come in by the end 
of September or early October, I may purchase several 
hundreds of pounds and ship them, and possibly seeds 
of Pyrus ussuriensi8 might be brought to us. I shall now 
try to answer various items which your many letters 
contain:- 
"Your item of putting 300 acres in soy beans at 
Yarrow interests me greatly. It shows how food sup- 
plies slowly crowd out mere ornamental propositions. 
"Concerning my giving you a careful analysis of 
Chinese food situations - Well, as you realize, China 
is a big land and feeding the multitudes presents prob- 
lems that are at times purely local. As a whole, how- 
ever, I can say that from my personal observations I 
can testify that here in Central China, rice forms 
three-fourths of the total amount of food the ordinary 
people take in; meat and fish supply a mere fraction 
and the rest is taken in the form of beans, peas, 
lotus-rhizomes, various roots and tubers and in leafy 
vegetables, the last in bulk often looking predomi- 
nant, but being only coarse matter, really amount to 
a small percentage of the total. 
"Concerning Dr. McCollum's idea that leafy green 
vegetables are essential in the human diet, well, this < 
is a mooted question. The Russians at large use but 
few leafy herbs and thousands of cowboys, especially 
in the Argentine, live on an almost pure meat diet. 
Of all the leafy greens, the Chinese love especially 
those belonging to the cabbage and mustard group; it 
seems that the race has found out that they supply 
some essential factors. Spinach also is in great de- 
mand but it is a much dearer vegetable than various 
cabbages . 
"Concerning Chinese substitutes for dairy pro- 
ducts, well, the 101 different manufactures of the soy 
bean supply this protein, but I must admit that it 
will take some time for the white races to acquire a 
taste for the very large majority of these products. 
We are still at it, but being without an interpreter 
I don't find out as much as I would like. 
"I am glad to notice your statement regarding the 
Peltcheng peach. And having come true from seed cer- 
tainly surprises me. 
