To the Ealtor of the "Nowri-Ciua Darty News"
Su—Noting your editorial in this morning's Issue appreciative of the work done at Nanking University lurider the direction of Dr. J. L. Buck, and deploring the destruction of that Institution, I wonder if you are aware of the economic blow to the entire Yangtze valley caused by the destruction' of the University's experiment station, Following the north Ching famine of 1921, something over a million dollars were left in the hands of the American Advisory Committee, when deemed that the famine was and relief no longer necessary. famine preventive value, under the Jurisdiction of the University of Nanking. One of the projects first undertaken was to develop strains of wheat more prolific and more hardy than those then available in that port of China, After some ten years preparation and selection, two—possibly three—strains had been developed to the point where it was felt that they were worthy of replication, Compared with native Yarletles, which were tested under same conditions, these selected ins yielded, as T remember, more Atty per cent. more, were more resistant to rust and smut, and equally hardy as against winter-kill, "The next step was to produce such seed in quantity. If the whole wheat-growing region in the Yangtze valley to have the advantage of such superior strains of wheat, a tremend-amount of seed must be made available. According to my. information, the entire seed stock of.the University of Nanking has been destroyed. Unless a stray bushel or two. of this strain can be found in the bin of some farmer at a distance from Nanking to. whom had been entrusted a little of this precious seed, the entire fruits of fifteen years of Selentife experimentation have been destroyed. "Applied to the wheat elds that this seed would have reached during the next decade, Bel hundreds of millions of dollars are Involved, Shanghai, April 1.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.