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2.
from heavy rain, will disappear. But it would be well, when opportunity offers, to work out the proper technique for handling nurseries during the rainy season, since the time will come when it will be necessary to do a certain amount of transplanting at that time of year. We should also work out the best means of fertilizing young plants in nursery. I am becoming convinced that Calisayas and Ledgers are going to require a certain amount of fertilization during this stage, if we are to get best results.

Grafting. I am not convinced that the method used by Benitez is the best. In any event, so much depends upon grafting that we should not stop short of further study of this problem. And there is the additional one brought up by you - determination of the best season (though I think we already know that; what we need to know is, Can we graft also at other times), further study of kinds of propagating material (since it is important that we get the largest possible number of grafts out of high-yielding trees at this stage) and so on. I am convinced we can improve somewhat upon our present technique though I am not sure we can do a great deal. Weather and the condition of grafting wood are recognized factors in the propagation of any tree and there will be a limit to our ability to beat the game. At the same time, there is every reason to believe that the general problem of grafting can be handled here as satisfactorily as it is in Java, where it seems to give no trouble.

Fertilization of Trees in the Field. This has been discussed at length in the correspondence and most certainly is one of our major problems at the moment, if we are to save the maximum number of seedling trees now growing in experimental plantings here. Unless something is done at Monterrey, many of the Washington Ledgers, African Ledgers, and similar promising things are going to die out before we are able to get bark analyses and save promising strains