August 30, 1955
Dear Joe:

fle enjoyed ourselved picking up miscellaneous soil samples during our trip
to Colorado. Conceivably you will have received more returns from the distant
tourdst traps than the farms near home, but I made 4 point to look for some
possibly marginal habitats. Such samples may be very poor, quantitatively, in
actinomycetes, but by the same token may be more likely to carry specialised
varieties,

Is the supply of soils any problem to you? You probably had thought of it al-
ready, but you know that State leba. almost everywhere reseive large numbers of
soil samples to be tested for pil, nutrient minerals etc., and you probably could
woxsk out somes arrangement to get sub-samples, either from the state or from other
private testing labs., fertilizer companies, ofc.

Climbing up the Rockies, we were of course impressed by the ecological clines

in gross vagetation; I wonder if anyone has ever done comparable microbiological
studies,

In my last record, I neglected to ask if you knew the chesieal stability of
asaserine. We had a amall sample « while ago that seemed pretty nective againat
HE. coli, and I wondered if it had a reasonable storage life.

While I was away, there was some confusion about the cultures I had left instruc-
tiona about, to send you; they will be forwarded shortly.

Sincerely,