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Please give my kindest regards to Mrs Bessey Mrs. Athens and Miss Athens. Mrs. Halsted frequently speaks with sadness that Miss Athens does not return to Ames.
I am a bachelor once more for the winter Mrs H [?] at her old home N. J.
Yours very truly Byron D. Halsted
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The Northwestern Journal of Educati[on]
Published every Wednesday, by [the] Educational Company.
Ella A. Hamilton, Editor. George S. Cline, Business Manager.
Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 15, 1885.
Prof. C. E. Bessey, Lincoln Nebraska.
My Dear Sir:
I send herewith a copy of the N. W. Journal of Education to which I desire to call your special attention. The paper has reached as you will see, its fourteenth number, and I may say that it has met with a most encouraging reception. Thus far Nebraska is not represented
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-ed on its editorial staff, a fact which I regret very much. I should be greatly pleased, to use your name in that connection, if permitted, and would be glad to look to you for occasional contributions or notes from your state. May I be permitted to do so? Hoping to hear from you soon and favorably, I am,
Very truly yours, Ella A. Hamilton.
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Taunton Mass. Jan 9, 1885.
Prof. Bessey Dear Sir,
I send you by mail today my copy of [Ebraskas?] [Grass?] book also a MS. translation of His Preface [&?] of the [sic.] 8th section. I selected that particular [?] because it [?] [?] of the [?] [?] and illustrated as [?] as any his [?][?] of [?][?]. Of course you do not need a translation but I thought I would like to have you see even a rough specimen
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of making a [condensation?] of this work of [?]. You can easily see how it might be done & put it into 1/5 or 1/4 [?] the space of this volume. Of course it would hardly be as suitable for beginners as it is now. But it [would?] do.
There ought to be something in our language to encourage & guide the study of vegetable [?]. There are a[n?] hundered people engaged in the study of [?] [?] tautology to [?] in the tautology, of plants. Very few botanists that I know have done anything at it, and comparatively few microscopists except [only?] to prepare very fine
of the [?] I should mainly follow if I [?] to turn the work into English — I think I should endeavor to avoid the German idiom[s?] just as far as possible. I have not done so in my translation of the B[?] book but have kept much closer to the form of the [?] than in the [samples?] — about the same I think as has the translator of Sach's [Lehrdreck?].
I think now somewhat of undertaking a manual similar to this but much briefer in this particular field if I do not find any [aim?] to publish this work. I am very sure there is reason for such a work in the English tongue.
How would the idea strike your