From Eugene Hilgard   16 October 1893

October 16, 1893

Baron Ferd von Muller, Melbourne.

My dear Sir,

Your letters of july¹ and seeds accompanying them were duly rec'd and would have been answered long ago but that a case of severe illness in my family kept me from all my usual correspondence just about the time the last steamer was to leave; so I waited until another is soon to go.

Accept thaks² for the seeds, some of which are specially interesting: we shall give the Med. orbicularis a particular trial also that melon, whose designation I at first took to be a hybrid superlative — "sweetissima".

As you have heard of my visit to Europe, let me say that it was to me an occasion of very great interest, as I had not been over long enough to more than glance at things for nearly 40 years. That is a long time in the fast-striding nineteenth fin de siecle, and accordingly I found things very much changed, and that to great advantage, as compared with the early fifties, when the revolutionary movement upset everything more or less and neither the old nor the new condition of affairs showed to advantage. The industrial progress of Germany has simply been stupendous; and despite all the grumbling that is heard about the army bill, the agrarians [&c.] it is not a country to be lightly abandoned. If I were foot-loose I would like very much to live there several years at least. If I am not mistaken you also have not seen the old country for a long time; if I am right, to³ take a "jump" across at the earliest opportunity. — When I was going to Berlin I was told that the Berliners were snobs, from first to last, and the military men simply insufferable. I had no pleasant recollections of the Prussians about the time they reconstructed Baden in 1849-50 and was half way afraid it might be so. But I must say that three winter months I passed at Berlin was the most profitable time I had in my year of absence. As you may have noted, I was not left to rest in idleness there; and perhaps I had to work as hard as I do here, but it was con amore, with an appreciative public. I ought to say the same for Munich; and for London. I shall ever regret that an attack of grippe in Paris cut my stay there so short The three weeks I had I thoroughly enjoyed, the more as for our special benefit London had not a single fog during the time.

Of course I went to Chicago on the way back, but could stay only a few days, because of the illness of my wife which since our return — now four months — has kept me on the anxious seat. It was a grand sight and nothing short of a month's stay could have done it justice.⁴ Germany was pre-eminent in the industrial exhibits — renewing the impression I received when there — Since then I have had numerous visitors from the old world here — quite a number of those I saw on the other side, too; so I really feel as though I had established a fresh bond of brotherhood with them, and as if I had accomplished something by going. This feeling has since been accentuated by the bestowal upon me of the Liebig medal for Soil investigation, by the Munich Academy. It is a pleasant offset to the petty annoyances and the indifference of ignorance with which my best work is regarded by a majority of mankind in this free country.

I tell you all this because I think that, being so far away from the center of culture you, like myself, have had many a hard trial of spirit in your labors for the benefit of your adopted country and of science. It is very refreshing to come in contact once more with a thoroughly appreciative public after many years of this quasi isolation, and I trust you may have a chance before long to experience this personally. The thought occurred to me particularly as I read your brief but pregnant biography, kindly sent me; for it is not mentioned that you ever left Australia, and however highly appreciated are your labors in science everywhere, yet the personal renewal of contact involves a gratification far beyond any recognition "ad distans".

Your paper on thistles⁵ has also greatly interested me, since the weed question is with us also a alarming one, [and h]as required legislation like that regarding insect pests. I perceive you have to keep out the "Canada thistle"; we have done so thus far by timely action, but are constantly on the lookout for an invasion.

But I must close this lengthy epistle. With best wishes for your continued health and success in your good work

Yours faithfully

[Eugene Hilgard]⁶

Medicago orbicularis