Barber notes that prospects in Madras [Chennai] are fairly bright, the monsoon having finally arrived two months late. The Madras government have obtained permission to increase Barber's pay and have placed him on a pay scale of 750-1000 Rs [rupees] per month with house allowance at 125/-. He describes his new office and associated rooms, and the additions to his staff including three fieldmen. Barber mentions his sugarcane farm at Samalkota, with which the government are pleased. They have asked him to open a sugarcane farm in South Arcot with ground nut and another in Malabar with pepper. He had always protested against having no gardens in Madras but is now content to leave the gardens to Cameron, Proudlock and Cavanagh. His office is markedly economic, though one tour is made each year for collecting purposes and one assistant is set apart entirely for herbarium work. He thinks Thiselton-Dyer will remember his abortive efforts to get Gamble to write the Madras Flora: the verdict was that there was insufficient material. However, Barber does not agree with this, as they have 40,000 sheets of Madras plants. He thinks they could begin the flora [in India] and suggests Rangachari for the work, an officer in Thurston's Museum. Barber suggests Thiselton-Dyer mention this if he sees Thurston. The first meeting of the new Agricultural Board for India takes place in Pusa in January. Benson, their Director of Agriculture, and Barber have been chosen to represent Madras. Barber thinks any means of bringing the work in the different provinces into line will be a great help. For Barber they are much too 'provincial' in their outlook. In conclusion he notes he will not come home until his first eight years are completed. Page 1 of 4.