Here, E.B. White writes John Fleming, an acquaintance from Cornell who was working at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While in Ithaca, Fleming acted as editor of the Cornell Countryman, the student publication of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
[New York]
3 February 1937
Dear Jack:
I am going to set a hen on some turkey eggs this spring to tone myself up and prove that a man can fail at more things than one. Your department got any turkey information that might prove valuable, or disastrous, to me? Don’t tell me I have to keep their feet off the ground—my turkey poults are going to have their feet right on the ground and like it.
I have a bet with my wife that I can raise our Thanksgiving bird this year, and am anxious to win. My dander is up. Send me your stuff.
Yrs frantically,
Andy
From Letters of E. B. White. White, E. B., Dorothy Lobrano. New York : Harper & Row, 1976.