144 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICUI;TURAL SOCIETY. 



His conception was to make it just a mechanical structure; 

 he wanted it to be just that shape regardless of its habits and 

 life history; lie had to shape it just to that idea, just as a 

 carpenter would put in 16 inch studding just that far apart 

 in a house, and he would have to work to that scheme just as 

 much as the carpenter, instead of considering it a living 

 organism. You will find that idea is being departed from in 

 the conception of the practical fruit grower. His idea is now 

 to look at that tree as a living tree which has a shape of its 

 own ; and the idea I \\'ish to convey to you is that that tree is 

 a living plastic organism, that is capable of being made 

 different, and whenever you do anything to it the tree itself 

 does something back in response. It is a living thing that 

 is teaching you how it should be shaped. For example, I went 

 through an orchard, and in going into his orchard, — he was 

 a practical fruit grower and he studied the individuality of 

 each tree, — each had a certain individual expression just 

 as one horse has from another. You know their eccentricities 

 in their character. This man could go into his orchard and 

 look at a tree and tell just how old it was ; he could look on 

 the limbs and tell what the year's growth had been and just 

 how it had been behaving from year to year; he could look 

 over the buds and see whether the tree was likely to produce 

 the next spring, — whether the bud would develop or not; he 

 could tell whether it was improving in nourishment; he could 

 tell about the condition the tree is in or had been for the last 

 10 years, by the characteristics of its twigs; he could read 

 its life history and consequently reach the right conclusion 

 as to Avhat effect each year's treatment had upon its develop- 

 ment and fruitfulness. Instead of regarding the tree as a 

 dead structure he is giving attention to the records of a liv- 

 ing thing Avhose life history he is reading by the character- 

 istics on its twigs. 



DISCUSSION. 



President Green : If there are unj questions you would like 

 to ask Professor Whitten I am sure he will answer them. 



