February 22, 1913 



HORTICULTURE 



253 



Fallacies and Axioms 



A wise scepticism is the first attribute of a good critic. — 

 Loirell. 



To my gentle critics I wish to say anent the red spider 

 question, that I am trying to set the wheels in motion for 

 an authoritative, exhaustive, scientific test of the merits of 

 moisture in checking red spider, and the result of this test 

 will be published in this paper and it may show that even 

 three rose growers of wide experience may fall into error 

 in reasoning from cause to effect. 



Bleeding of Grape Vines 



Heru is one of the fallacies that has survived a long 

 age in the annals of gardening, and many pounds of 

 styptic as well as many a good potato has been wasted in 

 vain efforts to stop this harmless flow of water, to say 

 nothing of valuable space in gardening papers and 

 books, as well as the ink that has been spilled about the 

 means of preventing bleeding, so-called. I use the lat- 

 ter qualification advisedly, for this flow of water is no 

 more analogous to bleeding in animals than is the drip- 

 ping of a faucet when it needs a new washer. My gen- 

 tle critics who know things will say. Why ! what is the 

 matter with this man ! Does he mean to say that the 

 loss of so much sap will not injure a vine? And I put 

 on the soft pedal in anticipation and say that I most 

 assuredly do. A little thought will convince any fair- 

 minded man (and how rarely we find a gardener who 

 is not a fair-minded man) that this is not sap at all 

 that is los.t, but merely water which is pumped up by root 

 pressure, or brought up by capillarity, if you will. It 

 may, and undoubtedly does hold a few salts in solu- 

 tion, but is in no sense sap. Sap is produced after this 

 same salt-bearing solution has passed up to the foliage 

 and there gone through a most complex process of elab- 

 oration brought about by the light or rather the chem- 

 ical rays of the sun, coupled with the absorption of air 

 and the action of that mysterious compound chlorophyll. 

 This sap having been produced in the manner afore- 

 said travels to every part of the plant, here forming 

 flower buds, or fruits, in another place bark, in another 

 tlie pith in the stem, and so on even to the very extreme 

 root hairs on the rootlets. Now of course a certain 

 amount of elaborated sap is stored up at the buds ready 

 for the next season's growth, but not in a form that it 

 could be wasted by this process erroneously called 

 "hleeding." If you will pardon the personal note I 

 might say that I have had vines which bled (if we must 

 call it so) from early winter until active growth com- 

 menced in spring, and these same vines made splendid 

 growth not only the following summer but in many 

 subsequent years. Barron in his work on "Vines and 

 Vine Culture" says "But there need be no fear that a 

 vine otherwise in good condition will bleed to death." 

 This of course is a very conservative statement and the 

 writer is jirepared to go much further than this; how- 

 ever we will leave that for the Axiom. Again anticipat- 

 ing my friends who l-now, I would say that the most 

 competent authorities inform me that it has never been 

 proven that taking maple syrup from the maple tree 

 ever injured a tree and, further, for the benefit of my 

 friends whom I know that, with the sole object of setting 

 me right, would rake up the case of the turpentine pines 

 in the South, I would state that this is in no way analo- 

 gous to the matter here discussed. 



Axiom. — Bleeding of grape vines is not injurious. 



Fallacies Concerning Book Knowledge 



The writer has had the misfortune to meet many 

 gardeners, young and older, who had the most supreme 



contempt for any knowledge which had been acquired 

 from books, and they usually boasted that they had got- 

 ten their knowledge of their profession from experience. 

 1 might add parenthetically that it is said that "experi- 

 ence is a dear school, but fools will learn in no other." 

 These men who were so proud of their experience forgot 

 that, even if they had not added to their own knowledge 

 by the written or printed word, all their lives they had 

 been learning more or less from other men's experience, 

 by word of mouth, and by the use of their eyes. For it 

 is inconceivable that a man could start in any profession 

 without making use of that vast store of accumulated 

 knowledge, which comes of other men's past experience. 

 Before the advent of printing most knowledge had to be 

 handed down by the spoken word, and while some prog- 

 ress was made then it was very, very slow. Do not un- 

 derstand me as saying that a man can become an efBcient 

 gardener or florist by the aid of books alone; far from 

 it. But I do state, with all the emphasis of which I am 

 capable, that, given equal ability the well read man is 

 far more efficient and capable than his unread brother. 

 What is such a paper as Horticulture but a book pub- 

 lished every week and who so bold as to say that its read- 

 ers have not been greatly benefited by the perusal of, at 

 any rate, most of its pages. A man cannot learn to be a 

 carpenter from books but he can learn a great deal per- 

 taining to his trade from them, and it has come under 

 my observation that the men that do this are the men 

 that get the best positions in their business, as I am 

 sure, is true also of ours. Sometimes I think that a 

 little of this contempt which we have seen toward book 

 learning and college training is tainted with envy by 

 those who do not possess either, and this leads me up to 

 the axiom in this matter. 



Axiom. — Useful knowledge, from whatever source, is 

 valuable. 



Questions for the Wise Ones 



Why is the lime from the water used in syringing 

 only deposited upon plants in the shade, and on the 

 glass partitions and never on the glass of the roof or tlie 

 sides of a greenhouse? 



Are cement walks or fioors in greenhouses in any 

 way deleterious to the plants? 



To the thousands who will rush to reply to these two 

 simple questions, I would state that they are asked in 

 good faith, with the belief that correct replies will add 

 to the useful stock of knowledge of hundreds besides the 

 writer, and I would like to add a word or two of advice. 

 Do not answer until you have thoroughly weighed all 

 the evidence in the matter as it is only Truth we are 

 aiming at and not the desire to bolster up some pet 

 theory. 



Lenox, Mass. 



A Beautiful New Hydrangea 



Our cover illustration shows a plant of Hydrangea 

 Madame Maurice Hamar, one of a set now being oiiered 

 to the trade in this country by H. A. Dreer. These are 

 all French hybrids and are recommended as being much 

 superior to our well known standard Otaksa — this being 

 one of the parents in each case. The new comers re- 

 spond to the same cultural conditions and treatment as 

 is usually given to Otaksa, and have thus far given great 

 satisfaction wherever tried. All Easter plant growers 

 will find them indispensable before long. 



