PARK ADMINISTRATION 



maintained, of a suitable size when full grown, if sufficient attention 

 is given to their selection. To emphasise the importance of proper 

 selection of trees or shrubs for informal plantations, the following 

 reasons may be given against the present custom of promiscuous 

 pruning. 



EVILS OF PRUNING 



1. Loss of form. Exactly as the work of the artisan excels the 

 factory product in individuality and interest, so does the plant allowed 

 to assume free and unrestricted foliage expression excel in interest 

 the uniform specimens, so cropped and mutilated by the hand of the 

 shearer as to lose all natural identity. Subservience to the shears 

 means uniformity, which always means loss of individuality. Nature 

 has a wealth of foliage expression beyond the powers of man even to 

 comprehend; he should esteem and not suppress it. Once subjected 

 to the stultifying effects of the pruning shears, nature never again 

 seems capable of presenting the same beauty and intricacy of foliage 

 forms as before violated by the hand of man. 



2. Loss of light and shade. Besides destroying the delicacy and 

 grace of natural plant forms, a uniform shearing accomplishes at once 

 the effect of a poster compared to a landscape painting. By clipping 

 plant foliage to a smooth surface all refinement of light and shade is 

 eliminated, the nice differences of tone disappear, and there emerges a 

 bald two-value composition of high light and shadow. It is an ab- 

 surdity to permit the park gardener to destroy uncensured the soft 

 values of a foliage composition, which the landscape designer visualised 

 and hoped to produce. 



SACRIFICE OF BEAUTY 



3. Loss of colour. A painter knows that the colour of an object 

 depends not only upon atmospheric conditions, but upon angles of 

 light reflection. A uniform surface presents none of the incidental 



244 



