2 Fall and Spring Planting. 



able reasonings, and erroneous conclusions ; all of which, when closely 

 scrutinized, bear evidence of a defective knowledge of the principles 

 of vegetable physiology. 



Rules for practice are promulgated as if they were of universal, 

 instead of being only of special, application. The difficulty of estab- 

 lishing pi'actical rules, that would be universal in their nature, or 

 uniformly successful, arises in part from the varied action of the agents 

 of vegetation, and the almost infuiitc degrees of their individual mod- 

 ifications under varied circumstances, such as are dependent upon 

 soils and climates, moisture and aridity, heat and cold. No rules can 

 be given that will be of equal force or application in every case ; the 

 practice perfectly adapted to one soil and situation would be altogether 

 unsuited to another if differently circumstanced. One thing, however, 

 is certain — that all successful j^i'^ictice is based upon the laws or prin- 

 ciples that govern vegetable growth ; and all successful results, no 

 matter how contradictory their origin may appear to be, are capable 

 of being referred to the same unvarying principles, could we but trace 

 their progress through all stages of development. 



In view, therefore, of the many apparently conflicting opinions which 

 must necessarily be given in the enunciation of merely practical rules 

 (and which may be either right or wrong, according to existing pecu- 

 liarities), it becomes a question of some importance, and one well 

 worthy of serious consideration by all who are interested in the welfare 

 and efliciency of horticultural literature, whether more real progress 

 in the spread of useful knowledge would not follow the promulgation 

 of principles only, thus enabling every person to deduce a practice 

 suited to the conditions by which he is surrounded, instead of pub- 

 lishing the thousand and one minute routine details of as many indi- 

 viduals, all varied as to certain peculiarities of time, place, and sea- 

 son ; at the same time producing precisely the same, or very similar 

 results. 



It is time that horticulture should be treated more as an exact science 

 tlian it hitherto has been. Surely we are not to be forever debating 

 about whether orchards should be cultivated or not ; whether fall or 

 spring planting of trees is best ; whether we should prune in summer, 



