ELEMENTARY PRUNING 



plant proved to be a multiflora, and 

 stretched its vigorous shoots eighteen feet 

 in all directions ! 



But I will own that all these ignorant 

 mistakes on my part have caused me no 

 grief, for my garden would have given me 

 but half the pleasure had I known about 

 things at the start. The experience won 

 from horticulture is so gently and interest- 

 ingly administered that it leaves no scars 

 like that in other walks of life. And one 

 enjoys even one's mistakes and ignorance 

 because of the charm of discovering for 

 one's self, afterwards, the right way, as if 

 it was all new to the world, and no one 

 else had ever thought it out before ! This 

 kind of discovery makes one feel "wiser 

 than the aged " at once. For as soon as one 

 knows ever so little, it seems as if one had 

 mastered the whole. Thus cunning nature 

 115 



