BIO-DYNAMICS 111 



A similar prejudice exists in the matter of medicines, for 

 many of us secretly think that the nastier and more drastic a 

 dose is, the more likely it is to be efficacious, and a German 

 proverb exists among the peasantry that the more a manure 

 stinks the better it is. " Was gut stinkt, das gut diingt." 



Continuous inconsiderate annual pruning of the branches 

 thus causes an exhaustion of vital powers. The same is true of 

 root-pruning. " In this the roots are unearthed and cut back, 

 with the view of increasing the fruitfulness of the tree. The 

 check which such an operation gives to the growth is very 

 severe, and if carried to excess will kill the tree entirely." We 

 saw that in grafting, the stock, as the superior retainer of 

 symbiotics, had a far greater value than Mr. Pickering's 

 observations would lead a casual reader to suppose. Not only 

 as a purveyor of essential nutrition, but also by determining 

 more particularly the general habit of spreading does the stock 

 proclaim the superiority of its symbiotics. When we now find 

 that great damage is done by indiscriminate pruning of 

 branches and roots, we see again how great the influence of 

 the stock's symbiotics must have been determinants as they 

 are of the very habits of spreading in the grafted tree. 



We are told that to what extent pruning should be carried, 

 and for how long it should be continued, must depend on the 

 habit of the tree; and, further, that a balance between roots 

 and branches is desirable. This confirms what I have said 

 before concerning the influence of habits upon the dynamics of 

 growth generally. We can restrain a tree from bad habits, 

 and we are also able to restore a lost balance those are the 

 benefits which happily we can confer on our vegetable 

 benefactors. But in order to do this well, we must understand 

 the true needs of the plant and principally how it came by its 

 vitality and status its high symbiotic position in the world 

 of life in virtue of positive ancestral dynamics (symbiotics). 



I have stated above that the integration of physiological 

 capital on the part of a species as well as the arrival of genuine 

 " full-bloodedness," depended on adequate initial function 



