478 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICrLTlRE 



tried to discover a general cause under 

 the operations of a general law. 



The second was deductive, in which, 

 after the general cause was discovered, I 

 tried to determine whether all the cases 

 of rosette would be included by it. 



I found that rosette actually existed 

 under the many conditions described by 

 the writers, in their replies to my letters. 

 I reasoned that it must therefore be in- 

 duced by many conditions, and that there 

 must be some general cause which will 

 include them all. I pursued the plan 

 adopted by Herbert Spencer in the writing 

 of his "First Principles," in presuming 

 that "when two or more intelligent per- 

 sons differ upon a subject with which 

 they are familiar, all of them are right 

 in what they affirm, but are wrong in 

 what they deny." 



It is like the old story of the shield, 

 which one contended was made of copper, 

 another that it was made of brass. It 

 depends on the viewpoint, for on one 

 side it was copper, on the other brass, so 

 that it was both copper and brass. 



Again, it is lil<e a photographer of an 

 orchard section who stands on the west 

 side of the valley and gets for his back- 

 ground the hills toward the east; while 

 another stands on the east side and gets 

 the hills toward the west. There may 

 be as many unlike views as there are 

 viewpoints, and all of them correct. I 

 contend that the same rule will apply to 

 rosette, and that a proper analysis of the 

 subject, and a proper synthesis of facts, 

 will justify this claim. 



The Cause of Causes 



A cause is something that must have 

 preceded, in order that an event should 

 happen. 



A primary cause is a first cause in 

 degree, time, rank or importance. 



A specific cause is one which has some 

 property, which distinguishes it from any 

 other. 



A tributary or contributory cause is one 

 which is not primary or specific, but con- 

 tributes toward the production of certain 

 results, as in the case of two rivers, 

 neither of which are navigable; but when 

 united, become navigable. 



A condition is one which necessarily 

 precedes a result, but does not produce 

 it. 



Further, when we find the conditions 

 under which rosette exists, and inquire 

 what are the causes of these conditions, 

 we have gone only one step backward: 

 for immediately we begin to inquire. 

 What are the causes of the causes that 

 produced these conditions? If by any 

 means we answer that question satisfac- 

 torily, then we must inquire the cause of 

 the causes of the causes of the condi- 

 tions. 



Suppose we say, as one man did, that 

 "Rosette is caused by a rapid evapora- 

 tion from the leaf in an arid climate, 

 which prevents a sufficient manufacture 

 of food." 



We would ask then, "Why cannot the 

 leaf manufacture a sufficiency of food?" 

 He would probably say, "Because the 

 trunk does not supply the raw materials 

 to the top system." 



Why does not the trunk supply the 

 top system? 



"Because the root system does not sup- 

 ply the trunk." 



Why does not the root system supply 

 the trunk? 



"Well, perhaps the root system is de- 

 fective." 



Then we would inquire, What is the 

 cause of the defective root system? The 

 answer might include any one of a num- 

 ber of causes or several of them com- 

 bined. For instance, it might be gophers, 

 aphis, hard pan, clean cultivation, alka- 

 li, lack of water, too much water, etc. 

 Inasmuch as all these conditions exist 

 sometimes where there is no rosette, it 

 will be seen that they are not primary, 

 but tributary causes, contributing to a 

 root injury without which there is no 

 rosette. This is not only reasonable, 

 but is true in fact, if I am not mistaken 

 in m.v observations. A few of these ob- 

 servations I will note. 



I began in my own orchard, extending 

 my observations to other orchards, until 

 I had dug the ground about 600 trees 

 which were resetted or near rosetted and 

 examined 100 other trees that had been 

 uprooted. I found that of the 600 trees 



