12 Principles of Plant Culture. 



fluous branches from a fruit tree, we enable the fruit 

 on the remaining branches to reach a higher state of de- 

 velopment. By planting corn at the proper distances, 

 we prevent crowding and enable each plant to attain 

 its maximum growth. We should constantly study na- 

 ture's methods for useful hints in culture, and the cul- 

 ture of a given plant or animal should be based more or 

 less upon its natural growth conditions, but the highest 

 progress would be impossible if we sought only to imi- 

 tate nature. 



7. Culture Deals with Life. All the products of cul- 

 ture, whether obtained from the farm, garden, orchard, 

 nursery or greenhouse, proceed directly or indirectly 

 from plants or animals, both of which are living beings. 

 A knowledge of the conditions that sustain and promote 

 life, is, therefore, the foundation to a broad knowledge 

 of husbandry. 



8. What is Life? We know nothing of life except as 

 it is manifested through the bodies of plants and ani- 

 mals. With these, we can define, within certain limits, 

 the range of environment in which it can exist; we can 

 hinder cr favor it ; we can apparently destroy, but we 

 cannot "restore it. We know that it proceeds from a 

 parental body similar to its own, that the body it in- 

 habits undergoes a definite, progressive period of devel- 

 opment, at the end of which the life disappears and the 

 body loses more or less promptly its form and properties. 



9. Vigor and Feebleness are terms used to express 

 the relative energy manifested by the -life of different 

 living beings. Certain trees in the nursery row usually 



