12 Principles of Plant Culture. 



branches from a fruit tree, we enable the fruit on the re- 

 maining branches to reach a higher state of development. 

 By planting corn at the proper distances, we prevent 

 crowding and enable each plant to attain its maximum 

 growth. We should constantly study nature's methods 

 for useful hints in culture, and the culture 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 imitate nature. 



7. Culture Deals witli Life. All the products of culture, 

 whether obtained from the farm, garden, orchard, nursery 

 or greenhouse, proceed directly or indirectly from plants 

 or animals, both of which are lining beings. A knowl- 

 edge of the conditions that sustain and promote life, is, 

 therefore, the foundation to a broad knowledge of hus- 

 bandry. 



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

 it is manifested through the bodies of plants and animals. 

 With these, we can define, within certain limits, the 

 range of environment in which it can exist; we can 

 hinder or 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 inhabits 

 undergoes a definite, progressive period of development, 

 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 outstrip 

 others in growth, i. e., are more vigorous than others. 



