4 PRINCIPLES OF PLANT CULTURE 



breeds of horses and cattle are superior to their wild pro- 

 genitors in usefulness to man. 



6. Culture aims to improve nature's methods rather 

 than to imitate them. By cutting out the superfluous 

 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 im- 

 possible if we sought only to imitate nature. 



7. Culture deals with life. All the products of culture, 

 whether obtaiaed 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 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 under- 

 goes 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. One 



