224 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



comes out, bravely syringe it with water and bundle some loose 

 stuff into its dripping head, for the same reasons as a nursery- 

 man advises that a bundle of plants which come to hand in a 

 frozen condition should be soaked with water and then buried. 



It is impossible to do more than indicate the principles that 

 underlie some of the main operations of the farmer and the 

 gardener ; the important thing to realise is that some reason 

 generally exists for practices that are the outcome of experience 

 and traditions that extend back to Adam. It is, however, neces- 

 sary to distinguish between the undoubted secular tradition and 

 occasional errors and misinterpretations which obtain a wide 

 currency because of their plausibility or the authority of their 

 originator. Both kinds of opinion claim to speak with the weight 

 attaching to the practical man who knows ; to form a judgment 

 it is necessary to reason out which of the two conflicting views 

 best fits in with the general scheme of knowledge. The cultivator 

 who has at the back of his mind the few broad principles we 

 have indicated about the movements of water in the soil, the 

 relations of root extension to the water in the soil, and of 

 evaporation to cooling, will be able continually to rationalise his 

 observations in the field and garden, and will little by little 

 become able to piece them into a scheme consistent both with 

 itself and with the experience of others. 



END OF VOL. V. 



Printed by MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED, Edinburgh 



