

w 



ELL do I remember one of the ad- 

 ^ nijanitions of my youth, brought upon 

 le by art'Y attempt to take apple -blos- 

 soms iroHV a "t^refc. in -']^om because they were 

 beautiful. I was-^fOTl^^at it was wrong to 

 pluck for any purpose, the flowers of fruit 

 trees, because the po^ible fruitage might 

 thereby be reduced. That is, feeding the eye 

 was impi^^er, but it was always in order to 

 conserve alf^3^ possibl^ies for another organ 

 of the bo^;*!ljE|B^<*those day^ we had not 

 learned that nature ■provides against contingen- 

 cies, and that not one -tenth of all the blos- 

 soms would be needed to "set" as much 

 fruit as the tree could possibly mature. 



The apple, well called the king of fruits, 

 is worthy of all admiration as a fruit; but I 

 do not see why that need interfere in the 

 least with its consideration as an object of 

 beauty. On the contrary, such consideration is 



75 



