

OLD sayings have a way of startling us into new 

 i lines of thought that are sometimes very profit- 

 I able; and the old sayings of the soil and plants 

 are no exception. Here is one about pruning, 

 for example, that makes us open our eyes, it is 

 so revolutionary: — "the wise man pruning his orchard carries 

 out the prunings thereof in his pocket." Imagine such a thing! 

 When all the tradition and precept and practice of to-day 

 is based on the theory of severe pruning to induce strong 

 growth ! 



^ et looking at it from a purely common sense attitude, why 

 should it? Why should taking away a portion of a plant make 

 the rest of it stronger and better, any more than removing a 

 portion of a man would have the same effect on him? Without 

 doubt there is usually an exuberant growth in the season follow- 

 ing heavy pruning (and in special cases of course, pruning is 

 done for just the purpose of stimulating this new wood, for one 

 reason or another) but it has been proven by careful observa- 

 tions that this growth of shoots is by no means an index of a 

 plant's vigor as a whole. As a matter of fact, does it not obvi- 

 ously indicate that the portions of which the plant has been 

 deprived by pruning were essential to its life, and must therefore 

 be replaced at the earliest possible moment before it can go on 

 along its line of normal development? 



Further, inasmuch as its normal development has been thus 

 violently interrupted, and its strength drawn upon to make up 

 the loss of vital members, does not natural inference conclude 

 that it never will arrive in all its parts at what it would have 

 become if such interruption had not occurred? This is precisely 

 the truth according to the conclusions which various experiments 

 and observations, made here in both the East and the West, 

 in Canada, in Europe, and in England, reach. The less a tree 

 is pruned the larger and heavier it becomes at maturity — larger 

 in all its parts and heavier by actual weight, which reveals of 

 course more definitely than anything else can, its actual con- 

 dition. 



All of this is very significant, and the well-being of our shrubs 

 and trees generally, as well as our fruit trees, deserves that the 

 widest dissemination be given the information — since the meddle- 

 some instinct to prune and snip has been so encouraged. Some- 

 times indeed it appears that the mass of gardeners believe a 

 garden is principally a place in which to exercise the pruning 

 saw and shears; and without a doubt on many places the labor 

 wasted in pruning things that should have only dead branches 

 removed, or not be pruned at all, would amount to 10 per cent. 

 of the total. 



Which is not to be interpreted as an arraignment of what may 

 be called constructive pruning! For although pruning per se 

 is never a necessity, but simply a measure to an end, constructive 

 pruning is one of the fine arts of plant growing. It differs, 

 though, from the ignorant and energetic use of the pruning in- 

 struments as greatly as the restrained work of modern surgery 



differs from the indiscriminate activities of the old-time saw- 

 bones; and unless one knows beyond peradventure exactly 

 what he is doing, why he is doing it, and just what effect it will 

 have, let him withhold his hand ! For it is a subject upon which 

 even experts are not altogether agreed — albeit it is a practice 

 as old as history — and much undoubtedly is yet to be learned 

 about it. 



For one thing, there is the sabbatical year stressed in the 

 directions given the children of Israel, "Six years . . . thou 

 shalt prune thy vineyard and gather in the fruit thereof; but 

 in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest with the land, a 

 sabbath for the Lord." Who in the modern era has ever tried 

 following this literally? Yet why not? Apart from any re- 

 ligious significance, we know that the commandments and pre- 

 cepts given the children of Israel were based upon sound prin- 

 ciples of hygiene or physiology; hence it would seem that there 

 might be some advantage worth taking a good deal of pains 

 to find out in this sabbatical restraint. But for the most of 

 us the best part about the whole thing, under general normal 

 conditions, is the extreme simplicity of our part — nothing to 

 worry about, and nothing to do! 



ONE wonders what would happen to a plant that came to 

 our shores in these days showing evidence of actual disease 

 or insect pest, when a luckless handful of seeds entering "by 

 permit" obtained from the Federal Horticultural Board and 

 routed through the channels mapped out by it, are delivered 

 to their consignee as dead as doornails after treatment consist- 

 ing of 24 hours' exposure to formaldehyde, followed by a similar 

 exposure to hydrocyanic acid, the reason recorded on the slip 

 in each case being precautionary! This is strenuous prophylaxis, 

 hardly calculated to reassure plantsmen, or induce them to avail 

 themselves of the much vaunted permits that "maybeobtained." 

 One wonders further on just what grounds the Federal Horticul- 

 tural Board fears for the safety of our temperate region forests 

 through the importation of the tender tropical Orchids! Or 

 most of all perhaps, why, of things admitted, Lily-of-the-Valley, 

 coming wholly from Germany, heads the list. Verily, there are 

 not a few things in these days that are past understanding! 



THE Trustees of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 are "of opinion that these drastic regulations of the Fed- 

 eral Horticultural Board, imposed under Quarantine 37, should 

 be substantially modified. They believe that the restrictions 

 enforced by this quarantine are very largely unnecessary and 

 detrimental to horticultural progress in the United States." 



They are of the opinion moreover that it is "a question 

 whether the Secretary of Agriculture, in ordering such drastic 

 quarantine, may not have exceeded both the intent and the 

 scope of the Act of Congress authorizing plant quarantine." 



Wherefore, "The Trustees of this Society believe that a 



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