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tried to discover a general cause under 
the operations of a general law. 
The second was deductive, in which, 
after the general cause was discovered, I 
tried to determine whether all the cases 
of rosette would be included by it. 
I found that rosette actually existed 
under the many conditions described by 
the writers, in their replies to my letters. 
I reasoned that it must therefore be in- 
duced by many conditions, and that there 
must be some general cause which will 
include them all. I pursued the plan 
adopted by Herbert Spencer in the writing 
of his “First Principles,” in presuming 
that “when two or more intelligent per- 
sons differ upon a subject with which 
they are familiar, all of them are right 
in what they affirm, but are wrong in 
what they deny.” 
It is like the old story of the shield, 
which one contended was made of copper, 
another that it was made of brass. It 
depends on the viewpoint, for on one 
side it was copper, on the other brass, so 
that it was both copper and brass. 
Again, it is like a photographer of an 
orchard section who stands on the west 
side of the valley and gets for his back- 
ground the hills toward the east; while 
another stands on the east side and gets 
the hills toward the west. There may 
be as many unlike views as there are 
viewpoints, and all of them correct. I 
contend that the same rule will apply to 
rosette, and that a proper analysis of the 
subject, and a proper synthesis of facts, 
will justify this claim. 
The Cause of Causes 
A cause is something that must have 
preceded, in order that an event should 
happen. 
A primary cause is a first cause in 
degree, time, rank or importance. 
A specific cause is one which has some 
property, which distinguishes it from any 
other. 
A tributary or contributory cause is one 
which is not primary or specific, but con- 
tributes toward the production of certain 
results, as in the case of two rivers, 
neither of which are navigable; but when 
united, become navigable. 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
A condition is one which necessarily 
precedes a result, but does not produce 
it. 
Further, when we find the conditions 
under which rosette exists, and inquire 
what are the causes of these conditions, 
we have gone only one step backward: 
for immediately we begin to inquire, 
What are the causes of the causes that 
produced these conditions? If by any 
means we answer that question satisfac. 
torily, then we must inquire the cause of 
the causes of the causes of the cond. 
tions. 
Suppose we say, aS one man did, that 
“Rosette is caused by a rapid evapora- 
tion from the leaf in an arid climate, 
which prevents a sufficient manufacture 
of food.” 
We would ask then, “Why cannot the 
leaf manufacture a sufficiency of food?’ 
He would probably say, “Because the 
trunk does not supply the raw materials 
to the top system.” 
Why does not the trunk supply the 
top system? 
“Because the root system does not sup- 
ply the trunk.” 
Why does not the root system supply 
the trunk? 
“Well, perhaps the root system is de- 
fective.” 
Then we would inquire, What is the 
cause of the defective root system? The 
answer might include any one of a num- 
ber of causes or several of them com- 
bined. For instance, it might be gophers, 
aphis, hard pan, clean cultivation, alka- 
li, lack of water, too much water, ete. 
Inasmuch as all these conditions exist 
sometimes where there is no rosette, it 
will be seen that they are not primary, 
but tributary causes, contributing to a 
root injury without which there is no 
rosette. This is not only reasonable, 
but is true in fact, if I am not mistaken 
in my observations. A few of these ob- 
servations I will note. 
I began in my own orchard, extending 
my observations to other orchards, until 
I had dug the ground about 600 trees 
which were rosetted or near rosetted and 
examined 100 other trees that had been 
uprooted. I found that of the 600 trees 
