36 
FRUITFULNESS AND BARRENNESS OF PLANTS. 
ARTICLE X. 
AN ENQUIRY INTO THE CAUSES OF THE FRUITFULNESS AND 
BARRENNESS OF PLANTS AND TREES : 
With Practical Instructions of the Management of Gardening and Farms, and ja System of 
Training Fruit-Trees, &c. Founded on Scientific Principles. Arranged as a Dialogue. 
BY JOSEPH HAYWARD, ESQR. 
Author of the “ Science of Horticulture8fc. —12 mo. 292 Pages, with Cuts. 
London. 
The principal object of this work is to convey in a compact and 
simple form, the substance of the more important parts of the Au¬ 
thor’s former works on Horticulture and Agriculture, together with 
the results of much subsequent observation and experiment. The 
work is written in the form of Question and Answer, in which are 
discussed the Chemistry of Vegetation, the Nature and Composition 
of Earths, the Nature and Principles of the Food of Plants, the Ge¬ 
neration of Plants and the Production of Varieties, the General 
Structure of Plants, and their numerous diseases, which together oc¬ 
cupy 169 pages; the remainder is occupied with laws as a founda¬ 
tion for Rules of Practice, and a System of Practice, itself founded 
on Science. The style of writing is plain and intelligible, of which 
the following Extract may be taken as a sample. 
(Extracted from Page 170 to Page \75.) 
Q. Such, then, being the laws and principles ordained by nature, 
for originating, governing, and determining the growth and produc¬ 
tions of vegetables, are they not corroborated by such existing facts, 
as will admit of the deduction of certain axioms or rules, for the 
guidance of a gardener in the practice of his art ? 
A. Certainly: and it will be well to divide, explain, and reduce 
them to some such orderly arrangement, previously to entering upon an 
exposition of a system of practice. The chief object for w,hich plants 
and trees are cultivated in the garden and the orchard, are their flow¬ 
ers, seeds, fruits, and roots; our first care must therefore be, to bring 
them to, and sustain them in, the most perfect state of fructification. 
The leaves and stalks also bping of considerable importance, both as 
objects of use and ornament, the growth and disposition of these 
must likewise be regarded. Now, as for whatever purpose we may 
suppose vegetables to be created, it is clear that all kinds of plants 
and trees proceed by progressive degrees in their growth to attain a 
fructiferous state; and that in their advance from the seed to the at¬ 
tainment of their utmost size, the formation and arrangement of their 
