The suburban citizen., 1900-08-18
TRICKSPLAYED ONTREES
PLANTS DWARFEo AND CHANGED
CONTRARY TO THEIR KIND.

cess or Grhf1nE huu Its service ~
Manklnd-Producing "0reen Ebony"
Man has been playing them for so
many hundreds Of years that he has
become as much Injured to the practice
as the trees themselves. The arbor-
culturlst is willing to fatter himself
on the result, though what the trees
may be entitled to feel about the
conjuratiOn is quite another affair
They might. for instance, consider that
the tree doctor means well, but pretty
often contrives to dissemble his love,
Some Of his operations are certainly
painful and others eccentric, but the
patients are, nevertheless, bound to
submit to them. Bound" indeed,
they frequently are, root and branch;
and II their behavior in such a trying
situation is not always exactly that
anticipated by their taskmasters, it
must be admitted that the trees occa-
sionally endeavOr to do the best under
trying circumstances. But to drop the
metaphor For some little time the
famous "dwarfed" forest trees Of
Japan have been bidding for western
popularity, and their exhibition and
sale is now Of almost annual occur
renee. They are more or less perfect
resemblances Of timber trees, grown
in pots, with gnarled trunks and
branches and leaves to match, and
fully justifying to the eye their claim
to growth. The once famous show
man, Mr.. Vufin, declared, as the re-
suit Of his varied experience, that "the
Dlder a dwarf is, the better worth he
Is; a greay-headed dwarf, well wrin-
kled, is beyond all suspicion" In the
production of their dwarfed trees the
willy Orientals seem to acknowledge
the same principle. The unfortunate
tree-dwarf must not only be old, but
must look it's age. 1t must have wrin-
kles and crows feet. 1t must have
roots, and palsied members. Then it
is a dwarf, indeed and the better
worth owning and exhibiting
Although the great number Of the
dwarfed trees come from Japan the
Japanese owe the secret Of their pro-
drction to the Chinese 1t is the very
button of excellence in the cap Of
Celestial gardener to be an adept in
the art of conquering nature, and the
practice of making "KoO Shoo' Ctree
dwarfs) may possibly date from the
time Of Confuclus. Various members
Of the confer" family are the favor
ite subjects of distortion, though they
are by no means the only tribe sub
mitted to it. Long experience has
doubtless suggested more than one
method Of producing the desired end,
but the Chinese system may perhaps
be taken as a type Of all. The prac-
titiOner selects a small branch of a
healthy growing tree, which promises
well for the operation. Just below
an "eye" in the young wood a ring
of bark is excised, and the wound inn
mediately surrounded with a ball Of
compost, held in position by a suitable
envelope. This begins to send out
| little rootlets in search Of nourish-
ment. Being in every way encour-
aged to make the best of its new stu
alton, it presently declares its COM
| plete independence Of the parent stock,
from which it is then severed. Now
begins the more personal struggle with
untoward fate. Still attended by its
ball of EARTH it is cramped into
small pot, and just kept alive by a
sparing allowance of water. 1t can
not flourish, and it must not die; those
are the terms on which the artist deals
with his captive, and between which
it has TO find its own level But the
dungeon alone is not sufficient; the
torturer is called in to assist. As
soon as the victim has established Il
kindof torpid existence its stem and off
shoots are in various places" "clamped"
with wire fetters, in order to promote
the rugged appearance so necessary
to its future prospects as a dwarf Of
venerable age. At this stage, also, the
roots are closely scanned, and when
necessary are trimmed, or even scared
with hot iron. Many deaths occur
just then, but such subjects as sur
vive the treatment gradually begin to
show its effects. With lessened leaves
and cramped branches, they grow into
more or less perfect resemblances of
forest veterans. To confer a kind of
'worm-eaten" antiquity the branches
are occasionally smeared with honey
to invite the attacks Of insects. The
plants natural instinct is sometimes
not fully overcome for ten, or even
twenty years. But It eventually sub
sides into the state of dwarfdom,
barely living example Of what mans
perverted ingenuity can effect.
AS one of the many tricks played
upon trees, grating stands perhaps
only next to dwarfng, 1t must, how
ever, at once be admitted that the
former process has been of the most
benefcent service to mankind. The
Romans, who had a wonderful love
Of neutrality-suspicious. it was the nat
ural antithesis of the warlke element
knew everything that was then to
be known in relation to grating and
budding" But we are confronted by
Virgips rather startling assertion that
any scion may be grated on any
d l., l. q -. 4.