The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1907-04-15

the other false idea that there Is prac-
tically no sap in a tree during the dor
mant season. But If a tree had no sap
in it during the winter it would be as
dead as julius Caesar"
Y
The fact is that a tree has an album
dant supply of sap in it during the DOR
mant season, but it is not the same
kind of sap that enters through the
roots. The nutriment entering the tree
in the liquid form cannot build up the
tree till it goes up to the leaves where,
meeting the air and sunlight, it is trans
formed into sugar, starch and other
allied substances Then 1t flows back
and is stored up in the trunk and limbs
of the tree as elaborated sap. The tree
has enough of this elaborated sap
stored up in the trunk and limbs to
start growth in the spring and carry
it on till the leaves are large enough
to elaborate the new material coming
through the roots. Now any warmth
that will set in motion this elaborated
sap stored up from the chemical work
house of the leaves of the previous
year will start the leaves and bloom
regardless of the condition of the root
system. The warmth of the sunlight
will set this sap to work when the
roots are locked in ice. Take a limb
of a fruit tree and draw it through
your window leaving 1t fast to the
tree, cork up the opening and let the
temperature be kept UP to the ordinary
condition of a living room and this
limb will leave out and bloom while
the buds on the limbs out doors are
dormant and the ground frozen about
the roots. The same thing in prin-
ciple can be accomplished by cutting
off limb of a peach tree in the winter
and keeping it standing in water in
a warm room when it will leave out
and bloom. The water in which the
limb stands simply prevents too rapid
evaporation. Anyone who will carefully
read and understand what I have writ
ten above can see why the tree with
it's roots mulched will bloom out as
quickly as other trees provided it has
the same warmth to set in motion the
elaborated sap stored in the trunk and
limbs during the previous summer.
Il
What wonderful thing a tree is,
anyhow It is a most wonderful piece
of mechanism and far surpasses any
thing ever made by the hand and skill
of man. Some Intelligence must have
presided over it's origin and develop
ment as far above mans intelligence
as it's mechanism is above anything
produced by man. No wonder that the
great botanist, Asa Gray, in contem-
plating the wisdom manifested in plant
life, has this to say: "They are all
connected by resemblances or relation
ships, near and remote, which shows
that they are all parts of one system,
realizations in nature, as we may af-
firm, of the conception of One Mind"
See Gray's Elements of Botany, page
1T.
+
I am in receipt of a letter and a
small pamphlet from my friend, J. H.
Kirkpatrick, of Ferndale, Whatcom
county, Washington. The title of the
pamphlet is: Orchard Notes on Guilt
waiting, Spraying and Packing What
com County Fruits" Friend Kirk" as
his neighbors call him up there has
done a good thing for the fruit grow
ers of his county. In his introduction
he says: "These notes are the results
Of fifteen years of actual work and OBJ
servations in the orchards" There is
the key to the value of this publica-
ton. A man must be a dumb man,
indeed if he did not learn many Valu-