Evening star., 1928-03-05
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES f. TRACEWELL.

garden lore, however, and the chances
| are 10 to l that the great bulk OF lift
It bulks at all-will be composed Of bits
of information received from fellow
workers in the great medium OF the
earth.
viouslv one of the most difficult mis-
sions. Every one who is teacher does
not teach. Good teachers, like real
poets. are born, not made.
Those who write on gardening ilnd
! themselves In the same difficult poSltlon
occupied by those who write on music.
They must deal with one ART IN tne
medium of another This will not pre-
vent some fine things being said, both
about music and about gardening
Inst as music alone knows apou1
music and can tell about music, SO gar
dcninp alone knows about gardening
and can tell about gardening. gar
dener can show the amateur more III d
minute than all the articles In the
| world can tell him. T..
| THE limitation of the written word Is
lust this: That no writer can know ex-
actly how much the reader knows 10
start with, and unless he does emo"
this he can only start where he him-
self would begin. ,.
This is the unfortunate hiatus
plainly visible in the "how to" artl-
Giles. The author prcsupposes. for IN,
stance, that the average reader VIII
know more than the average reader
does. A..
Therefore the very thing that the
| amateur wants to learn about some
favorite plant is not there. He searches
the fine article to discover how 1ar
apart the plants must be set; but the
sagacious writer gardener, Intent on
telling the world about some OF tne
newer varieties. totally forgets that his
dear reader will be puzzled about such
childish matter.
X X X
| In addition to the technical endS
| involved in the mere writing, the now
to" article finds itself limited by the
very nature of gardening operations.
Just as the seedsmen find themselves
unable to guarantee the crop, so the
writer's of gardening pieces discover
pretty early in their career that no
amount of black and white information
will make up for lack OF gardening
sense.
Planting. cultivation. mulching. fer
tilization, daily care. wedding. spraying
these are some of the garden actions
and duties that must come by nature.
| They are the fundamentals OF Sdrueu-
ing, which experience makes as pialn
as A B c to one who actually goes into
the garden--that Is, If he is born with
sense of garden actualities.
How can a city man, who has never
gotten closer to a flower than the no.
rist's window, expect to be blessed with
garden intuition? Some old fellow from
the country. who cannot speak two
words grammatically, yet will be able
to show him trumps and spades when
it comes to growing vegetables and
flowers.
After all, perhaps garden articles
should be confined to those OF the in
spirational sort. and to those which dis
clss the newest things. especially when
both of these can be done in new way
If a writer insists on telling us some
! thing, however. let him do 1t in plain
way. putting down everything ne knows
and keeping back nothing from us.
Then. from the ensuing weltcr o'
words the anxious gardener may be
able to pick out one or two real facts
which he may profitably add to his
! stock OF garden knowledge. Let a
reader find but one real fact which /;
new to him, he has no kick coming
One must not expect too much o!
writing. After all. 1t is done by human
beings.