Evening star., 1928-04-26
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Recently this column carried an
article attempting TO track to Its lair
the peculiar sense of futility which
sometimes strikes one after reading a
good book.
1t was decided, after a thousand or
more words had been placed end to
end, that the main trouble lay In the
impossibility Of making writing as IN
teresting as life itself.
II Is with pleasure, therefore, that we
| today place before readers the FIRST two
pages of a new book backing up solidly
our contention. The book is Bush
Fruit Production" by Prof, Ralph A.
Van Meter, issued by the Orange Judd
Publishing Co.
Declaring that successful growing re
uuires something which cannot be writ
ten In books" Prof Van Meter points
out In as capable a fashion as we have
read anywhere the limitation OF the
printed word. What he says OF horti-
| culture is true everywhere else.
| The plant Is the open book OF the
| true horticuturist. he says Plant
characteristics dictate cultural require
ments and plant reactions govern the
details OF practice.
"The gardener or farmer who would
become skilled grower OF plants must
learn to pass beyond the printed word
| to the plant itself for the final settle
lnent of cultural problems.
He must learn to read the answers
to his questions in leaf and spur and
branch and flower. and he must de-
velop sense OF fine discrimination
which will enable him TO adjust culti-
vation and fertilization. pruning and
spraying more and more closely TO the
| ~ individual IllnntG
I Books are useful and necessary
| They contain the summarized expert
ences of thousands of plant manipula-
tors who have gone before, but the rules
and formulae which they set forth are
at best but rough approximations. They
may be true on the average. but they
seldom At exactly the particular condi-
tions with which the farmer and gar
dencr must deal
Language cannot convey tTu7 un-
| derstanding, continues Prof, Van Meter.
That can come only from experience
and observation and comparison, until
gradually there develops sense OF rela-
| tive values, a comprehension OF the
meaning of subtle changes which follow
our attempts to bend the plant to our
purposes, :.
study the plant! Learn To know II
at It's best; then learn TO recognize the
| signs OF trouble. especially those deli
cate but apparent growth and color
/ changes which indicate low or poorly
balanced food supply, for malnutr'tion
Is the worst foe of cultivated plantS.
Understanding can never be com
plete. Human senses arc too limited
and plant reactions too intimate and
subtle for that. but the degree OF mas
| terry marks the difference between the
plant wizard and the man who has no
luck at all with plants
So there you have it, not only IN
reference To garden how" books but
also by inference. to all books. Lam
guage cannot convey true understand
ingl This ,plies not only TO gardening
but to the larger operations of a life.
No amount Of books or reading, no
matte how helpful, will take the place
OF a human hand on yours In certain
crises of life Books have their lmita-
tions. We wrong them by expecting too
much of them.
Il am only book. after ALL" volume
tries 70 tell us. But We 60 on making
impossible demands upon IT,
Nor can understanding be complete.
This. too, applies not only in the
garden but alsn to life At large. The