Evening star., 1932-09-29
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

know better love to sprinkle" their
yards in this latter sense.
OF such sprinkling, it r1ay be said
that it Is better than nothing.
1t washes dust off foliage, helps the
"black-spot" of roses to get nice toe
hold, and generally freshens up plants
and grass. Perhaps not too much stress
the experts to the effect that such
light watering will induce a surface
growth of grass roots, which will then
be killed at the first touch OF frost.
Many a scrupulous home owner, read
ing such advice, has refrained from
using the hose at all, when he found
1t impossible to devote several hours
to the task. Others compromised by
giving q really good watering to very
small section of the garden and per-
mitting the remainder to 60 unwatered.
The real fault with typical "sprinkling"
lies rather in the utterly inadequate job
which it does in getting down to the
plant roots. That is where moisture
is needed, and If it cannot be got down
that far, it might as well not be put
on at all.
In fact, Nature can endure dryness
as we'll as wetness.
She has to!
And all her children have learned
this trick from her.
Human beings, brought up to rush
for indoor shelter when a rain begins,
must first put themselves. mentally, In
the place Of the plants, firmly anchored
in the soil.
These are growing things, too. but
they cannot run.
They must stay put" as the YER
| nacular has 1t.
They have their roots in the ground,
and they cannot get them loose;
whether the rain falls. or dryneSs pre-
walls, they must stay there and take 1t.
So Nature gave them great toll
erance. as the physicists say, much
"leeway," as most of us put 1t.
Plants can stand an amazing amount
Of water. on the one hand: and an
even more amazing amount OF drought.
It is not so much a surplus Of moisture
which hurts them as failure OF that
moisture to begin to dry out later.
Similarly, 1t is not dryness which harms
them so much, in itself and Of itself.
as the failure of that dryness to give
way at last to a necessary wetness.
Nature works in wide swing, or
curve, in which liberation is great to-
ward two extremes, toward too much
Of good things and too little of them,
between too much of inimical forces
and too little of them. These same
extremes apply even more pointedly to
mankind. but we are fortunately not
concerned with them here.
Every one who recalls the drought
of 1880 knows how well plant life, in
the main. withstood those three months
of practically no rainfall at all. In
some communities use of the garden
hose was forbidden. and many lawns,
as we'll as paintings Of evergreens and
shrubs went without a drop OF water
for as much as eight weeks.
That is a long time to go without
drink of water, and nothing but plant
life, perhaps. could stand 1t. Certainly
the higher animals could not.
Just how well the plants did stand
ii is a matter for some dispute. Mankind
has no liking for longtime judgments.
Most persons want to pronounce Ver-
dict. on moot question, and get the
matter done with: few people are willing
to wait for several years before attempt
ing to pass upon a question.
The question of whether or not the
drought of three years ago actually and
permanently injured trees. shrubs and
evergreens is not settled yet. AS with
most such questions. the verdict OF the
experts would not exactly coincide with
that of the amateur. in that the latter
would be more unwilling. perhaps. to
account for recent injury by something
which happened two or three years ago.
We had a fine evergreen. for instance,
! II feet tall. which was gloriously green
until the blizzard of March last The
wind bent it over, and after that it has
never looked the same. Today it Is all
brown with the exception Of the top.
The blizzard, especially the wind, gets
the blame-but still We have suspicion
that the big drought had something to
do with it. The curve had gone too