Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women - Wise Acres Yearbook (Ambler, PA)

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vated, and often for its commercial value. Mute, but nonetheless forceful, testimony of the truth of these statements is given by many of the plantations made by commercial horticulturists (nurserymen). Despite this apparently irreconcilable difference in viewpoint, I believe that the landscape architect and the horticulturist may and should be mutually helpful. Both are interested in the production of healthy plants, in the introduction of new plants, in the further perfection of known plants and the use of all plants whether for economic or esthetic purposes. Here, it seems, are enough interests held in common by these two professions to bring and keep them in a close relationship provided their respective points of view are understood, each by the other. To this end the landscape architect should know the cultural and climatic requirements of the plants he intends to use, else his designs will fail. He should also be interested, and should assist wherever possible, in adding to the body of plant material, as it is upon this that he depends for one of the most important elements in his work. On the other hand, the horticulturist may broaden his field of usefulness and increase his esthetic appreciation of plants by devoting some time to the study of the principles of design, particularly design in plant materials, employed by the landscape architect. Ecology, a comparatively new science of rapidly growing importance, is the study of the relation of plants to their environment and to each other in their environment. As good design is dependent to a great extent on recognition of these laws, ecology is of equal importance to the horticulturist. Through this field of knowledge I think both professions will gain much that will be of benefit and perhaps bring about a better appreciation of each other’s work than has hitherto existed. Since our professional schools furnish us with a splendid fertile field in which to sow seeds of this “apple of accord,” I feel that we should grasp the opportunity and work wholeheartedly to cultivate and later to reap the crop of closer relationship and better co-operation between landscape architecture and horticulture. Markley Stevenson. A Tribute to One of Our Girls (Extract from a letter received at School this fall) “Last summer when I saw you in Ambler, I met a Miss Hall there. She is now at the Pennsylvania Hospital for Nervous Diseases. When there last week I saw her. “Everybody is delighted with her. She is doing splendidly, not only with her horticulture work, but I hear she has a won- 15

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parts into a unified whole, is his most important function. As the architect has his stone and wood, the sculptor his marble and bronze, and the painter his palette of colors, so the landscape architect has certain materials with which he works out his designs. These include ground forms (hills, valleys, plains, etc.), vegetation (trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, etc.), and structures as they relate to the landscape. With these he designs the dooryard garden, or plans for the development of an entire metropolitan region. It is evident, therefore, that the practitioners of this art have a wide scope for their powers, and their labors embrace a broad field of design. It is not quite so easy to define horticulture, as much depends on the point of view of the individual. To the person whose interest lies in adding to the total sum of knowledge of the subject, horticulture is a science, while to the one whose interest lies in the cultivation of plants for their individual usefulness or beauty, whether for pleasure or profit, horticulture becomes an industry. In either case a broad field of activity is opened, and these are only two of the many aspects which horticulture presents to persons having different tastes and training. Broadly speaking, we may say that a horticulturist is one skilled in the cultivation of all forms of plant life as the result of knowledge and practice. It is upon the common ground of their interest in plants that the landscape architect and horticulturist meet, and, far too often, separate; and this is written in the hope that, with a more sympathetic understanding of the point of view toward plants of each by the other, a continuation of the latter condition may be in some measure prevented. The difficulty seems to arise almost entirely from a difference in viewpoint. In considering plants the landscape architect approaches the matter from the point of a designer and is thus interested primarily in whether a plant will produce the effect desired in his composition. He selects plants almost entirely for their landscape value, that is, their fitness for use in the particular landscape picture which he is creating. This value is made up of three principal elements: Form (shape), texture, and color. For instance, he decides that he needs a tall round-headed tree, having small leaves of a light green color. Having made this decision he is free — within certain limits, among which are those of soil and climate, locality and situation—to select any one of a number of trees which meet his requirements. His training and experience make him value a plant for its usefulness in a composition rather than for the plant itself; its esthetic value to him is greater than its scientific or economic value. The horticulturist, on the other hand, cares little or nothing about the use of plants in pictorial composition, but by reason of his training and interest in their cultivation as specimens is inclined to value a plant for scientific or economic reasons. He values it for itself alone, its rarity, its exotic appearance, its unusual color or form, or the difficulty with which it is culti- 14

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derful hold over her patients. They all love to work for her, and that form of “labor” seems to be of the greatest assistance in helping those poor people to get their balance. I thought you would like to hear this, as she belongs to your School.” (We are so delighted to hear from one not closely in touch with either our School or with the Hospital that our “Tom's” work is so well appreciated. We only wish there were room to repeat some of Tom's own interesting tales of the life and efforts at the Hospital. Her well-known enthusiasm runs true to form, and she recounts her adventures with her usual vivacity, and we learn some intensely enlightening bits about the present-day methods of the medical profession.) Our Latest Bovine Adventures These always seem to occur during some holiday period, so that some of us miss the excitement and entertainment. But this time, the end of the Thanksgiving vacation, there were more to enjoy it than when Jasmine, Wonder-Heart and Princess arrived on July 4th. On Monday morning we received word that the long-expected consignment of Ayrshires, coming all the way from Florida, had at last reached Ambler. Miss Carter hurried down to the freight yard immediately—and spent the day! At noon, Dickie drove five of us down to see what we could do to assist. We passed the two men, each with two cows, on their way up to the School. When we reached the yard, we found the cattle eagerly appreciative of such attention as buckets of water, and later an opportunity to walk a bit around the enclosure near the car. In a little while, Pet, Pinky, Trip and Bunny started back to the School, each with a cow “under her arm,” as it were. The cows seemed glad to be exercising, as the difference between Florida temperature, and the 15 deg. being blown at them by our famous northwest wind was obviously uncomfortably. They reached the barns here safely, and later still “Grandee” and the three cows intended for us, were led out by the men. That left us with five big animals and five babies in the car. We sat and cuddled our feet in the hay, trying to pretend we were not cold until after 5:00, waiting for the other consignee to come for the other animals. He came just after we had given up in despair and were prepared to leave. Miss Carter had braved the terrors of our noble “bus,” and brought it over near the car. Two babies were coming with us. It was like leading refractory goats, to get those infants down the runway, across the trolley tracks and the road, and into the bus. We were ably assisted, however, by the extreme hunger of the little heifers. If we gave them each a hand to suck, they could be inveigled along quite easily most of the 16