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THE GUIDE T< ) NATURE 



Swimming. By E3dwin Tennej Brew 



Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mif- 

 ilin Company. 



i-'nr anj one who wants to xearn to swim, 

 to swim in tter, or to teach some one els< 

 to swim, Mr. Edwin Tenney Brewster's little 

 handbook entitled "Swimming" will be of 

 unique helpfulness, it is a compact and 

 well-arranged manual, giving instructions 

 sn clearly and entertainingly that the reader, 

 given the opportunitj for practice, can 

 Bcarcely tail to acquire the art of swimming 

 in all its branches in a. short space of time. 



Manual of Gardening. A Practical Guide 

 to tin- Slaking of Homo Grounds and 

 the Growing of Flowers, Fruits, and 

 Vegetables for Homo Use. By L. H. 



Bailey. New York City: The Macmillan 

 Company. 



The spirit of this book is excellent — ideal. 

 No better can this point of view be shown 

 than by the following quotations. They are 

 worth careful consideration. 



•Wherever there is soil, plants grow and 

 produce their kind, and all plants are in- 

 teresting; when a person makes a choice 

 as to what plants he shall grow in any 

 given place, he becomes a gardener or a 

 farmer; and if the conditions are such that 

 he cannot make a choice, he may adopt the 

 plants that grow there by nature, and by 

 making the most of them may still be a 

 gardener or a farmer in some degree. 



"Every family, therefore, may have a 

 garden. If there is not a foot of land, there 

 are porches or windows. Wherever there 

 is sunlight, plants may be made to grow; 

 and one plant in a tin-can may be a more 

 helpful and inspiring garden to some mind 

 than a whole acre of lawn and flowers may 

 be to another. 



"The satisfaction of a garden does not 

 depend on the area, nor, happily, on the 

 cost or rarity of the plants. It depends on 

 the temper of the person. One must first 

 seek to love plants and nature, and then to 

 cultivate the happy peace of mind that is 

 satisfied with little. 



" In the vast majority of cases a person 

 will be happier if he has no rigid and arbi- 

 trary notions, for gardens are moodish, 

 particularly with the novice. If plants 

 grow and thrive, he should be happy; and 

 if the plants that thrive chance not to be 

 the ones that he planted, they are plants 

 nevertheless, and nature is satisfied with 

 them. 



"We are wont to covet the things that we 

 cannot have; but we are happier when we 

 love the things that grow because they 

 must. A patch of lusty pigweeds, growing 

 and crowding in luxuriant abandon, may be 

 a better and more worthy object of affec- 

 tion than a bed of coleuses in which every 

 spark of life and spirit and individuality 

 has been sheared out and suppressed. The 

 man who worries morning and night about 

 the dandelions in the lawn will find great 



relief in loving the dandelions. Each blos- 

 som is worth more than a gold coin, as 

 it shims in the exuberant sunlight of the 

 growing spring, and attracts the insects to 

 its bosom. Little children like the dande- 

 lions; why may not we? Love the things 

 nearest at hand; and love intensely. It' I 

 were to write a motto over the gate of a 

 garden, I should choose the remark that 

 Socrates is said to have made as he saw the 

 luxuries in the market, 'How much there 

 is in the world that I do not want!' 



"I verily believe that this paragraph I 

 have just written is worth more than all 

 the advice with which I intend to cram the 

 succeeding pages, notwithstanding the fact 

 that I have most assiduously extracted this 

 advice from various worthy but, happily, 

 long-forgotten authors. Happiness is a 

 quality of a person, not of a plant or a 

 garden; and the anticipation of joy in the 

 writing of a book may be the reason why 

 so many books on garden-making have been 

 written. Of course, all these books have 

 been good and useful." 



"I expect, then, that every person who 

 reads this book will make a garden, or will 

 try to make one; but if only tares grow- 

 where roses are desired, I must remind the 

 reader that at the outset I advised pig- 

 weeds. The book, therefore, will suit every- 

 body — the experienced gardener, because it 

 will be a repetition of what he already 

 knows; and the novice, because it will 

 apply as well to a garden of burdocks as of 

 onions." 



"The burdock is one of the most striking 

 and decorative of plants, and a good piece 

 of it against a building or on a rough bank 

 is just as useful as many plants that cost 

 money and are difficult to grow. I had a 

 good clump of burdock under my study 

 window, and it was a great comfort; but 

 the man would persist in wanting to cut 

 it down when he mowed the lawn. When 

 I remonstrated, he declared that it was 

 nothing but burdock; but I insisted that, 

 so far from being burdock, it was really 

 Lappa major, since which time the plant 

 and its offspring have enjoyed his utmost 

 respect. And I find that most of my friends 

 reserve their appreciation of a plant until 

 they have learned its name and its family 

 connections." 



"The plants on the dump wanted to grow, 

 and the imported plants in the garden did 

 not want to grow. It was the difference 

 between a willing horse and a balky horse, 

 If a person wants to show his skill, he may 

 choose the balky plant; but if he wants fun 

 and comfort in gardening, he would better 

 choose the willing one." 



"The joy of garden-making lies in the 

 mental attitude and in the sentiments." 



