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GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



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BOOK REVIEW DEPARTMENT 



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The Practical Bonk of Outdoor Rose Crowing, by George C. 

 Thomas, Jr.. second garden edition; cloth, 8vo. 224 pages, with 

 17 colored plates. 30 illustrations in a half-tone, charts and an 

 index ; the J. B, Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. 



Devotees of the Queen of Flowers have great cause to rejoice 

 in there having just appeared, to cover the latest discoveries to 

 the moment of going to press, this completely rewritten book 

 so unique in its being the fruit of a wealthy man's devotion of 

 talent pregnant with genuine impartiality and authoritativeness. 

 The Summer after his return from service in the country's army 

 has been given, with increased enthusiasm, to tests and to study- 

 ing points of improvement in cultivation. It is from such circum- 

 stances that has sprung this work that may truly be said to 

 approximate the ideal, if it is possible to conceive of ideality in 

 the case of a book, and that will be all the more appreciated 

 as it is probably to be the last of its kind to be expected from 

 the man who has done so much for the flower and for those 

 who love it and cultivate it. In his new home Captain Thomas 

 will grow the rose under conditions more favorable ; but his 

 help will be sorely missed by those of us, in various parts of 

 this great country, who have profited by his testings of new 

 varieties in climates and situations more difficult to contend with 

 than those of southern California. That the author's book has 

 been useful in this regard is proven by his own words that 

 everybody knows are true : It is difficult to find roses well 

 suited to our climate. The Winters are more severe and the 

 Summers hotter than the conditions to which imported roses 

 and their forebears have lieen accustomed, so that inany of the 

 roses which flourish in Europe are worthless with us. 



Besides judging the liloom and the season and freedom of 

 their lieing produced his tests have comprehended careful inves- 

 tigation of habit and growth made by own-root plants compared 

 with those budded on sundry stocks. How much study has 

 been necessitated by the rather remarkable developments of the 

 last few years is indicated by the fact that his pet list of the 

 "sixteen best all-round varieties" selected in the fall of 1914 

 he has changed and expanded into a list of forty-eight that 

 "have stood out as the liest," twelve in the lighter shades, twelve 

 in the pink, twelve in the red and twelve in the yellow, each 

 dozen being individually arranged according to his preference. 

 That the list is not in the least incautious is evidenced by the 

 omission of Premier and Madame Butterfly and even Los Angeles 

 and Columbia, en the ground of their having not yet been 

 sufficiently tried nut. These do not occur at all in his Main 

 List either, although lliis includes, as Class 3. special roses 

 for large gardens or collections. Is not this conservatism too 

 extreme and might not the author have perhaps better relied 

 in cases like those upon the opinions of other trustworthy experts 

 and even have visited other plantations? In the national garden 

 at Arlington, for example, has been growing for now several years, 

 a climbing rose. Bess Lovett. which in every respect except 

 strength of cane is far superior to Climbing American Beauty; 

 and it is already in commerce. Near it grows a companion of 

 lighter color, .\lida Lovelt. which though not yet available to 

 the trade, also might well be recognized in a work like this. 

 particularly in the interesting and valualile chapter Rose Devel- 

 opment from 1917 to 1920. In this chapter also, by the w^ay. 

 is the only misprint that the reviewer has detected, in Red 

 Reliance for Red Radiance. To this rose the reviewer wishes 

 also that more attention were given, for he considers it the 

 finest beddcr he has learned to know. 



But to take such exceptions is invidious. So too would it 

 be to call attention to little shortcomings that other readers 

 might never liecome aware of. Instances are: the omission in 

 the index of Hedges; in the Score Card of points that in detail 

 would set forth the habit of the plant and its appearance as 

 a whole in the garden; and. in the body of the hook, of a 

 treatment of roses for diflferent sites, like that given to the 

 rugosas. For this last item, how-ever. the author would have to 

 go somewhat outside his own experience. If he had confined 

 himself to the Main List of Roses alone, with its amazing and 

 wonderful detailed description of one hundre';' and sixty hush 

 roses, with a record of their performing, so concise and accurate 

 and yet satisfactory, he would have placed the rose world under 

 great obligation. The publishers also deserve gratitude for 

 having co-operated so splendidly. .A.ll readers of this lovely 

 garden editimi might well wish lo olitain the new fifth edition 

 de luxe also with its superb pictures, in natural colors, of one 

 hundred and four of the world's finest roses and forty-seven 

 additional illustrations. 



My Grouing Garden, by J. Horace McFarland ; 24mo., cloth ; 

 XIII -|- 216 pages, incltiding an index and iZ plates in sepia and 

 5 in colors ; the Macmillan Company, Xew York and London. 

 London. 



Wise old Cato once defined an orator as a good man skilled 

 in the art of speaking. Similarly the succesful author of a 

 book on gardening, for from the time Adam was instructed 

 to lie a gardener gardening has been almost as natural and as 

 universal an activity of man as speaking, must be a passionate 

 and pure lover of the soil and of growing things as well as 

 skilled in the art of e.xpression. No other could compose this 

 paean of victorious accomplishment after striving, that in six 

 years made of an abandoned vineyard at the edge of a town 

 a notable garden home. It is eloquently poetical, almost lyrical, 

 yet wise and most practical withal. It really tells how "the 

 two acres of San Jose scale, with a house attached," with weeds 

 in sight, and more weeds, in a little depth of shallow soil upon 

 a heavy shale was, with but little help other than the co-operation 

 of plant-loving friends, converted into a delightsome and satis- 

 factory spot where could be made to grow "every tree that 

 is pleasant to the sight and good for food." It is a book that 

 landscape architects might well assist in bringing to the atten- 

 tion of prospective hoine-makers. It is a book that all persons 

 interested in civic improvement ought to help to disseminate. 

 It would by most readers not quickly be laid down when once 

 they began to read not only "how exquisitely beautiful the 

 liarbery hedge can become when it blooms in crystal," but also 

 how simple and how rational it is to use manure and dynamite, to 

 compost leaves and trash, to prune and to spray, to get after 

 tree-borers, to cover grapes with paper bags, to have sweet 

 corn at the kitchen door within a minute's reach for seventeen 

 weeks of the year, while at the same time beauty is spread 

 around as the result of sowing a few packets of flower seeds. 



Good common sense is shown in estimating the desirability 

 and worth of the dift'erent annuals and shrubs and trees. Fine 

 taste is used in appreciating the flora of the home state along 

 side of fairness toward commendable novelties. The generally 

 excellent literary style has the climax in the chapters entitled 

 The Early Fall Glory and Choosing Your Own Weeds. Evidence 

 of scholarly carefulness and accuracy pervade ; calling the cup- 

 shaped Cottage tulip Bouton d'Or a Darwin and even the use 

 of the phrase "gladioli bulbs" are errors perhaps easily pardoned. 



The publishers and the author's own print-shop have certainly 

 "made of the book much' more than a perfunctory item of work." 

 From the material point of view, as well as in its composition, 

 the book is a work of art. 



Gardens and Their Makiii:^, by Dora Williams; 8vo, cloth; 

 IX -j- 235 pages, with index and illustrations; Ginn and 

 Company, Boston. 



This little book it would be well for readers of the Chronicle 

 to urge upon the attention of parents and all who in any way 

 are charged with the instruction of the young. The author 

 reveals herself as a real and careful student of education, 

 possessed of true psychological and pedagogic insight. She makes 

 good her case in pleading that the garden as a workable 

 laboratory should be "called upon to lake its place in the scheme 

 of education and to fulfil its social and scientific possibilities" 

 by showing that its greatest lessons are lessons in the art of 

 living and by describing, in an interesting and impressive manner, 

 the incidental values to be gained from a well conducted school 

 garden. But as a practical manual the work has defects and 

 at points even misleads. In attempting to give advice about 

 such simple matters as the making of a trench for the sewing 

 of vegetable seeds it displays lack of sufficient practical experi- 

 ence. It is apt to cause the novice to believe that bulbs of 

 tulips and narcissi need to be kept warm through the winter 

 ovit of doors and fails to mention the necessity of preventing 

 them from drying out when forming roots for blooming in 

 the house. In treating of watering it seeins to permit the 

 applying of spray to foliage when the sun is shining upon it. 

 This and, upon another page, the crowding of sentences that 

 might persuade the youthful gardener to plant Holland flower 

 bulbs in the Spring and then a little later to transplant them 

 are exceptions to the general literary excellence of the book. 

 The illustrations embellish ; but as they serve no other purpose 

 they might perhaps have been dispensed with in order to lessen the 

 cost of the book. 



School and Home Gardens, by \\'. H. D. ^loier ; 8vo, cloth 

 \" + 319 pages, with 157 illustrations and index; Ginn and 

 Company, Boston. 



This is an excellent companion book to the preceding, for 

 just as Miss Williams' work is well designed to stimulate an 

 (Continued on pat^e 2.S8) 



