MAR 20 1009 
PREP ACE. 
OnE of the most interesting and significant evidences 
of the abiding expansion of horticultural business is the 
evolution of the glass house within the present century. 
It is only within the last one or two generations that 
the growing of plants in glass houses for the purpose 
of selling the product of bloom or of fruit has come 
to be important and widespread. The most recent part 
of the expansion, at least in this country, is the com- 
mercial growing of winter vegetables. It speaks well 
for the prosperity and refinement of our people when 
they are willing and able to purchase freely of the 
delicacies of the winter garden. This is one of those 
branches of agriculture which demands the nicest skill 
and the closest fellowship with plants. It is, therefore, 
one in which comparatively few people are fitted to 
engage, but it must, from the very force of civilization, 
be one of those occupations which shall gain impetus 
with time. If it is a business which demands much 
care and pains, then its promoters must be students. 
They will need helps. It is this thought which has 
produced this book. 
The writer must hasten to say—what the attentive 
reader will soon discover—that he cannot consider 
himself to be an authority upon the subject. It has 
happened that he has been associated with considerable 
(v) 
