THE AMERICAN GARDEN 



about one-fourth of all the dwellings in the 

 town, in this pretty contest. Not all, not half, 

 these competitors could make a show worthy 

 the name of good gardening, but every one of 

 these households stood pledged to do something 

 during the year for the outdoor improvement 

 of the home, and hundreds of their house lots 

 were florally beautiful. If I seem to hurry into 

 a mention of it here it is partly in the notion 

 that such a recital may be my best credentials as 

 the writer of these pages, and partly in the 

 notion that such a concrete example may possi- 

 bly have a tendency to help on flower-gardening 

 in the country at large and even to aid us in de- 

 termining what American flower-gardening had 

 best be. 



For the reader's better advantage, however, 

 let me first state one or two general ideas which 

 have given this activity and its picturesque re- 

 sults particular aspects and not others. 



I lately heard a lady ask an amateur gar- 

 dener, "What is the garden's foundation prin- 

 ciple?" 



There was a certain overgrown pomp in the 



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