PREFACE xvii 



labor, while in a large garden the horse-cultivator is a 

 necessity. Regular and persistent cultivation is essential 

 to success in gardening, and is the best of the two 

 methods for bringing the garden through a drought. 



The other method, irrigation, is laborious, expen- 

 sive, and seldom entirely successful. It is best applied 

 by leading the water alongside the plants in furrows 

 dug for the purpose; the ground should be soaked, the 

 furrows closed and mulched. But for an ordinary 

 drought cultivation is sufficient. 



Besides cultivating regularly, I assume that all gar- 

 deners keep their soil rich by generous applications of 

 manure or chemical fertilizers preferably both. A few 

 plants seem to be injured by overfeeding, especially 

 those root-crops which suffer upon ground that has 

 been recently manured. These plants I have indicated, 

 but in general all plants thrive best upon rich soil, and 

 the oft-repeated rule for vegetable gardens is : Give too 

 much, in order to be sure to have enough. 



Such directions for fertilizing as I have given in the 

 book are (over and above the necessary general fertiliz- 

 ing) for the special needs of special crops. Knowledge 

 of this subject is however as yet too inexact for me to 

 be in all cases either positive or precise. Experiment 

 stations all over the country are at present working 

 upon this problem of fertilizers for special crops, a so- 

 lution of which problem will take fewer dollars from the 

 farmers' pockets and put more into them but that 



