INTRODUCTION 



These chapters, which originally ap- 

 peared in Garden and Forest, were written 

 partly to acknowledge a debt for many 

 practical suggestions derived from its 

 pages, which helped us in our efforts to 

 bring harmony and beauty out of neglect 

 and desolation in one of the "abandoned 

 farms" of Massachusetts; and at the 

 same time to show the pleasure and inter- 

 est we found in endeavoring to create a 

 garden and forest of our own. 



The experiments that I relate are by 

 no means completed, and the mistakes 

 made will call for sympathy, as the suc- 

 cesses will claim congratulations ; but to 

 those who will kindly go with me along 

 the way we have come, at all events the 

 story ought to show what can be done with 

 moderate expense, by the aid of such ex- 

 cellent publications as are now within 



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