FALL AND SPRING PLANTING. 



Ey \ViLLiA.M Saunders, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



Ix the earlier stages of every art, our knowledge is necessarily 

 confined t ) particidars. Observation and experience discover and 

 develop facts, froni which are derived certain fixed principles of 

 action ; fixed, because thev are dependent upon the universal and 

 unchangeable laws of nature. Practice based upon cmpiricisni is 

 constantly subjected to mistakes antl failures. Lidustrv is baffled 

 and hopes are tleteated bv numerous contingencies, arising from causes 

 incident to e\ery process of art, witli which the rtjutine practitioner 

 mav be unal)le to cope, but whicli present no obstacle ti) idtimr.te 

 success, when occurring in the practice of those whose actions are 

 governed bv a knowledge of principles. 



In no department of art will this apply with greater force than in that 

 of horticulture. We may seldom look through the pages of any of the 

 numerous publications devoted to the interests of the cultivator, with- 

 out perceiving many discrepancies, contradictory assertions, question- 



