176 MY SUMMKR IN A GARDEN. 



days when a strawberry was a strawberry, and 

 there was no perplexity about it ! There are 

 more berries now than churches ; and no one 

 knows what to believe. I have seen gardens 

 which were all experiment, given over to every 

 new thing, and which produced little or nothing 

 to the owners, except the pleasure of expectation. 

 People grow pear-trees at great expense of time 

 and money, which never yield them more than 

 four pears to the tree. The fashions of ladies 

 bonnets are nothing to the fashions of nursery 

 men. He who attempts to follow them has a 

 business for life ; but his life may be short. 

 If I enter upon this wide field of horticultural 

 experiment, I shall leave peace behind ; and I 

 may expect the ground to open, and swallow me 

 and all my fortune. May Heaven keep me to 

 the old roots and herbs of my forefathers ! 

 Perhaps in the world of modern reforms this 

 is not possible ; but I intend now to cultivate 



