BY WAY OF DEDICATION. 



Y DEAR POLLY, When a few 

 of these papers had appeared in 

 " The Courant," I was encouraged 

 to continue them by hearing that they had 

 at least one reader who -read them with the 

 serious mind from which alone profit is to be 

 expected. It was a maiden lady, who, I am 

 sure, was no more to blame for her singleness 

 than for her age ; and she looked to these hon- 

 est sketches of experience for that aid which 

 the professional agricultural papers could not 

 give in the management of the little bit of gar- 

 den which she called her own. She may have 

 been rny only disciple ; and I confess that the 



