< PREFACE xvii 



Of course I too have benefited by the experi- 

 ences and advice of other gardeners, amateur 

 as well as professional, having for about three 

 decades read and reviewed all the new garden 

 books for the New York Evening Post. It 

 was in the Evening Post with which I have 

 had the honor of being connected forty years 

 as musical and epicurean editor that fifteen of 

 the chapters in this book about my garden in 

 Maine first appeared. 



It was Mr. Simeon Strunsky, leading edi- 

 torial writer on that paper, who suggested this 

 exploiting of my horticultural experiences. To 

 him, and to the president of the Evening 

 Post company, Mr. Edwin F. Gay, who has 

 kindly allowed their reproduction in book 

 form, I have dedicated this ^volume. I also 

 wish to thank Good Housekeeping and the 

 editor of House and Garden, Mr. Richardson 

 Wright, for permission to reprint articles con- 

 tained in this book. Chapters I, II, III, IV, 

 XXII, and XXVIII have not heretofore ap- 

 peared in print. I may be permitted to add 

 that while these chapters appeared in the press 

 I received many letters from all over the coun- 

 try expressing the hope that they would be 

 conveniently reproduced between the covers of 

 a book. 



Am I vain in consequence? An uncle of mine, 

 Charles Black, used to say, "Whoso bloweth 

 not his own horn the same shall not be blown.*' 



