ii.] TOOLSNOMENCLATUREOBSERVATION 9 



those who love flowers will much observe them their own 

 and their neighbours' ; nothing but constant observation 

 can ever make us familiar with the habits and wants 

 of our plants, their capacities of adapting themselves to 

 circumstances, and their fitness or otherwise for their 

 position in life. To those who do not know better it may 

 seem strange enough that sane, intelligent, and industrious 

 folk should often be found wandering round and round 

 their garden, gazing with an interest perfectly fresh and 

 apparently new at objects they have seen before scores of 

 times. These people have neither telescopes nor micro- 

 scopes, yet they are making observations, and seeing 

 things with their own eyes which outsiders could not 

 see even with the help of a lens of very high power. Such 

 habits of observation go to form the very soul of a gardener, 

 and their results may be seen continually in all sorts of 

 unexpected arrangements and pleasant surprises. 



CHAPTER II 



THE SOIL, ITS NATURE AND PREPARATION 



OUR garden soil has been very fitly compared to our cook's 

 larder. The similarity is threefold each must be kept 

 sweet by the action of the air, kept clean by the activity of 

 the owner, and, above all things, well furnished. 



The return the soil will make to the cultivator 

 depends more than we suspect on what the cultivator can 

 do for the soil. 



