PRELIMINARY 



ing processes. Under such a combination 

 of adverse circumstances I naturally had 

 at first no idea or intention of making a 

 garden at all, and, indeed, I never did 

 make one in the ordinary acceptation of 

 the term. If all my plantings were com- 

 pacted together, I doubt if they would 

 cover half an acre, and one would look in 

 vain on our place for trellises, arbours, 

 flowery borders, and other such adjuncts 

 of a proper garden. 



When we bought our mountain home, 

 the land was a wild, uncultivated tract 

 of about twenty-five acres upon the 

 mountain side. It was partly wooded, and 

 strewn with great boulders of all kinds 

 and sizes. At its lower end flowed a 

 tiny brook, which spread, over a small 

 hollow, into an ugly marsh. The under- 

 brush grew on all sides so rankly that 

 c 17 



