V 



|Y conscience would lead me to Apology due 



. . to my trees. 



make an apology to my tree- 

 nurslings for having called them 

 stubborn and irresponsive, when 

 they have in many instances given me so 

 much satisfaction ; but as I feel that it is 

 necessary to be as honest about mistakes 

 as about successes, in order to render these 

 records truly valuable, I feel it my duty 

 though it is almost as bad as betraying a 

 domestic secret to admit that they have 

 been a trial. And that people may not 

 be led away into thinking a tree nursery 

 any freer from failings than a child nurs- 

 ery, I must tell the painful as well as the 

 charming facts about them. 



No one knows better than I how much 



some of the more satisfactory among them **# 

 will do for one under kind treatment, but, tkem ' 

 all the same, I must reluctantly maintain 

 that many of them are freakish and dis- 

 53 



