CHAPTER XI. 



OBTAINING PLANTS AND LMPROVING OUR STOCK. 



TTAVING prepared and enriched our ground, we are 

 ^ -^ ready for the plants. They can often be obtained 

 from a good neighbor whose beds we have watched across 

 the fence, and whose varieties we have sampled to our sat- 

 isfaction. But the most liberal neighbors may not be able 

 to furnish all we need, or the kinds we wish. Moreover, in 

 private gardens, names and varieties are usually in a sad tan- 

 gle. We must go to the nurseryman. At this point, per- 

 haps, a brief appeal to the reader's common-sense may save 

 much subsequent loss and disappointment. 



In most of our purchases, we see the article before we 

 take it, and can estimate its value. Just the reverse is usu- 

 ally true of plants. We know — or believe — that certain 

 varieties are valuable, and we order them from a distance, 

 paying in advance. When received, the most experienced 

 cannot be sure that the plants are true to the names they 

 bear. We must plant them in our carefully prepared land, 

 expend upon them money, labor, and, above all, months 

 and years of our brief lives, only to learn, perhaps, that the 

 varieties are not what we ordered, and that we have wasted 

 everything on a worthless kind. The importance of start- 

 ing right, therefore, can scarcely be overestimated. It is 

 always best to buy of men who, in the main, grow their own 

 stock, and therefore know about it, and who have estab- 

 lished a reputation for integrity and accuracy. The itiner- 



