THE MEANING OF THE GARDEN 109 



in illustration. French children are better off here than those 

 of any other country ; the French have long realized the impor- 

 tance of giving fine draughtsmanship and beautiful color to 

 their very youngest. It is hard to imagine the French child of 

 an inteUigent family permitted to revel, as many of our children 

 do, in the so-called funny sheet of the Sunday papers — ■ in cheap 

 fun, the ugly and grotesque. 



But someone may say that this question leads only to an 

 impasse: that the good garden book is a question of individual 

 taste; what is good to one will not be so to another. I ask the 

 question as a means to obtain some sort of general standard for 

 garden \\Titing; and by mentioning one or two garden books, I 

 hope we may get at some of the essential qualities which a 

 really good garden book — whether important or insignificant 

 — may possess. Insignificant a good garden book may be so 

 far as length or size are concerned. I believe I should not be 

 willing to exchange the most imposing and valuable volume ever 

 written on roses, for the tiny pamphlet by the late Admiral 

 Aaron Ward, 0?ie Year of Rose-Work at Willoicmere, and this 

 for the reason of that wonderful sea-flavor on every page. Who 

 but an admiral would record the weather with regard to roses, 

 thus? "November; gales from northwest and sharp frost (26") 

 on the fifth; second week, alternate fogs and gales from the 

 N. W." Again, " WTiile laying on the covering of straw-manure 

 for winter, keep a bright lookout for suckers." It is the character 

 of the writing here, aside from the special knowledge conveyed 

 by it, that gives this booklet of sixteen pages a stout quality of 

 its own. The seafaring life of its wTiter lends an added meaning 

 to his delight in roses, adds a richness to what he has done 

 and written. 



Take now almost the opposite of this leaflet of Admiral 

 Ward's, Warley Garden: a beautiful volume of pictiu-es of the 



