PUBLISHERS' FOREWORD 



BOOK must bear a title, a distinguishing name, and 

 so here we have the Garden GumE, a Handbook for 

 the Amateur Gardener. Its scope will be unfolded 

 in the Introduction of its editors and compilers. 

 The publishers, however, ask a fu'st hearing. The 

 conception of the book was not at all limited to the 

 purpose indicated by its title. It had a higher aim. 

 Through its medium we hope to win thousands from 

 crowded city homes to the free air of the open country. 

 We seek to preach freedom from the very housetops, 

 to induce worthy citizens to cultivate their health as well as their 

 gardens and, in so doing, add to their happiness and the years of their 

 lives, to do their duty by their children through environing their 

 young lives with the surroundings which will make them sturdy, self- 

 reliant and observant, and best fit them for their own battle of life. 

 Fundamentally, there is no excuse for weaklings among those raised 

 in the country and the out-of-doors. 



The country (and in this term may be included practically all our 

 suburban towns, boroughs and villages) is the children's paradise, 

 with all Nature's world as their playground. 



The hygienic value of fresh vegetables and fruits is beyond ques- 

 tion; their value to the family cannot be estimated in terms of money. 

 The writer knows this and thousands of fortunate suburbanites will 

 testify to its truth. A good garden is Nature's antidote for all ills 

 flesh is heir to; it certainly does not make for a source of revenue to 

 the physician. Fresh fruits and vegetables, each in their season, 

 taken from your garden, are something quite different from the much 

 handled and frequently stale products one buys in the city. Nearly 

 every vegetable is an annual and can be grown with the first year's 

 occupancy, the second Summer the taste for all the small fruits can be 

 indulged in to the full and almost before you realize it the young fruit 

 trees you set out are in bearing. 



The Cliff Apartment dweller, whose vision is bounded on all 

 sides by straight hues of brick and mortar, cement and stone, whose 

 life is harried by the janitor, whose quietude is distrubed by the 

 noises overhead and below, who cannot enjoy a night's sleep in the 

 open without fear of arrest, whose movements to and from business 

 are made miserable in trolley, subway or "L," must surely envy the 

 commuter, even though the latter be still made the butt of the irre- 

 pressible joker, whom we pardon because, poor man, he knows no 

 better. 



Advocacy of social advantages has no particular part in this 

 presentation, yet these features have more play in country than in 

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