18 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



But the reader has listened long enough to this prae- 

 ludium ; we will strike the final chords, which sound har- 

 moniously to our own ears. Thanks are the burden of 

 our closing song. Without great help, this volume, 

 though small, could not have been written at all ; with- 

 out great encouragement the writer would certainly not 

 have ventured to send it forth. It is scarcely possible 

 to mention by name all the persons to whom he is in- 

 debted for hints, and answers to inquiries. The addition 

 of initials to many paragraphs is an attempt to avoid 

 some part of the reproach of strutting in borrowed 

 plumes ; they will also perhaps serve as props to sustain 

 his own otherwise tottering edifice : but it would be an 

 ungrateful omission not to mention specially the obliga- 

 tions under which the author feels himself bound to the 

 Editors of The Gardeners' Chronicle, and the Agricul- 

 tural Gazette. 



CRINGLEFORD HALL, NORWICH, 

 October, 1848. 



