8 WILL YOU WALK INTO MY GARDEN? 



small personal matter on the public. But I am 

 one that the fickle goddess has rarely smiled 

 upon, and hard work has been the only Alad- 

 din's lamp of my experience. Again, the world 

 is ever agape at those gifted with genius, who 

 flash with meteoric brilliancy through striking 

 and original means to astonishing results. Alas ! 

 my modest little garden has never been the 

 scene of any such agricultural pyrotechnics, and 

 I warn the reader from the start, that he will 

 find nothing to dazzle or bewilder in the follow- 

 ing pages. There will be a record of facts and 

 figures, of many blunders, lame experiments, 

 and not a little neglect. In brief, it will be my 

 way of doing it ; and already, in imagination, 

 upon the face of many a notable reader, (if I se- 

 cure the attention of any such,) I see an expres- 

 sion of supreme disgust and horticultural dis- 

 dain. I hear them say in tones that would 

 blight a hardy perennial : 



