GARDENING OVER A WINTER FIRE. 24! 



and forth to no purpose on a gusty day. Every 

 spiteful bang is a jar and a wrench. Work is 

 like well-oiled machinery running quietly in its 

 grooves. Therefore, by careful plotting, careful 

 reading and thought, and a well-digested plan, 

 let us be prepared to work, not worry in our 

 gardens, when spring opens. All this makes a 

 pretty pastime for winter evenings, besides be- 

 ing eminently useful employment. 



Agriculture offers scope for almost unlimited 

 improvement. In no calling can skill and 

 knowledge be made more effectual. 



This knowledge is obtained, like that of any 

 other subject, by thoughtful, judicious reading 

 and observation, and by the most careful com- 

 parison of theories and broad generalizations of 

 the facts of the garden. It will never do to 

 apply to the garden the ancient mode of phi- 

 losophy : that of first finding a theory that suits 



you, and then insisting that Nature shall con- 

 16 



