. 



In view of the very appreciative reception which the 

 public accorded to the first edition of this work and the 

 urgent demand for its reappearance, it is deeply regretted 

 by the writer that the present edition has been so long 

 delayed. It seemed, however, unavoidable. The revision 

 necessary to include later results of experience and obser- 

 vation and extension to fitly include the advancement of 

 certain vegetables in commercial volume and importance 

 and the methods of handling them, largely developed by 

 local study and experiment, have required much attention. 

 In fact, the revision of the work has required a repetition 

 of the same effort which was invoked in its initial prep- 

 aration, and for which the following claim was made in 

 the preface to the First Edition : 



' ' There are very good reasons why the task of preparing 

 .such a book has been so long delayed. The subject is 

 appalling in its intricacy. Conditions of soil and climate 

 in California are varied to the last degree, and practice 

 must vary with them. No matter how skilful and success- 

 ful a man may be in his particular locality, his experience 

 can only be a safe guide to those who happen to work 

 under similar conditions. For this reason, though there 

 have been admirable local writers on garden practice from 

 the beginning, their writings, no matter how diligently 

 collected and how well printed, would not constitute a 

 suggestive treatise unless the enquirer should analyze the 

 local conditions and practice and translate them into 

 terms of wide applicability. To do this it is necessary that 

 the principles underlying the successful practice should be 

 discerned and the significance of conditions be interpreted. 

 This task could only be discharged by one who has had 

 opportunity for wide collection of data, and for extended 

 personal observation as well, and one for whom labor 

 would be continually lightened by enthusiastic delight in 

 the subject itself. All these advantages the writer can 



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