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PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION ./4r*r 



The purpose of the work is to give the newcomer, or old-resident begin- 

 ner, an understanding of the peculiar gardening conditions which he encoun- 

 ters in California and descriptions of practices which attain most satisfactory 

 results under those conditions. Experienced gardeners from other states and 

 countries soon find that their accustomed procedure fails of its wonted results ; 

 that the old times and ways of doing things are unsuitable, and that new rules 

 of practice must be learned. Often those who have had no earlier gardening 

 experience seek a rural home in California and desire to possess a home gar- 

 den or to engage in commercial production of vegetables. They soon find that 

 following the advice to beginnners given in books written for other climates, 

 yields many disappointments. 



In addition to broad differences between California and other areas oc- 

 cupied by English-speaking peoples in the Northern Hemisphere, conditions 

 of soil and climate are very diverse within the boundaries of this common- 

 wealth and gardening practice must vary with them. No matter how skilful 

 and successful 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. There- 

 fore a suggestive treatise must 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. That this character has been in 

 some degree attained in this work is attested by its acceptance as a guide in 

 all parts of California and by the sphere of popularity and usefulness it has 

 entered in distant countries, which have resemblance to California in climatic t 

 conditions and desire to establish similar industries upon them. 



The writer has had opportunity for wide collection of data, and for ex- 

 tended personal observation as well, and his effort has been continually in- 

 spirited by enthusiastic delight in the subject itself, gained from his own 

 garden work. 



In the preparation of this edition, the text has been carefully revised and 

 freshened with the latest information, and the type has been re-set throughout. 

 In a work of this kind, involving the experience and observation of many 

 individuals during a considerable period of time, it is impossible to render a 

 full account of the writer's indebtedness. Wherever direct use has been made 

 of the experience and methods which others have formulated, an attempt has 

 been made to render definite credit to the source. When such accounts of 

 experience are used without citation of publication, credit is, in most cases, 

 due to the columns of the Pacific Rural Press, a journal which has been the 

 chief medium for the publication of information of this kind for the last forty- 

 seven years. 



EDWARD J. WICKSON. 



University of California, Berkeley, October, 1917. 



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