CHAPTER XXXIII 



IN PRAISE OF THE HOE 



LET us project ourselves into early June. The gardener who 

 has kept pace with the advancing season is at last nearing 

 the realisation of his hopes. Patches of colour here and 

 there in the borders and beds herald the coming wealth of bloom 

 which will gladden his heart from midsummer until the frosts of 

 autumn proclaim its doom. 



The cultivator of even the smallest garden plot, if he be a true 

 lover of plants, will have devoted months of labour in the autumn, 

 the winter and the spring to the endeavour to attain perfection 

 in the summer garden. He will not have been content to let 

 other people do the work, but will have tended his plants from 

 their infancy, and will himself have watched over their progress 

 until, now that the fruition of his efforts is at hand, he can wait 

 confidently for the issue. 



He may, if he be short-sighted enough, be tempted to pause in 

 his efforts, and to let Nature unaided bring his labours to their 

 fulfilment. He has, no doubt, ere this, cleared all his frames of 

 tender summer plants and put them safely into their flowering 

 quarters. His dahlias are growing apace under the influence of 

 a week of heavy rain that came at the psychological moment ; his 

 rosebuds are swelling in a way that bears promise of a rich harvest 

 of bloom in the near future, and in the kitchen garden his crops 

 are healthily green and vigorous. 



But if he be wise he will resist the temptation to take his ease. 

 There is much to be done, and not the least important work of the 

 moment is the waging of an incessant warfare against weeds. 

 A few showers of rain during the preceding fortnight have prob- 

 ably brought up a crop of weeds which are growing away riot- 

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