4 GARDENING WITH BRAINS 1g 



ally in robes of snow reaching down almost to 

 their feet, and chill breezes come to our garden 

 from them. 



On the other side are the mountains of 

 Maine, the highest of which, Speckle (silly- 

 name !) — ^which has recently been proved to be 

 a little higher than the better-known Katahdin 

 — is even nearer to us than Mount Washington; 

 not so near, fortunately, as to inflict on us the 

 July and August frosts which sometimes ruin the 

 crops of the farmers who dwell near its foot. 

 But we have had frosts the third week in 

 June and before the end of August; and in 

 twenty summers up here I have never known 

 the first autumn frost to hold off later than 

 September 21st. 



My object in giving these details is to justify 

 the title of my book. Gardening With Brains. 

 By using such brains as have been placed at my 

 disposal I have been able to succeed wonderfully 

 with my flower and vegetable beds, without a 

 single failure in twenty summers, despite dis- 

 couraging frosts — and droughts; for this region 

 is not usually blessed with sufficient spring 

 rains, and there are awfully hot days in summer. 

 In 1920 — ^the summer of perpetual rain south of 

 Maine — we had seven weeks of drought; and 

 one week, when New-Yorkers were quite com- 

 fortable, we had 98 to 100 in the shade, day 

 after day. 



The days are longer here, too; but the extra 



