ORIGINAL PREFACE. ix 



Mulberry-trees for feeding Silk-worms (and care of the insects), 

 with every other plant, not already common, which appeared to me 

 of sufficient importance, either in a commercial, manufacturing, or 

 ornamental point of view, or as affording any of the luxuries or 

 necessaries of life, have been treated of with due attention: and 

 in order to accommodate the Agriculturist, I have given a class- 

 ical catalogue of the most important and valuable grasses and 

 other plants used in rural economy ; and likewise pointed out the 

 particular kind of soil, in which each plant cultivated as a grass, 

 or exclusively on account of its foliage, has been found, upon 

 repeated trials, to succeed best. 



From an experience which I have had of near thirty years in 

 PRACTICAL GARDENING, on a general and extensive scale; the 

 particular pains which I have taken, not only to designate the 

 necessary work of every month, but also the best methods of per- 

 forming it; the avoiding of all unnecessary repetitions, so frequent 

 in works of the kind, in order to render it as full of important 

 matter as possible; the assiduous endeavors to make it useful in 

 every State of the Union, and to induce an association of the sci- 

 ence of Botany with practical horticulture, without which the 

 latter can never be so advantageously conducted: it is hoped that 

 this will be found to be the most useful and valuable GARDENER'S 

 CALENDAR hitherto published in any country, but more particu- 

 larly so to the citizens of the United States, for whose use it has 

 been written, and to whom it is respectfully inscribed by the 

 Author. 



BEKNAKD M'MAHON. 



Philadelphia. 



