PREFACE. 



IT is related of one Eliezar, in proof of the vastness of his 

 knowledge, that " he made not less than three hundred consti- 

 tutions concerning the manner of cultivating cucumbers." The 

 author of the following work has no ambition to rival or to im- 

 itate Eliezar. He has aimed to present, in a digested and plain 

 form, such directions and information as will, if applied, enable 

 any one who has a garden to supply the home table with its 

 pleasant and healthful products at the least possible outlay of 

 labor and expense, and add choice fruits and flowers to the fam- 

 ily stock of rational, cheap, every-day enjoyments. 



He has sought to instruct his readers by general principles 

 and directions rather than by extended details, believing that 

 the good sense of those for whom he writes will readily and 

 understandingly apply them, with or without modifications, as 

 the circumstances of soil, season, or latitude may require. 

 With much less labor he might have made a book twice as 

 large, and not half as intelligible. 



The time of planting the principal corn-crop forms an iso- 

 thermal line throughout the various latitudes, and may there- 

 fore serve as a kind of equator for the cultivator in respect to 

 the times, earlier or later, for putting in garden crops ; and 

 this circumstance has been, to some extent, taken advantage of 

 in the directions given in this work, so that it will be found 

 intelligible and suitable in any latitude or locality. Adapta- 

 tion to this generality of use has also been consulted in the 

 enumeration of insects, and their remedies or preventives. 



The details of the culture of fruit, flowers, and shrubbery are 



