PREFACE. IX 



0'zoftff, which, when they have once taken place, 

 are not easily compensated for. Seasons wait 

 for no man. Nature makes us her offers freely ; 

 but she will be taken at her word. . 



11. I cannot help, in conclusion of this pre- 

 face, expressing my hope, that this work may 

 tend to the increasing, in some degree, of a 

 taste for gardening in America. It is a source 

 of much greater profit than is generally ima- 

 gined ; and, merely as an amusement, or recre- 

 ation, it is one of the most rational and most 

 conducive to health. It is a pursuit, not only 

 compatible with, but favourable to, the study of 

 any art or science. It tends to turn the minds of 

 youth from amusements and attachments of a 

 frivolous or vicious nature. It is indulged at 

 home. It tends to make home pleasant ; and to 

 endear to us the spot on which it is our lot to 

 live. 



WM. COBBETT. 



North Hampstead, Long Island, 1819. 



