INTRODUCTION. XI 



longed to own some of the superb gardens of pines 

 in New Hampshire, sown not by the hands of men ; 

 while my heart has grown warm over many a glori- 

 ous hillside in Massachusetts where Mother Nature 

 has thrown up her granite walls and lifted her wind- 

 breaks, and run charming hedge lines, and dotted 

 the trees just right, in groups and in singles, without 

 a house in sight. Man should go to school to nature 

 before he undertakes to improve nature. But this 

 we should all refuse to do, waste or distort or abuse 

 what is given to us freely. The fact that by far the 

 majority of so-called homes are not homes of reason, 

 taste and high sentiment, of beauty and utility har- 

 monized, remains as the chief disgrace of our com- 

 munities. I do not mean that we should let things 

 go wild, or that a beautiful shrubbery is most beau- 

 tiful when least cultivated. Not a spot exists on the 

 globe that does not need exactly what God put in 

 Eden a man and a woman to trim and control it. 

 A soul is needed everywhere, and a hand, but a 

 brutish soul and a brute-force hand is needed 

 nowhere. Nature does best without both these. 

 Plant, but plant with brains. Trim, but trim 

 thoughtfully. So you will be, not a mere autocrat 

 over the vegetable and animal kingdoms, but a wise 

 and loving friend. The end will be that you will be 

 in love with all about you, and in turn will win all 

 love till the birds sing for you an4 the roses blos- 

 som for you. Your work in the garden and in the 

 field will become a poem. 



I take up this work all the more gladly because 

 of the unexpected, but none the less welcome, 

 reversal of the tide of population into congested city 



