PREFACE. 



horticulture has not kept up in the procession with 

 the other arts and sciences, and a little radical shak- 

 ing up will at least start a spirit of inquiry and 

 experiment. 



And now, before entering upon my task, I wish 

 to disclaim any pretensions to a set treatise in reg- 

 ular form. In view of the general information and 

 the great number of excellent works on the subject, 

 it occurred to me that it would be more interesting 

 to embody the facts, endorsements of them, and 

 my own observations, in the form of a rambling sort 

 of personal history, and to do that it has been most 

 convenient to use very often the personal pronoun 

 in the first person, for which I hope my readers 

 will excuse me. 



H. M. S. 



GALVESTON, TEXAS, 

 August /, 1896. 



