" A necessary condition of success in work on the land is communica- 

 tiveness continual friendly intercourse with your neighbours. A 

 book gives general advice only, while every acre of land has its own indivi- 

 duality, which depends upon the soil, the position, the prevailing winds of 

 the locality, and so on. These things can only be learnt by local residents 

 of a long experience an experience which represents the collective know- 

 ledge of the local population. Let every beginner remember that the 

 superior gardening of the French, the Flemish, the Jersey and Guernsey 

 gardeners, and the work of the English greenhouse growers and florists, 

 is the result of their collective experience. Every gardener may have his 

 own secrets on this or that special point, but the bulk of the general know- 

 ledge which has developed in a given locality is the result of collective 

 experience, and of the continual talk among the gardeners about matters 

 which interest them. Beginners who appreciate that talk and turn it to 

 good account will find that advice is never refused by neighbours." 



Prince KROPOTKIN, Preface to "French Gardening." 



