14 CULINARY HERBS 



With the exception of these few species, the loss of 

 which seems not to be serious, this absence of improve- 

 ment is to be regretted, because with improved 

 quality would come increased consumption and 

 consequent beneficial results in the appetizing flavor 

 of the foods to which herbs are added. But greatly 

 improved varieties of most species can hardly be 

 expected until a just appreciation has been awak- 

 ened in individual cultivators, who, probably in a 

 majority of cases, will be lovers of plants rather than 

 men who earn their living by market gardening. 



Until the public better appreciates the culinary 

 herbs there will be a comparatively small commer- 

 cial demand; until the demand is sufficient to make 

 growing herbs profitable upon an extensive scale, 

 market gardeners will devote their land to crops which 

 are sure to pay well ; hence the opportunity to grow 

 herbs as an adjunct to gardening is the most likely 

 way that they can be made profitable. And yet 

 there is still another; namely, growing them for 

 sale in the various prepared forms and selling them 

 in glass or tin receptacles in the neighborhood or 

 by advertising in the household magazines. There 

 surely is a market, and a profitable one if rightly 

 managed. And with right management and profit 

 is to come desire to have improved varieties. Such 

 varieties can be developed at least as readily as the 

 wonderful modern chrysanthemum has been devel- 

 oped from an insignificant little wild flower not half 

 as interesting or promising originally as our com- 

 mon oxeye daisy, a well-known field weed. 



Not the least object of this volume is, therefore, 



