PRELIMINARY REMARKS 



BY THE AUTHOR. 



HE considerations which guided me in writing up 

 the first edition of this work, five years ago, are 

 still potent to-day. Gardening, in the minds of 

 many people, is still a dreadful combination in its 

 requirements of skill and unceasing drudgery. 

 There are yet persons, especially farmers, who 

 doubt their ability to acquire the one without 

 giving more time and thought than they can 

 afford to devote to the garden, and fear the other. But our 

 efforts in the direction of clearing up this only too common 

 error, of convincing people in rural districts, and in the suburbs of 

 cities, that gardening in reality is a very strong combination of 

 pleasure, health and profit, and of pointing out the ways and 

 means how to relieve the task of all semblance of drudgery, 

 have not been without their desired effect. We are continuously 

 making converts to our faith. The good home garden is not 

 any more the rarity and curiosity that it once was. It is getting 

 to be a very common institution. 



Wonderful, indeed, is the progress which we have made 

 during the past five years not only in the practice of gardening, 

 but also in garden practices. Methods of cultivation have mate- 

 rially changed and are changing every day, decidedly in the 

 direction and with the tendency of cheapening the cost of pro- 

 duction, lessening hand labor, and making gardening more prof- 

 itable and more pleasant. A new onion culture, a new celery 

 culture, a new potato culture and other innovations have come 

 to the front. 



On the other hand, the market gardener of to-day finds 

 himself beset with difficulties of which he little dreamed years 

 ago. Insect foes and plant diseases have multiplied in an alarm- 

 ing degree, calling for increased vigilance, enlarged knowledge, 

 and new modes of treatment and protection. At the same time 

 the prices of garden products have materially fallen, and made 

 old-style, clumsy and therefore expensive methods of production 

 unremunerative. 



In short, every gardener in these days must keep well in- 

 formed about every forward move made in horticulture. He 

 will need a guide giving minute instructions in every department 



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