76 MASSjACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



the first of these divisions, being merely concerned with the prac- 

 tical work of the moment — what, when, and how to plant or culti- 

 vate. The highest development of this class is the text book, which 

 is a present day development and has attained a greater perfection 

 in America than elsewhere. So fast, indeed, have volumes of this 

 type succeeded one another within the last few years that they now 

 form a very considerable group by themselves. 



Both the Calendrical and the Topical books are the product of 

 the practical worker who lays down a rule of practice based on 

 experience, but one which he does not, because he too frequently 

 cannot, explain. The text book, equally didactic, is, however, 

 based on principle and reason; it is obviously a natural develop- 

 ment of and from the two former types. The period of text book 

 writings has, I feel, reached its ^nith, but other books of a more 

 imaginative type have reborn the interest in garden work and are 

 making it something far ahead of what it was a hundred, fifty, or 

 even twenty years ago. The appearance of this particular kind of 

 writing has been marked by the development of a new type of 

 garden writer — the skilled observer scientifically trained — the 

 professional teacher or experimentalist. Is, there a danger signal 

 to be hoisted here? Is there not a possibility of the loss of some- 

 thing valuable in the very evident tendency of the modern practi- 

 tioner to refrain from putting his experience and observations into 

 some permanent form? While we need the teacher, and welcome 

 him, do we not also need the matured conclusions of the worker 

 whose experiences are an end to themselves? It was largely by 

 his contributions that the garden craft of the past was enriched; 

 it is his writings we need now, and which future students will need 

 in order to understand and measure up the conditions of today, 

 just as we ourselves try to reconstruct the past by studying the 

 writings of the old timers. 



The second group, of Expository writings, approaches more 

 closely to the domain of fine literature, and several volumes of 

 recent date have successfully reached a large circle of readers. In 

 this category I submit, as examples, — not necessarily as the best 

 representatives of this class — The Garden of a Commuter's Wife 

 (Mrs. M. O. Wright), A Woman's Hardy Garden (Ely), The Well 

 Considered Garden of Mrs. Francis King, and What England Can 

 Teach Us About Gardening by Wllhelm Miller. 



