THE PRIVATE GARDENER. 103 



to Grow Cut Flowers; Henderson's Practical Floriculture; Fal- 

 coner's iNIushrooms and how to grow them; EUwanger and Rey- 

 nolds Hole on Roses; Downing's Fruits and Fruit Trees; Peter 

 Henderson's Gardening for Profit; INIrs. Van Rensellaer's Art out 

 of Doors; The principles of the harmony and contrast of Colors 

 by iSI. E. Chevreul ; and Herrington and Smith on Chrysanthemums. 

 Cultivate a love for books; it is a habit that grows by indulgence; 

 as the fondness for books grows you can add to your library; all 

 the larger seed houses now carry the best of the horticultural books 

 which you are privileged to look over and select according to your 

 needs or taste. Subscribe for one or more of the trade papers and 

 get your names on the lists of the Agricultural Stations so as to get 

 up-to-date information; the results of the latest experiments along 

 all lines. The seedsmen's catalogues are great educational factors; 

 I know of no greater improvement horticulturally than in the 

 character and contents of these valuable publications. A gardener 

 should study natural landscapes so as to readily apprehend their 

 points of beauty and their beauty as a whole, and then with "The 

 art that doth mend nature" put the finishing touches thereto. 



Every garden may be made more interesting by excelling in 

 some specialty; every gardener should have a hobby. If the place 

 be a small one and your opportunity meagre, take, in the flower 

 line, Pansies, Verbenas, or Phlox Drummondii, or the Herbaceous 

 Phlox, and in the greenhouse plants either Cyclamen, Cineraria, 

 Primula, etc. By saving your own seed, carefully selecting year 

 after year the finest, it is astonishing how you can improve the 

 varieties in any species. Like results follow a similar course in 

 vegetables. Buy, for instance, the finest varieties of corn and 

 select from these for seed the ears that contain the greatest average 

 of good points, as flavor, size, and good appearance, and you are 

 likely to get corn better than you can buy. Or, if your place and 

 opportunity are greater, start, for instance, making a collection of 

 Conifers, in groups or in single specimens, or a collection of Rhodo- 

 dendrons or lilacs, of which there are now so many fine kinds, or 

 Roses, or Paeonias, or similar plants in the hardy garden. You 

 will find in a few years the constant and careful pursuit of your 

 hobby will result in making you and the place you represent more 

 or less famous, and your application to work along a special line 



