50 USE OF THIS BOOK. 



cution also. It is the universality of the former, 

 and the rarity of the latter, that causes so many 

 failures both as to the comforts and fruits of a 

 garden. That man might claim the praise of 

 wisdom, who, having no love to garden work, and 

 caring nothing for flower or fruit, or other vegeta- 

 bles than the fields produce, would feed sheep upon 

 his half acre, and save fifty shillings per annum, 

 instead of adopting the imitation plan only in part; 

 and having, at no little expence, the shadow of all 

 things, but the substance of none. 



These being the evils of the case, this little 

 volume is proposed for their remedy ; and the 

 better it will prove remedial that it is small. You 

 will escape in the first instance, the great evil of a 

 <rreat book. There is often a monstrous affectation 



o 



about science, that swells its details to the con- 

 sumption of far more time than would be necessary, 

 without its aid, for the discovery of all that it con- 

 tains ; and besides, a book on the subject before us 

 is sure to contain a great many things of which we 

 have no manner of use. 



If I want to know what sort of peas I should 

 purchase for seed, I meet a list so long that I am 

 perplexed, like a shopping damsel amidst an ocean 

 of calicoes ; and how should I get out of the laby- 

 rinth, if indeed I should venture in, to choose an 

 apple out of three hundred varieties ? My life is 

 not long enough to try so many apples or to eat so 

 many peas. Besides, although I have no hot- 

 houses and no conservatory, I cannot learn how to 



