Preface 



One of the fundamental instincts of mankind is a love of the land and 

 of the living things which spring from it. Its earliest manifestation, 

 perhaps, is a baby's insatiable taste for earth, and through varying phases 

 the yearning keeps pace with the baby's development. Often he is uncon- 

 scious of it until some chance discovers to him the joy of working with 

 his hands to make the earth to yield her increase. 



Men of all ages have recognized this; their love for good green grow- 

 ing things conies down to us through all the records of human progress, 

 whether pictured or written; pagan and Christian, they worshipped the 

 Maker of the world, and delighted in forwarding His purpose to make it 

 beautiful and productive. 



The books written by garden and farm makers of the seventeenth, 

 eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries are full of joyous enthusiasms. 

 These voiumes . in their worn old bindings, many of them annotated by 

 owners dead for hundreds of years, are filled with Biblical allusions and 

 quotations from the writings of the ancients. The quaint and often, to 

 us, stiltedly expressed phrases carry very vivid impressions of the 

 personalities and intellects behind them, and today many of these great 

 books are used for reference, so valuable is the laboriously gathered ma- 

 terial contained in them. 



This bibliography, which is made up exclusively of material to be 

 found among the rare works on agricultural and botanical subjects in 

 the collection of the Riverside Public Library, makes no claim to complete- 

 ness. On the other hand, a few modern works, which seemed of particular 

 interest or not likely to be found on the shelves of the general library, 

 have been included. A delightful precedent for any lack of system, or 

 excessive enthusiasm over certain details on the part of the compiler, 

 may be found in the pages of almost any one of the seventeenth century 

 authors noted. 



The helpful interest of Mr. Joseph F. Daniels, under whose librarian- 

 ship the collection has been made, and an increasingly intimate acquaint- 

 ance with the charming old-time volumes of which it is composed, have 

 rendered the compilation a pleasure rather than an inescapable task. 



CAROLINE HUBBARD BAILEY. 



Riverside, California. 

 Dec. 10, 1919. 



