AV GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



modified and increased by pretty copious garden-notes of 

 my own. Still, it has been my object to make a useful 

 and reliable, rather than an original work. Where an 

 author's language suited my purpose, it was at once in- 

 corporated into the text. If the expression is sometimes 

 changed, it is generally to make it more concise. * * * 



The necessity of a Southern work on gardening is felt 

 by every horticulturist in our midst. Our seasons differ 

 from those of the Northern States in heat and dryness, as 

 much as the latter do from those of England. Treatises 

 perfectly adapted to their climate we are obliged to fol- 

 low very cautiously. English works require the exercise 

 of a still greater degree of judgment iu the reader, the 

 climate of England being still more cool and humid. 

 Again, our mild winters admit of garden work nearly 

 every day of the year. All the heavy operations of trench- 

 ing, manuring, laying out, pruning, and planting trees, 

 shrubs, and hardy ornamental plants, are at that season 

 most conveniently performed. In this particular aspect 

 our climate is much like that of the south of England. 

 Hence, while the calendars of operations, in works pre- 

 pared for the Northern States, seldom agree with our 

 practice, those in English works are often found to coin- 

 cide with it. But even where the time of performing cer- 

 tain operations is the same in both countries, the long, 

 dry summers, and still milder winters of this climate, 

 often render necessary a peculiar mode of performing 

 the same. 



We need, then, works upon gardening specially adapted 

 to our latitude and wants. But with the exception of the 

 valuable matter scattered through our agricultural aud 

 horticultural periodicals, Ilolmes' "Southern Farmer and 

 Market Gardener," written some years since, and briefly 

 treating of the kitchen garden department merely, is the 

 only work containing anything reliable on the subject. 



