PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION 



The need for a practical work of this nature, especially 

 adapted for the Tropics, has apparently been long felt, judging by 

 the demand for information on the subjects treated in this hand- 

 book. Of books on horticulture in temperate countries, there is no 

 end, but they are generally of little guidance in tropical regions, 

 where the conditions of climate, labour and methods of working 

 are so different. A writer in the Ceylon Observer recently 

 remarked: "How much more attractive and interesting our bun- 

 galow gardens and compounds might be made if the right sort of 

 information regarding their care were available. Too often they 

 are tended only by the garden-cooly, who has no pretensions to 

 any knowledge of gardening, and things which grow, do so more 

 by luck than good management." The aim of the author has been, 

 therefore, to supply as concisely as possible and in a manner to 

 suit the practical man in the held or garden, the kind of information 

 which is most generally sought for. not only on horticultural 

 matters, but also on general planting or agricultural subjects. 



In practice there is no sharp line of distinction between 

 Planting or tropical farming and Horticulture, and the main prin- 

 ciples underlying both are the same. "Agriculture in the tropics," 

 said SIR WILLIAM THISF.LTON DYER, "is essentially extended 

 gardening; it has little relation to the agriculture of temperate 

 countries, and its methods are those of horticulture." According 

 to LIEBIG, "perfect agriculture is the foundation of all trade and 

 industry, the foundation of the riches of state." "Scientific horti- 

 culture," said DR. BAILEY, "joins hands with the plant biologists 

 on the one hand, and with commerce on the other." 



Gardening or horticulture is obviously advancing in Ceylon, as 

 in other tropical countries, and it is being recognised, slowly but 

 surely, that it plays an important part in home adornment and 

 comfort, as well as in rural improvement and sanitation. Nowadays 



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