EXPLANATION 



It has been my desire to reconstruct the two books, " Garden- 

 Making" and "Practical Garden-Book"; but inasmuch as 

 these books have found a constituency in their present form, 

 it has seemed best to let them stand as they are and to con- 

 tinue their publication as long as the demand maintains itself, 

 and to prepare a new work on gardening. This new work I 

 now offer as "A Manual of Gardening." It is a combination 

 and revision of the main parts of the other two books, together 

 with much new material and the results of the experience of 

 ten added years. 



A book of this kind cannot be drawn wholly from one's own 

 practice, unless it is designed to have a very restricted and 

 local appUcation. Many of the best suggestions in such a book 

 will have come from correspondents, questioners, and those 

 who enjoy talking about gardens; and my situation has been 

 such that these communications have come to me freely. 

 I have always tried, however, to test all such suggestions by 

 experience and to make them my own before offering them 

 to my reader. I must express my special obligation to those 

 persons who collaborated in the preparation of the other two 

 books, and whose contributions have been freely used in this 

 one: to C. E. Hunn, a gardener of long experience; Professor 

 Ernest Walker, reared as a cdmmercial florist; Professor -L. R. 

 Taft and Professor F. A. Waugh, well known for their studies 

 and writings in horticultural subjects. 



