VI EXPLANATION 



In making this book, I have had constantly in mind the 

 home-maker himself or herself rather than the professional 

 gardener. It is of the greatest importance that we attach 

 many persons to the land ; and I am convinced that an in- 

 terest in gardening will naturally take the place of many 

 desires that are much more difficult to gratify, and that lie 

 beyond the reach of the average man or woman. 



It has been my good fortune to have seen amateur and com- 

 mercial gardening in all parts of the United States, and I have 

 tried to express something of this generality in the book; yet 

 my experience, as well as that of my original collaborators, 

 is of the northeastern states, and the book is therefore neces- 

 sarily written from this region as a base. One gardening book 

 cannot be made to apply in its practice in all parts of the 

 United States and Canada unless its instructions are so general 

 as to be practically useless; but the principles and points of 

 view may have wider application. While I have tried to give 

 only the soundest and most tested advice, I cannot hope to 

 have escaped errors and shortcomings, and I shall be grateful 

 to my reader if he will advise me of mistakes or faults that 

 he may discover. I shall expect to use such information in the 

 making of subsequent editions. 



Of course an author cannot hold himself responsible for 

 failures that his reader may suffer. The statements in a book 

 of this kind are in the nature of advice, and it jnay or it may 

 not apply in particular conditions, and the success or failure 

 is the result mostly of the judgment and carefulness of the 

 operator. I hope that no reader of a gardening book will ever 

 conceive the idea that reading a book and following it literally 

 will make him a gardener. He must always assume his own 

 risks, and this will be the first step in his personal progress. 



I should explain that the botanical nomenclature of this 

 book is that of the " Cyclopedia of American Horticulture," 

 unless otherwise stated. The exceptions are the "trade 



