viii PREFACE 



a flower? And where is the four-year-old who will not plant and 

 watch a seed? If our children grow to manhood and womanhood 

 without the love of beauty, we are a nation lost. I quote the 

 words of a friend, a fine woman farmer: "There never was a 

 time when so much was being done to foster the commercial 

 spirit on the farmin the children. Look at the pig clubs, the baby- 

 beef clubs, the poultry clubs, the canning clubs, which the gov- 

 ernment is promoting. Beauty, too, should be cultivated in the 

 yoimg. If the children do not grow up with flowers, they never 

 wiU fuUy enjoy them." 



When, throughout this country, the flower-garden on the 

 farm — when the small place, weU planned and planted — shall 

 have become the rule, not the exception, we shall possess a per- 

 vading loveliness in a land where to-day such loveliness is sadly 

 lacking. In the successful treatment of ground small in dimen- 

 sion, in the beautiful quality of the Uttle garden, Ues the true 

 future beauty of America. 



