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 may 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 
