PREFACE 



The wide-spread interest in gardening that is 

 steadily growing throughout the land will have 

 prepared a large public for the reception of such 

 stimulating encouragement as will be found in 

 the following pages. One thinks of a great and 

 fertile field ready ploughed and sown, and only 

 waiting for genial warmth and moisture to make 

 it burst forth into life and eventual abundance. 

 The book will come as these vivifying influences. 

 The author's practical knowledge, keen insight, 

 and splendid enthusiasm, her years of labor on 

 her own land and her constant example and en- 

 couragement of others — combine to make her one 

 of those most fitted to direct energy, to suggest 

 and instruct — to communicate her own thought 

 and practise to willing learners. 



Many are those who love their gardens, many 

 who know their plants, many who understand their 

 best ways of culture. All these qualities or accom- 

 plishments are necessary, but besides and above 

 them all is the will or determination to do the best 

 possible — "to garden finely" — as Bacon puts it. 



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