A Glance at the Garden Books of the Year 



NOTWITHSTANDING the fact that 

 the period of 191 7 took us well into 

 the fourth year of the great war, it 

 is noticeable that the book publishers 

 have been quite active in adding to and ex- 

 tending their lists of gardening publications. 

 Hitherto the times of the war or any other 

 general depression have been reflected im- 

 mediately by cessation of publishing activity. 



The most important occurrence of the year 

 is the completion of the Standard Cyclopedia 

 of Horticulture (six volumes) which is the 

 pivot on which all other minor books swing. 

 It clarifies our gardening knowledge and gath- 

 ers together in authoritative and convenient 

 form the records of the materials available 

 at this time. This book has already been 

 reviewed at length in these pages. To the 

 gardener who merely wishes to possess an 

 authoritative list of plant names with dates 

 of introduction, country of origin, etc., and 

 incidentally every name translated into an 

 English equivalent, there is the smaller handy 

 Johnson's Gardeners' Dictionary, a revised 

 edition of a work long recognized as an au- 

 thority in England, the original of which ap- 

 peared seventy years ago. As a guide to 

 gardening materials of superlative quality 

 E. H. Wilson's "Aristocrats of the Garden" 

 is a book that should well be in every pro- 

 gressive gardener's library, based on years 

 of experience and observation both as a gar- 

 dener and botanical collector and traveller. 

 It deals more particularly with the hardy 

 garden and takes cognizance of some 800 

 species and varieties. Responding to a de- 

 mand for handy volumes in color that would 

 serve for identification of the popular plants 

 of the garden are the four little volumes en- 

 titled "The Pocket Garden Library," each 

 one being devoted especially to the materials 

 of one season. The four volumes contain 

 about a thousand illustrations with condensed 

 cultural instructions and details of popular 

 interest. In same style and uniform in gen- 

 eral appearance the publishers announce an 

 early appearance of the Western Flower 

 Guide, with 250 illustrations. 



The publishers of the " Rural Science Series" 

 Naturally continue to add to this excellent 

 library of manuals. A timely volume on the 

 "Potato" is included; another is devoted 

 to the "Strawberry," which is supplemented 

 by a volume that deals with the history of 

 the strawberry in North America. Many 

 people will also be pleased to find a new edition 

 of Prof. Card's excellent manual on "Bush 

 Fruits." From another house, Duggar's 

 "Mushroom Growing" and Brown's "Modern 

 Fruit Marketing" are also timely publications. 

 It is curious that in the period under re- 

 view we have not been given a single volume 

 devoted to insect pests, possibly because 

 several appeared just before. On the other 

 hand, we have the " Manual of Fruit Diseases" 

 by Hesler & Whetzel, "The Culture and Dis- 

 eases of the Sweet Pea" and an imported vol- 

 ume devoted to Tree Wounds by A. D. Web- 

 ster, which is the most comprehensive general 

 book of that nature, but suffers, as is inevitable 

 with all imported books in treating its sub- 

 ject from other than American conditions. 



Of volumes devoted to general pleasure 

 gardening and landscape architecture, there 

 are several of decided merit. The demand for 

 actual plans for the small home garden is 

 met by three volumes — "The Book of Gar- 

 den Plans" by Hamblin, a small business-like 

 presentation of typical plans; "Practical 

 Landscape Gardening" by Robert Cridland, 



designed particularly to fit the man of small 

 means who wants to be his own landscapist; 

 and Miss Dean's "The House Livable; Its 

 Garden" which forms one volume of the series 

 devoted to the treatment of the house and 

 home in its separate parts. In this cate- 

 gory will come Mrs. Wilder's "My Garden," 

 a book of remarkable interest and probably 

 the most interpretative, inspirational and 

 practical garden book for the American ama- 

 teur that has yet appeared. The author tells 

 about her garden and her experiences. " Studies 

 in Gardening" by Clutton-Brock, is a reprint 

 of an English book and is a delightful series of 

 essays on the general theory and practice of 

 the gardener's art. 



Its treatment is so general and deals so 

 thoroughly in fundamentals that it will be 

 found equally valuable to the American 

 reader especially in view of the annotations 

 that have been made by Mrs. Francis King. 

 Miss Duncan's "Joyous Art of Gardening" 

 is well designed to encourage the beginner 

 and to lead him by easy degrees into a keener 

 and better appreciation of the joys of culti- 

 vating the home surroundings. Students of 

 landscape gardening will be interested in the 

 "Hints on Landscape Gardening" by Prince 

 von Piickler-Muskau, a volume made up 

 of selections from the writings of this mas- 

 ter craftsman, edited by Samuel Parsons. 

 It is a welcome addition to the educational 

 landscape gardening library, started two or 

 three years ago by Houghton Mifflin Ccfrn- 

 pany. After a lapse of many years we wel- 

 come a new volume on "Greenhouses; Their 

 Construction and Equipment," by W. J. 

 Wright. A period of twenty years has elapsed 

 since Prof. Taft's classic volumes on this 

 subject appeared, and a great deal of knowl- 

 edge has accumulated. As an accessory to this 

 there is Watts' "Vegetable Forcing" and 

 "The Garden Under Glass" by Rowles, an im- 

 portation which will be useful to the cultivator 

 qualified to interpret for himself European 

 practice imthe light of American experience. 



In the manuals of general practice we are 

 given two volumes devoted to pruning — one 

 by L. H. Bailey; the other by M. G. Kains. 

 Both are valuable to the advanced student. 

 Kains last year gave us a volume on "Prop- 

 agation of Plants," dealing with the sub- 

 ject chiefly from the nurseryman's aspect. 

 And we now have Hottes's "Commercial 

 Plant Propagation" which make a more direct 

 appeal to the amateur gardener, inasmuch as 

 it deals with the kind of plant with which he 

 is the more likely to be associated. The war 

 garden activity and the possibility of turning 

 the yield of the soil into actual profit has had 

 its natural reflection in the appearance of a 

 few volumes that interpret the profitablesideas 

 well as the pleasureablesideof thehomegarden. 

 The most recent is "Around the Year in the 

 Garden" by F. F. Rockwell, which is a chatty 

 and comprehensive volume cast in the mold 

 of seasonal reminders carried through from 

 one year's end to the other. "Every 

 Man's Garden in War Time," by C. A. Sel- 

 den, is a reprint of that author's "Every 

 Man's Garden Every Week" makes its strong 

 appeal to the veriest tyro in garden activities. 

 The little volume "How to Make the Garden 

 Pay" comprizes two or three chapters on the 

 handling of vegetables in the very small gar- 

 den. And "Second Wind" by Freeman 

 Tilden, deals with the subject "Back to the 

 Land," written in a style of romance and is full 

 of enthusiasm. 



The juveniles have not been forgotten. 



156 



Miss Duncan's "When Mother Lets Us Gar- 

 den" is a delightful, inspirational book, writ- 

 ten by one who knows her garden practice 

 from beginning to end and who wraps up the 

 whole matter in an atmosphere of real de- 

 light. "Mary and Her Kitchen Garden" 

 is a light romance in which potatoes and 

 radishes, and peas and onions figure porten- 

 tously. And for those who wish to have the 

 fanciful and legendary side of the plants of 

 the garden, there is: "Flower Lore and Leg- 

 end" by Katherine Beals. Details of the more 

 important books for gardeners published dur- 

 ing 1917 follow (the price quoted includes 

 postage.) 



Encyclopedias, Manuals, Etc. 



Aristocrats of the Garden: by Ernest H. Wilson. 

 (Doubleday, Page & Co.), $5.50. Reprinted from The 

 Garden Magazine. Deals with the best materials for 

 the best gardens of America. 



Cyclopedia of Horticulture Vols 1-6: by L. H. Bailey. 

 (The Macmillan Co.), $39.60. A compendium of gar- 

 dening practice and available plant materials in America. 



Johnson's Gardeners' Dictionary and Cultural In- 

 structor: edited by J. Fraser, importation (DeLaMare). 

 $6.60. Chiefly useful as a reference list of plant names 

 giving date of introduction and an English equivalent 

 for each name. 



The Garden Guide (1917) — The Amateur Gardener's 

 Hand-book. (DeLaMare Co.), 75 cents. An annual of 

 miscellaneous and statistical material. 



Productive Plant Husbandry: by Davis. (J. B. Lippin- 

 cott Co.), a text-book for high schools covering a wide 

 range of information on plant propagation, plant breed- 

 ing, soils, gardening, insects, plant diseases, etc. 



Pocket Garden Library in four volumes edited by 

 Leonard Barron. (Doubleday, Page & Co.), $1.65 each. 

 Flowers of Spring: By Ellen Eddy Shaw. Flowers 

 of Early Summer: by Ellen Eddy Shaw. Flowers of 

 Late Summer: by Ellen Eddy Shaw. Flowers of 

 Winter — Indoors and Out: by Montague Free. Each 

 volume has about 250 color plates of popular plants and 

 flowers for quick identification. 



Flowers Worth Knowing (Adapted from Neltje Blan- 

 chan's Works): by Asa Don Dickinson. (Doubleday, 

 Page & Co.), $1.65. A popular guide to the commonest 

 wild flowers. Illustrations in color. 



The Human Side of Trees: by R. Dixon & F. E. Fitch. 

 (F. A. Stokes Co.), $1.60. Shows that the forest giants are 

 living, growing, thinking creatures, with definite habits 

 of thought and efficient business methods. Illustrated 

 in color. 



The Mysteries of the Flowers: byHerbert W. Faulkner. 

 (F. A. Stokes Co.), $2.20. An interesting treatment by 

 an artist-naturalist of the mysteries in wild flower life. 

 Illustrations in color and black-and-white. 



Trees Worth Knowing: by Julia Ellen Rogers. (Double- 

 day, Page & Co.), $1.65. Popular stories concerning 

 the common trees of our forest and woodland. 



Wayside Flowers of Summer: by Harriet L. Keeler. 

 (Scribner.) Flowers and herbaceous plants that bloom 

 along Northern roadsides in July and August popularly 

 described. 



Western Flower Guide: by Charles Francis Saunders. 

 (Doubleday, Page & Co.), $1.65. Uniform with the 

 Pocket Garden Library and dealing with the common 

 wild flowers of the West. Illustrations in color. 



Special Plants 



Book of the Peony: by Harding. (Lippincott), $6.60. A 



manual on this popular flower, giving classification, 



culture, etc. 

 Practical Book of Outdoor Rose Growing, Garden 



Edition: Thomas. (Lippincott). A popular edition of 



a very successful and reliable book, $2.20. 



Special Fruits and Vegetables 



Bush Fruits: by F. W. Card, new edition. (Macmillan 



Co.), $1.93. Deals with the varieties, cultivation and 



general practice of bush fruit growing. 

 Modern Fruit Marketing: B. S. Brown (Orange Judd 



Co.), $1.93. Harvesting, packing, storing and selling. 

 Mushroom Growing: by J. B. Duggar. (Orange Judd 



Co.), $1.65. Mushroom culture on up-to-date methods. 

 The Potato: by A. W. Gilbert. (Macmillan Co.), $1.50. 



About all there is to be said of this crop from all stand- 

 points. 

 The Strawberry in North America: by S. W. Fletcher. 



$1.65. Strawberry Growing: by S. W. Fletcher. 



(Macmillan Co.), $1.93. These supplement each other. 



The former is a history and the other is a manual of 



cultivation, preparation, selling, etc. 



Pathology 



The Culture and Diseases of the 

 Taubenhaus. (E. P. Dutton & Co. 

 of five consecutive years devoted 

 diseases of the Sweet Pea. 

 • Manual of Fruit Diseases: by L. 

 Whetzel. (Macmillan Co.), $2.20. 

 referring to the common diseases 

 methods of control. 

 Tree Wounds and Diseases: by A. 

 pincott Co.). Importation, $2.75 

 and methods of remedy and repair. 



Sweet Pea: by J. J. 

 ), $2.20. The result 

 to research on the 



R. Hesler & H. H. 



The known facts 



of the orchard and 



D. Webster. (Lip- 

 . Causes of injury 



