NEWER GARDEN BOOKS OF NOTE 



Volumes for the Garden Maker and Treatises on Growing Nuts, Dahlias, and Roses 



MONG garden books of recent date that are general 

 in theme Miss Tabor's "Come Into the Garden" 

 (The Macmillan Company) deserves first mention as a 

 most pertinent piece of pioneering. Not the subur- 

 banite alone, to whom chiefly this timely help is proffered, but 

 all of us are grateful to the little book, for transfiguration every- 

 where of mere "grounds" into gardens means a more introspec- 

 tive, serene, and altogether saner way of national living. 



A stimulus to the development of all the potential beauty 

 lying as yet largely untouched about our doorsteps, Miss Tabor's 

 presentation is also brisk, business-like, and practical. The 

 various considerations are systematically discussed in the order 

 of their importance and in a manner that leaves the reader 

 generally richer. The fundamental whys and wherefores are so 

 clearly and understandingly set forth as to become part of the 

 permanent mental equipment, furnishing the gardener with 

 a sound basis of judgment which will guide him to right decisions 

 in matters of design and planting. From the broad initial 

 consideration of where the house may advantageously be placed 

 on the small property of whatever shape and limitations to de- 

 tailed instruction about best varieties for the suburban garden, 

 the volume ranges, unfolding in orderly succession and with a 

 sprightliness that makes reading for information an amusement. 



A more subjective, rambling, and less constructive treatment 

 of "The Little Garden" (The Atlantic Monthly Press) is found 

 in Mrs. Francis King's latest friendly publication of this name. 

 Perhaps more dessert than meat, it holds, nevertheless, refresh- 

 ment for the spirit-weary gardener — even gardeners do some- 

 times "go stale" — inspiration and important suggestion for the 

 gardener-to-be. In form "it looks the part," companionable 

 of aspect as befitting when gardeners talk heart-to-heart of the 

 little gardens of their own creating, and through Mrs. King's 

 friendly chat readers of The Garden Magazine will find echoes 

 from our own pages. 



ON SPECIALIZED topics two notable contributions have 

 been newly made, "Nut Growing" (The Macmillan Com- 

 pany), by Dr. Robert T. Morris; and Mrs. Charles H. Stout's 

 "The Amateur's Book of the Dahlia" (Doubleday, Page & 

 Company). Elsewhere in this issue Mr. Seymour treats at 

 length the startling, common-sense application of modern sur- 

 gery to the grafting of trees by which Doctor Morris has brought 

 the hitherto difficult achievement of growing nut trees within 

 common reach. Part I, General Notes, is read by the veriest 

 layman with a deal of profit and pleasure so scintillant is it with 

 keen observation, humor and sense. There can be no doubt 

 that Doctor Morris is in the vanguard of a movement of great 

 economic significance and that the extensive cultivation of nut 

 trees will mean not only increased but improved food supply 

 with, presumably, resultant decrease of disease among humans. 

 The opinion of a surgeon of Doctor Morris' ability can be regis- 

 tered as more than a guess ! 



The many, many growers of Dahlias all over the country may 

 well hail with delight "The Amateur's Book of the Dahlia" for, 

 as an authentic record of Mrs. Stout's work among the Dahlias 

 of her own garden, it has value and significance for growers 

 everywhere. As Mrs. Francis King, in her introduction, aptly 

 puts it: "The garden work that flowers in writing means a per- 

 manent benefit to the gardening public — ." The mere fact that 

 for more than ten years Mrs. Stout has steadily concentrated 

 on the Dahlia is in itself rather stimulating; the amateur is .or- 

 dinarily so prone to disperse his energies over a number of en- 

 thusiasms that he fails of constructive result in any field. Those 

 of us too busy or too lazy (though in justice to the craft as a 

 whole may it be said that the affliction is more usually business 



than laziness) to persist experimentally along a chosen line find 

 such books as Mrs. Stout's a veritable boon. Herself an ama- 

 teur, struggling single-handedly as it were, Mrs. Stout's view- 

 point is our own and we feel fortunate indeed at being thus 

 enabled to profit by her successes without having shared a dec- 

 ade's disappointments. The lovely hued Decorative, Emily D. 

 Renwick, raised by Mrs. Stout, certainly fires one to "go and 

 do likewise;" and, after all, there's really no appreciable limit to 

 the rewards Nature offers the patient! The chapters (XII, 

 XIII) on shows and on color combinations out-of-doors and in 

 have sufficient general application to interest the gardener who 

 is not necessarily a Dahlia grower; Chapter XII, in especial, 

 being full of suggestion for garden club members. It is, in 

 fact, the type of book that might fittingly find place in the li- 

 brary of any progressive group of gardeners and if your club 

 hasn't a library, may we ask why not? 



WITH each succeeding year the "Rose Annual" of the 

 American Rose Society achieves increasing importance 

 as a record and as the last word in progress and prospect on its 

 fascinating subject. Indeed, it is doing very much to place the 

 Rose definitely in its relation to the American garden. This 

 year's edition — which is now available to the membership — 

 has the report on the country-wide referendum conducted 

 through the society's members and is therefore an up-to-date 

 record of Rose culture, which will be read profitably by all who 

 really want the latest about Rose growing outdoors. 



More extended discussions of the small rose-gardens are in- 

 cluded in two bright articles and many Rose notes. Here also 

 will be found the most complete discussion ever published on 

 diseases and insects of the Rose. No reader of this volume who 

 will follow its simple suggestions need submit to either the mil- 

 dew or the dreaded "black-spot" that remove the leaves of his 

 pet bushes, or endure any of the insects that hunt the Rose. 



Captain Thomas, who is both critical amateur and careful 

 hybridizer, and who has for more than ten years tested every 

 Rose produced anywhere in the world, gives his large experience 

 with both budded and own-root Roses, and an enthusiast in 

 Ohio adds some personal experiences with both. 



Ideals sought in new Roses are set forth in some ten or more 

 statements by the critical amateur and professional rosarians 

 of the nation. There is an account of the work of the recently 

 deceased Dr. W. Van Fleet as a hybridizer of Roses and other 

 plants, and details are given of a novel contract arranged by the 

 American Rose Society with the Federal Department of Agri- 

 culture for the wide distribution of some marvelous new Roses 

 of Van Fleet origination. The American Rose Annual is not 

 purchasable in bookstores but goes without extra charge to all 

 members of the American Rose Society as part of the privilege 

 of membership. 



A" CHECK List of Irises" just published by the American 

 L Iris Society will be serviceable in arriving at uniformity 

 of nomenclature. Not that the Irises were so badly mud- 

 dled as some other much cultivated favorites, but that it 

 is well to settle doubts. Those who desire to be correct may 

 now be so. 



ANEW edition of Sargent's "Manual of the Trees of 

 North America," has been issued (Houghton, Mifflin and 

 Company). This is practically an entirely new work and con- 

 tains considerably more information and many more references 

 than the former edition, representing the growth of knowledge 

 particularly with the more Southern plants during the last 

 twenty years. 



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