Entry 

 (Xc. N». 



HOME AND FLOWERS 



Vol. XIV 



AUGUST, 1903 



Entered as second class matter at the Springfield. Ohio, postoflfice. 



No. 4 



This departmpnt is under the entire charge of Mr. Eexford, and everything not signed by 

 another name is from his pen. Eeaders are cordially invited to correspond freely with Mr. 

 Eexford, addressing him in care of this office. 



A LADY writes: "I want to ask what 

 3'ou think about the 'nature books/ 

 as they call them, of which there 

 are so many on the market now. Are they 

 practical? That is, can an amateur use 

 Them as a text-book and learn to grow 

 plants from their instrnction? Or are 

 they 'jnst for reading'?" 



I think about most of these books which 

 I have read very much as John Burroughs 

 thinks about the animal books of Thomp- 

 son- Seton, and a few others who have told 

 us interesting stories and seem inclined 

 to insist on our accepting them as facts. 

 Burroughs says a good deal that is writ- 

 ten in these books about animals is purely 

 imaginative, and I believe he is right. 

 Of course, they are pleasant reading, for 

 most of us like to pass away some of our 

 leisure in thinking of things as they m ight 

 le, but when we "get down to business" 

 we have to take things as they are. These 

 '^nature books" are very largely made up 

 of theory, and I doubt if any one would 

 ar-hiove much success in gardening if he 

 depended on them for instruction. He 

 certainly would not if he knew nothing 



about the elementary principles of gar- 

 dening before reading them. As a spur 

 to enthusiasm in growing plants they are 

 of decided benefit, but as a guide to grow- 

 ing them they are of little use. I have 

 in mind two or three in which most 

 glaring mistakes are made — mistakes that 

 could never have occurred had the author 

 had any personal, practical knowledge of 

 what he was writing about — and to find 

 such inexcusable mistakes in a book of 

 this kind makes one feel like advising 

 amateur florists to "be not deceived 

 thereby," for it is dangerous for a begin- 

 ner to confound pretty theories with hard 

 facts. When arithmetic is taught success- 

 fully in story form, and grammar is ab- 

 sorbed in the form of an essay on fine 

 talking, then, and not till then, will 

 "nature books" make successful gardeners- 

 of us all. 



I have been greatly pleased this sum- 

 mer to see how much the children are 

 becoming interested in flower growing 

 and the cultivation of shrubs and trees. 



