PLANNING AND THE CATALOGUES 25 



each little blade or plant in your lawn separately, 

 and when he has dug up a spoonful of your soil, 

 he knows why you have or haven't a good lawn, 

 and how you can have one. To him, a bag of 

 mixed grass seed is a whole dictionary, and he can 

 read the hieroglyphics of it. Why should I doubt 

 his word as to any grass proposition.^ 



Now most of the flower-seed ^'novelties" come 

 from Europe, and those old Germans and French- 

 men have been doing such things plus for hundreds 

 of years. Of course they make mistakes — nearly 

 everyone does except you and I, gentle reader — 

 but they try not to; and when an improved plant 

 comes over the Atlantic, it has been sent, almost 

 invariably, because the master seedsman was sure 

 it was better. 



So I'm no doubting Thomas on the "novelties." 

 Some of them will not do well with me, because 

 the conditions are unfavorable, or because I do 

 not know how to guide aright their growth. Yet 

 enough will do well to make the experiment worth 

 while; and all the while I have the fun and the 

 anticipation, which are at least sixty per cent of 

 the game. 



Therefore, I knowingly and gladly submit to 

 the lure of the catalogues, selecting such standard 

 sorts and such novelties as look best to my sanguine 



