THE GARDEN YEAR. 



The rigors of winter teach us appreciation of the 

 summer, and its rest should renew us for the activi- 

 ties of another garden year. Of all men in busi- 

 ness, the cultivator has most opportunity of change 

 and respite. As often as season rolls into season 

 or day closes into night he finds variation of occu- 

 pation and new direction for thought, and the longer 

 recreation of the winter affords opportunity of bal- 

 ancing the outcomes of the year. Into its leisure 

 is brought the success and the failure, and out of it 

 goes energy and hope. This vacation time of the 

 planter is nature's seal to the greatness of his call- 

 ing, her demand of preparation for a multitude of 

 various endeavors. Land and plants alone are idle ; 

 the planter still must grow. The farmer is every- 

 where more important than the farm. It is the 

 farmer who must widen and ennoble farming. 



So the winter becomes the farmer's opportunity. 

 Here the success or the failure of the coming year 

 is born. It is not strange that there is so little suc- 

 cess in tilling the soil. Three or four months of in- 

 tellectual emptiness cannot be expected to produce 

 crops of success. The wonder is that failure is not 

 commoner. A vocation widest in its requirements 

 receives least in preparation for it, and yet most is 

 demanded from it. If respite of winter means any- 

 thing to the planter, it means greater success and 

 deeper pleasure in the days to come. The garden 

 year should begin with the first days of January 

 rather than with the warming days of April. It 

 should begin in the coolness and candor of leisure 

 hours, and its stirqulus should be determination 

 rather than enthusiasm. Gardens fail when planned 

 in the bursting days of spring. Haste and restless- 

 ness wither with the drouths of July. 



Each 3-ear widens the scope of gardening. Mar- 

 kets change, soils deteriorate, varieties grow old, 

 insect and plant diseases increase, and everywhere 

 and at all times men are finding out something new. 

 Into this world of activity the gardener comes, and 

 he must strike into it courageously or fall in with 

 laggards. The time has loHg since passed when 

 rule of thumb can earn a living. Each year the 

 garden must be planned more thoroughly, and the 

 planning must be an outgrowth of continued 

 thought. Thoroughness of planning always begets 

 ambition and enthusiasm. The growth of plants 

 and the pleasures of the fields become attractive as 

 we think of them and plan for them. 



The materials of fireside gardening are now-a- 



days abundant. Read any of the recent books on 

 out-door life, and you will wonder how you could 

 have lost so much of the happiness which is within 

 reach of you. The first essential to pleasant farm 

 life is contentment on the farm, and no agent so 

 quickly touches and refines the thoughful mind as 

 pleasant books of fields and woods. Yet, in their 

 way, the seedsmen's catalogues of recent years are 

 scarcely less entertaining. All that is attractive in 

 vegetation finds record and illustration here, and 

 one becomes impatient of the dragging weeks that 

 he may again plant and till. With all their faults 

 it is no doubt true that these catalogues have stimu- 

 lated much of the recent activity of gardening. 

 They are monuments of the advertiser's skill. Some- 

 one has called them the '-mile-posts of horticul- 

 ture," and the phrase is not inappropriate. They 

 are certainly records of the year's progresses. In 

 the leisure of the winter days they are profitable for 

 study, if for no other reason than the fact that they 

 are everywhere suggestive. Matters of fact and 

 of practice are presented in bulletins and reports 

 of many organizations. We could not expect to till 

 the soil to advantage in these days without the 

 direct aid of the experimenter. A file of bulletins 

 should be in the possession of every gardener. 

 They are as useful as tools. And even the facts 

 which they contain are often less valuable than the 

 suggestions which they bring. It is not difficult to 

 read and digest the important parts of all this varied 

 literature, and the reader finds himself possessed of 

 a wonderful grasp upon his business. 



Gardens should he mapped and planned by the 

 winter fireside. Formulas for insecticides and fun- 

 gicides should be familiarized, and materials for 

 making the compounds should be procured. Ap- 

 paratus for applying them should; be selected while 

 yet there is leisure. And in all this rounding up of 

 the old year and planning for the new, study of 

 markets and marketing should be conspicuous. It 

 is commonly more difficult to market produce than 

 to grow it. 



So the garden year begins in intellectual prepara- 

 tion, and it ends in intellectual re\-iew. Continuity 

 of thought and purpose run through its months, 

 and if failure comes, it is a lesson for another year. 

 We join our thought to the thought of the times, 

 with the hope of acquiring judgment and purpose. 

 In no other manner can we have hope of success in 

 these modern days. L. H. Bailey. 



