2 THE AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN. 
that such a volume as the present is greatly needed. The 
author indulges the hope that it will prove a creditable 
addition to the “ amateur ” series. 
Those who are curious on the subject of garden literature 
will find, if they care to inquire, that books on the manage- 
ment of the kitchen garden are, to a great extent, repetitions 
of each other. In some respects this is inevitable ; but there 
is much more sameness and imitation than we can fairly make 
allowance for, considering how plentifully such books are 
pumped out by the press, and the almost absolute lack of 
originality amongst them. The book in the reader’s hands 
has its defects, no doubt — at all events, no pretensions are made 
to infallibility, or any near approach thereto — but it is no 
compilation : it is original in the fullest sense of the word, so far 
as it can be applied to such a work ; and it embodies the results, 
in a comparatively small compass, of the work of a quarter of 
a century in gardens largely devoted to fruit and vegetable 
culture. 
It must be clearly understood that this work is compre- 
hensive, both as regards plan and details. It contains suffi- 
ciently full, and, it is hoped, sufficiently explicit instructions, 
to enable any one having command of the requisite land and 
appliances, to produce abundant supplies of all the kitchen 
garden productions ordinarily required in a substantial middle- 
class household, and that is the household most in need of 
help in respect of useful gardening. 
