Tumbledown Farm .9 Acres (give or take an acre or two)

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

ALTHOUGH no attempt was made to ad­vertise the Mayland French Garden, news of it has got abroad, and for some months past the number of enquirers has been so great, I determined to write this book. Every day I realize anew the constantly increasing need for it. Papers on the French culture appear in the public press from time to time. These, however, are written in terms which might have been appropriate to the discovery of another Klondike, but are, assuredly, not consistent with the actual facts of French gardening. The impressions conveyed to the public by such wild and misleading statements are calculated to do an immense amount of mischief. Many of those inquiring at Mayland about this culture manifest the most extraordinary ideas, gathered, plainly, from these same sensational articles. Scarcely any of them show any real conception of the training required, the initial capital necessary, or the great expense of production.

There is not the slightest doubt that the French system of gardening is in various ways an improvement on customary methods, and that extraordinary crops can be taken from com-

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paratively small areas; but although the ultimate net profits, after a garden is brought into a state of efficiency, will doubtless be satisfactory­--providing present prices are maintained--they in no way approach those the public has been led to expect.

The fact is, that this culture in an unmodified form should only be undertaken on a com­mercial scale by those in possession of con­siderable capital. Persons of small means, striving to get a living from open-air work in connection with the land, should first experiment in a small way; then, if the results are successful and profitable, add to it as means and experience are acquired.

With care and discretion, a good ordinary gardener should be able to undertake many of the operations to the bettering of both his crops and his profits. He should also find little diffi­culty in modifying and adapting some of the work to ordinary methods, but in no case should any person sink a large amount of capital in such a venture without a previous training, or unless the garden is placed under the management of an expert.

In these pages I have given, as far as I know them, all particulars of one branch of French gardening, down to smallest details, I have tried to be accurate, precise, and clear, so that any person with knowledge of gardening should be

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able to attempt the culture with reasonable chance of success.

The photographs are by our clerk and bookkeeper, Mr. A. GARRETT.

THOMAS SMITH.

FELS FRUIT FARM,
MAYLAND, April, 1909.