ADAM, THE GARDENER. BY CHARLES COWDEN CLARKE, AUTHOR OF TALES IN PROSE, FROM CHAUCER. "How various his employments whom the World Calls idle; and who justly in return, Esteems that busy World an idler too! Friends, books, a garden, and perhaps his pen, Delightful industry enjoyed at home, And nature in her cultivated trim Dress'd to his taste, inviting him abroad- Can he want occupation who has these 7"- Cowper. REVISED BY THE EDITORS OF THE POPULAR LIBRARY. BOSTON: BENJAMIN B. MUSSEY. PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. IN selecting the following work as the first in a s ries to be devoted to the amusement and instructio of the young, we were influenced partly by the intrinsic interest and importance of the subject, and partly by the lively and graphic style in which it is here presented. Gardening is an employment most happily adapted to occupy the hours devoted to recreation, and especially the leisure hours of those whose days are spent in sedentary pursuits. It invites to the study of natural history, with almost every department of which it holds an intimate relation. In the young it inspires a taste for quiet and rational pleasures, and an attachment to all the elegant arts of polished life. In applying the instructions contained in this work to the circumstances of this country, some discretion is requisite. Such is the difference of climate between Great Britain and the United States, that the various employments appropriate to the several seasons must, in the two countries, be essentially different. During about one third of the year, the labors of the gardener in New England are necessarily suspended, on account of the severe frosts of winter; unless he is so fortu 1 269946 |