CHAPTER XI

OBTAINING PLANTS AND IMPROVING OUR STOCK


Having prepared and enriched our ground, we are ready for the plants.
They can often be obtained from a good neighbor whose beds we have
watched across the fence, and whose varieties we have sampled to our
satisfaction. But the most liberal neighbors may not be able to
furnish all we need, or the kinds we wish. Moreover, in private
gardens, names and varieties are usually in a sad tangle. We must go
to the nurseryman. At this point, perhaps, a brief appeal to the
reader's common-sense may save much subsequent loss and
disappointment.

In most of our purchases, we see the article before we take it, and
can estimate its value. Just the reverse is usually true of plants. We
know--or believe--that certain varieties are valuable, and we order
them from a distance, paying in advance. When received, the most
experienced cannot be sure that the plants are true to the names they
bear. We must plant them in our carefully prepared land, expend upon
them money, labor, and, above all, months and years of our brief
lives, only to learn, perhaps, that the varieties are not what we
ordered, and that we have wasted everything on a worthless kind. The
importance of starting right, therefore, can scarcely be
overestimated. It is always best to buy of men who, in the main, grow
their own stock, and therefore know about it, and who have established
a reputation for integrity and accuracy. The itinerant agent flits