Page:Vegetables and their Cultivation.djvu/11

FOREWORDS. v entitled "Arnolde's Chronicle," published in 1521, the author professes to tell his readers how to rear a salad in an hour.

It is, however, to Thomas Tusser, the author of the "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry," published in 1561, that we owe the opportunity of an insight into the kinds of vegetables grown in England in earlier days. Many of his quaint references are reproduced further on in the book.

Later in the century, John Gerard, or Gerarde, published his famous "Herbal," which contains elaborate references to herbs used as food and medicine. Then, in 1629, appeared Parkinson's "Paradisi in sole Paradisus terestris," a reprint of which delightful work has recently been published by Messrs. Methuen and Co. Under the title of " The Ordering of the Kitchen Garden," he gives many quaint instructions on the proper cultivation in his day, of vegetables and herbs.

The first work solely devoted to vegetable culture was, so far as we can verify, " The Practical Kitchen Gardener," by Switzer, published in 1727. Here full details how to lay out a kitchen garden, grow vegetables outdoors and on hotbeds are given. From then onwards many books and pamphlets have been written, down to the present work.

So much by the way. We have briefly sketched the progress of literature devoted to vegetables and their cultivation up to the present day. It is our business now to justify our reasons for placing another volume on the subject in the market.

There are, we admit, many excellent books on vegetable culture in existence, but, to our mind, they all fall short of fulness of information on all branches of the subject. Having had to cater for the requirements of amateur gardeners for over seventeen years, and being, therefore, cognizant of their requirements; also, in addition, having had a long practical experience as a gardener, and consequently well acquainted with the needs of the professional gardener—especially the probationer—we came to the conclusion that an up-to-date work, written in simple language, and giving a very wide range of information, was badly needed—hence the present volume.