The Garden List

IN selecting titles of garden books, I have attempted to keep away from the specialist’s books. To the questions: What’s new of importance? Have garden books been reconverted to peacetime? Are I here all sorts of new lips on mulching, laborsaving devices, weed-killing, useful tools? the answer is, No. The old stand-bys are the best. Still good for the basic library are: —

AMERICA’s GARDEN BOOK, by Louise and James Bush-Brown (Scribner, $3.50)

THE GARDEN ENCYGLOPEDIA, revised and edited by E. L. D. Seymour (Wise, $4.00)

THE VEGETABLE GARDEN, by Edward Irving Farrington (Hale, $1.50)

GROW YOUR OWN VEGETABLES, by Paul W. Dempsey (Houghton Mifflin, $2.50)

How TO GROW FOOD FOR YOUR FAMILY, by Samuel R. Ogden (Barnes, $2.00)

The best news is that the Brilish author of one of the great hooks of our time. An Agricultural Testament, has writlen a fine explanation of the relationship of soil and food values: THE SOIL AND HEALTH; A STUDY OF ORGANIC AGRICULTURE, by Sir Albert Howard (Devin-Adair, $4.00). His life work, as experimentalist and farmer, has proved his points. His methods are used on millions of acres in Ceylon, India, South Africa, Central America. They can be used also in back-yard gardening.

following the same basic principles, but of more practical value to the gardener, is PAX Oner; FARMING AND GARDENING WITH COMPOSTS, by J. I. Module (Devin-Adair, $3.00). This was one of the first books to prove that a ferlile soil (one developed by vegetable and animal wastes and not by chemical fertilizers) is the foundation of healthy crops and healthy human beings. It is theoretical as well as practical. The small garden, as well as the farm, can be developed on these principles.

In contrast to the above two titles is THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO SOILLESS GARDENING, by Dr. William F. Gericke (Prentice-Hall. $2.75). If you want to grow anything without soil by using nutrient solutions, this is the best book. One question not yet answered by the advocates of soilless gardening is: What are the differences in nutritional values between their tomatoes grown in water and those grown in fertile soil?

Other titles to examine at your bookstore are; — GREENHOUSE GARDENING FOR EVERYONE, by Ernest Chatbot (Barrows, $3.00)

This volume lives up to its title, giving advice on what to grow and how, in the small and large greenhouse. A sound book for those who do and those who want to.

THE MODERN FAMILY GARDEN BOOK, by Roy E. Biles (Greenberg, $1.50)

Good, all-round bargain for the small place, full of practical drawings, with more on planning, trees, shrubbery, and flowers than on vegetables. While not really up to dale, it’s a solid beginning volume.

THE LAZY GARDENER, by William C. Pryor (Longmans, Green, $3.00)

From this volume one can get lots of pertinent information although it is written as a personal narrative, a little long-winded for my money, but nice sentiment.

AROUND THE GARDEN,by Dorothy H. Jenkins(Barrows, $2.50)

Rather a pretty, chirpy hook of reminders of what to do each month. Nice to have around, but most gardeners would prefer to have the basic books in the library and to read the reminders in magazines and newspapers.

PIONEERING WITH WILD FLOWERS,by George D. Aiken (Stephen Daye, $2.75)

The Senator from Vermont ably presents methods of propagating and planting wild flowers in a small garden or in your own woods, taking up types of soil, shade conditions, subject matter ranging from lady’s-slippers, the fringed orchis, to trailing arbutus, the woodland rock garden, and plants for the marshes.

THE PICTURE PRIMER OF INDOOR GARDENING,by Margaret O. Goldsmith and Harrie Wood (Houghton Mifflin, $2.00)

Excellent beginner’s book for growing flowers in the house, with facts on how to and what to, good suggestions on varieties, and the relationship of indoor gardening to interior decorating.

A GARDEN FOR YOU, edited by Thomas C. O’Donnell (McBride, $4.00)

A miscellany of fifty-two chapters by different experts, ranging in subject from rose gardens to favored fruit trees. Lots of pictures. A luxury buy for those who like upper-class garden magazines.