GARDENING FOR THE IGNORANT.• Tars book is precisely what it
professes to be. Among the host of gardening books which have heaped themselves on the amateur's and beginner's shelves during the past ten or twelve years there was still room for one which should do what this book does—that is, tell the really ignorant would-be gardener what to do. The great fault of the majority of gardening books, from the beginner's point of view, is that, however simple the authors try to make their directions, they assume too much knowledge. They state, for instance. that ground must be thoroughly trenched without explaining what trenching means ; they speak glibly of layers, suckers, sharp drainage, compost, pricking out, and so on, forgetting that the gardener ignorant of tools and flowers is ignorant also of the terms which gardeners use. This is the gap which Mrs. Earle's and Miss Case's experience admirably fills. Mrs. Earle as a gardener we know ; Miss Caae, having learnt everything from the beginning, knows what beginners do not know ; and the two together supply the unwise and the wayward with the necessary instructions. The year is divided into months, with work for each in the flower garden and kitchen garden, and there are pleasant hints for the housewife as well as for the gardener. Miss Case joins Mrs. Earle with a sound testimonial. When she went into Hampshire and told a neighbour that she meant to do her own gardening she was paid the right compliment at once: " Well, Miss, there is one thing, no one can say there is any- thing ladylike about you."
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