Success With Small Fruits

Success With Small Fruits

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Success With Small Fruits, by E. P.
Roe #11 in our series by E. P. Roe
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Title: Success With Small Fruits
Author: E. P. Roe
Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6117] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on November 11,

2002]
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WITH SMALL FRUITS ***

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The Works of E.P. Roe
VOLUME SEVENTEEN
SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS
ILLUSTRATED
1881

I Dedicate this Book
TO
MR. CHARLES DOWNING
A Neighbor, Friend, and Horticulturist
FROM WHOM I SHALL ESTEEM IT A PRIVILEGE TO LEARN IN
COMING YEARS AS I HAVE IN THE PAST

PREFACE
A book should be judged somewhat in view of what it attempts. One of
the chief objects of this little volume is to lure men and women back to
their original calling, that of gardening. I am decidedly under the
impression that Eve helped Adam, especially as the sun declined. I am
sure that they had small fruits for breakfast, dinner and supper, and
would not be at all surprised if they ate some between meals. Even we
poor mortals who have sinned more than once, and must give our
minds to the effort not to appear unnatural in many hideous styles of
dress, can fare as well. The Adams and Eves of every generation can
have an Eden if they wish. Indeed, I know of many instances in which
Eve creates a beautiful and fruitful garden without any help from
Adam.
The theologians show that we have inherited much evil from our first
parents, but, in the general disposition to have a garden, can we not
recognize a redeeming ancestral trait? I would like to contribute my
little share toward increasing this tendency, believing that as humanity
goes back to its first occupation it may also acquire some of the primal
gardener's characteristics before he listened to temptation and ceased to
be even a gentleman. When he brutally blamed the woman, it was time
he was turned out of Eden. All the best things of the garden suggest
refinement and courtesy. Nature might have contented herself with
producing seeds only, but she accompanies the prosaic action with
fragrant flowers and delicious fruit. It would be well to remember this
in the ordinary courtesies of life.
Moreover, since the fruit-garden and farm do not develop in a
straightforward, matter-of-fact way, why should I write about them
after the formal and terse fashion of a manual or scientific treatise? The
most productive varieties of fruit blossom and have some foliage which
may not be very beautiful, any more than the departures from practical
prose in this book are interesting; but, as a leafless plant or bush, laden
with fruit, would appear gaunt and naked, so, to the writer, a book
about them without any attempt at foliage and flowers would seem

unnatural. The modern chronicler has transformed history into a
fascinating story. Even science is now taught through the charms of
fiction. Shall this department of knowledge, so generally useful, be left
only to technical prose? Why should we not have a class of books as
practical as the gardens, fields, and crops, concerning which they are
written, and at the same time having much of the light, shade, color,
and life of the out-of-door world? I merely claim that I have made an
attempt in the right direction, but, like an unskillful artist, may have so
confused my lights, shades, and mixed my colors so badly, that my
pictures resemble a strawberry-bed in which the weeds have the better
of the fruit.
Liberal outlines of this work appeared in "Scribner's Magazine," but the
larger scope afforded by the book has enabled me to treat many
subjects for which there