To tens of thousands of bread-winners in cities a country home is the dream of the future, the crown and reward of their life-toil. Increasing numbers are taking what would seem to be the wiser course, and are combining rural pleasures and advantages with their business…By means of such a suburban nook we can keep up our relations with Nature and all her varied and health-giving life... The area of land purchased will depend largely on the desires and purse of the buyer; but about one acre appears to satisfy the majority of people. This amount is not so great that the business man is burdened with care, nor is its limit so small that he is cramped and thwarted by line fences. If he can give to his bit of Eden but little thought and money, he will find that an acre can be so laid out as to entail comparatively small expense in either the one or the other… In this book I merely hope to make some useful suggestions and give practical advice—the result of experience, my own and others'—which the reader may carry out and modify according to his judgment. We will suppose that an acre has been bought; that it is comparatively level, with nothing of especial value upon it—in brief, that the home and its surroundings are still to be created. - Summary by the Author