THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



93 



table, and the mingling of the green 

 marrowy smoking things, with the 

 brown gravy, that compels you to 

 chuckle "delicious ! " as the palate re- 

 vels in their flavour. See, then, the 

 pretty lettuces in their clean drills, so 

 delicately green and vigorous ; see the 

 tender spring onions, silvery at the 

 root, and ready for pulling ; the coral 

 radishes, the cheerful small salads that 

 seem to grow as you look at them, all 

 of them hurrying towards the salad 

 bowl, crisp, and cool, and relishing, and 

 ready to enchant the appetite on the 

 very first warm day that shall make 

 a radish, or lettuce, or cucumber the 

 very completion of table enjoyments. 

 Then think of the beautiful gourds 

 that always astonish you and every- 

 body else, at their size and rapidity of 

 growth, and that admit of half-a-do- 

 zen modes of cooking, yet, always 

 delicious ; the fresh summer cabbages 

 that take one leap from the morning 

 dew to the bubbling pot, and above 

 all things, who can know the real 

 flavour of peas but those who grow 

 them within sight from the kitchen 

 door, and who eat them an hour after 

 the gathering ? These are very 

 material considerations. The elderly 

 dames say, " the way to a boy's heart, 

 is through his belly," but it is the case 

 also with most boys of large growth, 

 for who can sneer at a cucumber with 

 the bloom on, a fragrant mushroom 

 hot from the gridiron, a basket of straw- 

 berries to dip in the breakfast cream, 

 or even a dish of marrowy green kale 

 with a savoury joint on a frosty day ? 

 And there are higher pleasures, too, 

 in this department of gardening. If our 

 wits are not exercised in the arrange- 

 ment of figures and colours to please the 

 eye, or our ingenuity taxed to acclima- 

 tize and bloom choice varieties, there 

 is much to employ thought, and not 

 a few pretty spectacles, as the sea- 

 sons work their changes, now smother- 

 ing the fruit trees with snowy bloom, 

 and now loading their branches with 

 the lovely fruit ; the very beet is 

 pretty as its richly bronzed foliage meets 

 from row to row ; and as to most crops 

 in full luxuriance of growth, there is 

 much real beauty in a well disposed, 

 and well kept profitable garden, the 

 charms of which are much enhanced 



the enjoyment of them. One would 

 not be in haste to condemn a poor 

 cottager for striving to excel in the 

 growth of flowers, but there would be 

 greater interest in his success if we saw 

 that his cabbage and potatoe plot were 

 not neglected, and that in the aching 

 of his heart for something beautiful, he 

 did not forget the kale pot, and the 

 appetites of his little ones. Nor 

 would the thriving citizen, who takes 

 a pride in his beds of asparagus, his 

 trellises of tomatoes, and his creamy 

 cauliflowers ever need to fear the criti- 

 cism of his friends and neighbours, 

 for that which is really useful has a 

 dignity peculiar to itself, and makes 

 its own assertion of its right to en- 

 couragement. Whoever turns his 

 skill and patience to account in the 

 creation of the material necessities and 

 luxuries of life, finds a source of special 

 enjoyment in the work, as well as a 

 welcome addition to the family means, 

 and, to some extent, adds to the re- 

 sources of his country, so that in 

 profitable gardening a national end is 

 served when personal and private 

 benefits are aimed at only. To be 

 sure there are people who say that a 

 kitchen garden is an expensive affair, 

 for "the cabbages cost five shillings 

 each," but whether it shall be a gain 

 or loss depends entirely on how it is 

 managed, whether the owner tills 

 the ground with his own hands, or, 

 leaves it to a jobbing gardener to 

 dig the ground six inches deep oc- 

 casionally, and charge his own price 

 for worthless seeds and plants that are 

 incapable of attaining a profitable per- 

 fection. By right management," on 

 either a small or large scale, the cul- 

 ture of edibles is immensely profitable, 

 as everybody knows who is practically 

 used to it; but it is quite an easy 

 matter for folks, who take no real 

 interest in a garden, or who have 

 foggy notions of economical tillage, to 

 pay very dear indeed for their luxuries, 

 and at last to get tired of the attempt 

 to fill a basket at its fair market value. 

 The great enemy of gardening in the 

 suburbs of towns is, not the smoke or 

 the blight, or the exhausted soils, but 

 the jobbing gardener, who fuddles away 

 his employer's time, and his own earn- 

 ings in the low enjoyment of beer. Out 



by the idea of utility that accompanies | of any hundred of such men you will 



