492 THE GARDENER. [Nov. 



laid out and badly kept. Order should be the first law of every gar- 

 den from which pleasurable enjoyment is expected. It matters not 

 how much nature with her own peculiar beauty has done for a garden, 

 how masterly have been the ideas of the landscape-gardener, or how 

 thorough and high the cultivation in certain phases ; if cleanliness, 

 taste, and order in the keeping of the grounds be absent, there must, 

 in the very nature of things, be present all that is calculated to grate 

 and jar upon any well-regulated eye. Whenever it becomes manifest 

 that there is a struggle between nature and art for the mastery — 

 when a pleasure-garden ceases to be well kept and dressed — it ceases 

 to be worthy of the name, and will most certainly fail to serve its end 

 in the present economy of things, and, on the contrary, prove a source 

 of dissatisfaction and annoyance to all concerned. 



We feel confident that we are now contending for a principle which 

 should never be lost sight of in determining how much of any policy 

 should come under the designation of kept garden-ground. The ex- 

 tent should be fixed by the means which the proprietor is able or will- 

 ing to devote to such a purpose ; for it should always be borne in mind 

 that a highly-kept garden presupposes one for which sufiicient labour 

 is allowed— for it not only requires a maximum of labour, but it de- 

 mands it almost incessantly. It requires no evidence to prove that 

 this is a point which owners of gardens far too often lose sight of ; 

 and the undue extension of such grounds as we are now treating of, is 

 an error from which gardeners do not always steer clear. There can 

 be no denying the fact that gardeners would go into their business 

 with far more spirit and energy, and with satisfaction to both their 

 employers and themselves, if they had sufficient labour force in all cases 

 to keep the gardens under their care in the highest possible trim. But 

 far too often it is the other way ; and there need be little hesitation in 

 saying that it is diflScult to point to anything else that would so much 

 improve the whole aspect of gardens, and increase the pleasure and sat- 

 isfaction of all related to them, as an adjustment of the grounds to be 

 kept and cultivated to the means allowed for that purpose, — either the 

 grounds to be reduced and brought down to the means, or that the 

 means be augmented in proportion to the work required. We are 

 not sure that it would matter much in the real interests of gardening 

 which of these steps be taken to remedy the evil of disorder, and the 

 want of those finer touches of keeping, without which it verges on a 

 misnomer to apply the term "pleasure" to our grounds or gardens. 



We consider this to be a point of great moment, and worthy of the 

 attention of all who have in any way to do with flower-gardens or 

 pleasure-grounds. An immense garden, in the very highest style of 

 keeping, is an object from which few ever withhold their meed of praise 



