338 THE GARDENER. [Aug. 



disposal than by any lack of cultural knowledge. It is very rarely that 

 the vegetables cultivated by the cottager exceed in number some 

 seven or eight kinds — his stock-crops being Potatos, Runner and Broad 

 Beans, Cabbages, Turnips, Onions, Parsnips, and Vegetable Marrows, 

 with probably just a few Lettuces and Radishes for salad in the hot 

 weather. Peas are rather too expensive, and cover too much ground ; 

 indeed, in most cases they are looked upon rather as a luxury than as 

 a necessary vegetable. Granting, as I do most readily, that in the 

 matter of sorts grown there may be some improvement, yet in regard 

 to his actual wants he is the best judge ; and he invariably grows the 

 crops upon which his mind is set, with so much of care and judgment 

 as to frequently put professional gardeners to shame. The cottager 

 knows as well as any one the use of a good spade or fork, and the value 

 of deep digging ; he also knows the value of manure and its appli- 

 cation. Herein he is quite practical in two of the most important ele- 

 ments of vegetable culture, although, at the same time, the most simple 

 ones. Not a little, however, in the cottage-garden, depends upon the 

 worker's tastes. Of course, some men are more thoroughly imbued with 

 gardening fancies than others, but it may be taken as a rule that a love 

 of gardening is inherent in the breasts of all of us ; and especially is 

 this sentiment strong amongst the poor, who will earnestly strive to 

 obtain a piece of allotment ground if they have no garden attached 

 to their dwelling, and think it no hardship to walk long distances, 

 after a day's hard labour has been performed, to gratify their natural 

 taste for gardening operations, and secure some profit for their labour. 

 I have stated that the cottager takes but little interest in garden liter- 

 ature, and the cause of this indifference is to be found less in his com- 

 parative literary ignorance than in the fact that the horticultural 

 serial literature of the present day has for him no features of interest, 

 or adaptability to his capacities and requirements. It is not to be 

 expected that matter purely professional in character can offer to the 

 cottager much that is enticing. For him a special literature is neces- 

 sary — a literature that shall awaken his interest, fall in with his notions, 

 adapt itself to his capacities, and finally become the horticultural organ 

 of the poorer classes. Then in regard to their practical knowledge, 

 which, though possibly in some respects crude, is yet far from being small 

 in amount, as is generally imagined, — it is obvious, to all familiar with 

 them, that more improvement is to be made in this respect by the 

 force of example than by mere precept or reading. Clergymen or 

 gentlemen who have a special desire to extend a knowledge of horti- 

 culture amongst those by whom they are surrounded, will find their 

 most useful assistant-teacher to be their own well-cultivated garden, 

 into which they should invite their poorer neighbours to inspect it ; 



