Ji fclu fjints f0r itginntrs. 



tNE of the most fruitful sources of disappointment to the tyro in gardening, is the 

 injudicious choice of material, or, in other words, the selection of objects for cul- 

 tivation not adapted to his experience or his circumstances. Mr. A, for instance, by- 

 reading, or perhaps by the example of some neighbor, all at once conceives a desire 

 to have a fine garden. He procures the nurserymen's catalogues, or some books, and 

 placing entire confidence in the descriptions which he finds accompanying the names 

 of fruits, ornamental trees, shrubs, and flowers, selects the newest, and, as he supposes, 

 the best. These he must have, because he does not wish to be second to any in either 

 the beauty or novelty of the objects on which he is about to lavish his care. Unfor- 

 tunately for him, however, the stock of new and rare fruit trees, plants, and flowers, 

 is small, and the specimens to be had rather feeble, and requiring great care and -skill 

 to bring them to a successful issue. His limited experience, as well as his impatience, 

 prevents him from giving them the needful treatment, and they become a total failure. 

 This cools the ardor of the beginner ; visions of fruitful and blooming gardens, on 

 which he had feasted his imagination, become misty ; he hesitates, falls back into 

 indifl'erence, and finally and perhaps forever abandons the delightful scheme of gar- 

 dening in which he had embarked so hopefully and zealously a few months ago. 

 This is a very great misfortune ; not for him alone, and his family, who are thus to be 

 deprived of some of the highest and purest pleasures of life — the enjoyment of a good 

 garden, but for his neighbors and friends, who are deprived of the good example 

 which his success would have given them ; and for the country at large, because gar- 

 dens are public preachers , inculcating industry, refinement, and other personal and 

 social virtues, upon which the comfort and happiness of society in a great measure 

 depend. Now, in order to prevent in some small degree, if possible, the disastrous 

 consequences of such failure, we propose to off"er to beginners a few suggestions. 



Gardening cannot be learned in a day, or a week, or a year. Men have to spend 

 years in acquiring knowledge enough to make them competent to manage well even 

 an ordinary garden. No man can be a good gardener without reading, and extensive 

 reading, too ; but no amount of reading can possibly, by itself, enable a man or 

 woman to enter at once upon the management of a garden, and do it successfully. 

 Practice is necessary — much practice, — and with it, careful study and observation. 

 We may study in books the written history and character of any given tree or plant, 

 until we suppose we know all that can be known about it, and yet when we undertake 

 its cultivation we often find that our very first step was wrong. This every person of 

 experience will testify to be true. The history of the introduction of every new plant 

 and tree corroborates this. An accurate knowledge of the proper treatment has only 

 been acquired by experience. " What, then, are we to do ?" the uninitiated may 

 ask. " Do you wish to discourage us ?" " Must we go and serve an apprenticeship 

 to some great master of the art and science of gardening, before we undertake to 



June 1, 1854. f1 No. A' I. 



