IV PREFACE. 



"'My lord,' said he, 'Squire 's gardener must be a poor igno- 

 rant fellow to fancy he has discovered a secret in what is known to every 

 horticulturist. Liebig, my lord, has treated of the good effect of charcoal- 

 dressing to vines especially, and it is easily explained;' and therewith the 

 wise man entered on a very profound explanation, of which his lordship did 

 not understand one word, 



" * Well, then,' said the peer, cutting short the harangue, ' since you 

 know all this so well, have you ever tried it on mine ? ' 



" ' I can't say I have, my lord ; it did not chance to come into my head.' 



" 'Nay,' replied the peer, 'chance did put it into your head, but thought 

 never took it out of your head.' " 



The result was, that my lord begged the young gardener of the 

 squire ; he took some pains to train and educate him, and the 

 man is now my lord's head forester and bailiff. But it was neither 

 for the sake of the story that I have repeated this anecdote, nor 

 for the fact about the charcoal, although the one is interesting in itself, 

 and the other, within certain limits, perfectly true ; for charcoal absorbs 

 ninety times of its own bulk of ammoniacal, and thirty-five of carbonic 

 acid gas, which are separated again by simply moistening with water. 

 But the story points a moral. A workman, no matter in what capacity, 

 who reasons on what passes under his eye, will find new ideas con- 

 tinually rising in his mind. Let these be noted as they occur, and they 

 may chance to help him some day when he does not expect it. If the 

 reflections suggested to Xewton by the falling apple had only led to 

 a record of the fact, the gi'eat discovery of the doctrine of universal 

 gravitation would have been reserved for another. It is the power of 

 reasoning on analogous things which disting-uishcs the philosopher from 

 the common herd, — the gifc of perception, added to the power of imi- 

 tating the harmonies of nature, which distinguishes the artist from the 

 daubster ; and the same qualities, although, perhaps, in a lesser degree, 

 which distinguish the gardener from the mere labourer. 



In conclusion, while claiming for the larger portion of the Book of 

 Garden Management no more merit than belongs to a fairly-balanced 

 compilation, drawn fi'om widely-spread but sound sources of in- 

 formation, some of the contributions will be found to merit much 

 higher praise. Among these the editor may be jDermitted to claim 

 attention to the very original contributions of Mr. D. T. Fish, signed 

 with his initials ; to the painstaking communications signed F. C. ; and 

 to the scholarly contributions of the Rev. H. P. D., who is also kind enough 

 to overlook the fact, that some of liis communications are mixed up with 

 editorial articles, where the initials could not ver'y well be given. 



London, Septeraler, 1SG2. 



