1, — ELEVATIOK OF A EANGE OF VINEKIES. 



CHAPTER XVIT. 



GLAZED HORTICULTURAL BUILDINGS. 



651. Glass structures of even the smallest kind would, a very few years 

 ago, have been considered a piece of great extravagance for any but the 

 affluent. We have lately, however, heard of the garden which, paid the rent ; 

 and although we cannot promise our readers quite so desirable a result, we can 

 promise them, if they will only debit the garden account with what strictly 

 belongs to it, and give credit according to the market value, for the luxuries 

 as well as the necessaries of life they draw from it, they will find that a small 

 garden and hothouse will not prove an expensive luxury, but a necessary 

 adjunct, which need not be dispensed with on the score of economy ; more 

 especially, if either the master or mistress of tha house happens to have a 

 taste for such employment, and does not disdain to undertake, with their own 

 hands, some of the lighter portions of the labour so needful to keep a garden 

 in proper order. A gardening friend relates a case strongly in point, which, 

 we take the liberty to repeat. He was applied to for ad\dce by a friend, who, 

 through an accident, was precluded from taking walking exercise,— his in- 

 clination inclining to gardening, how far its practice would supply him with 

 a proper amount of healthy exercise, without the necessity of walking. He 

 took to the cultivation in consequence, not only practically but theoretically, 

 and studied the physiology of the subject ; reduced many of its directions to 

 practice, and in a lew years became one of the most successful cultivators of 

 plants in England, and quite a leading gardener. He produced seedling- 

 plants, which he sold from the very beginning of his career, so as to repay 

 him for his outlay ; for the production of seedlings, besides being a very in- 

 teresting, is a very profitable occupation if followed with judgment ; new 

 varieties of pelargoniums, fuchsias, azaleas, and heaths, if tolerably perfect 

 and never parted with until success is achieved, producing a i-eturn by no 

 means inadequate to the trouble. Some amateurs have arrangements with 

 certain nurseries, by which their gardens are furnished with all they require 

 in exchange for the pick of their seedlings ; and we are informed that Mr^ 



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