1048 STATISTICS OF GARDENING. Part IV. 



period ; but it is the business of cultivated man to apply these checks at an early stage, 

 and thus to lessen the evils to all parties. 



7436. The simplest check to indolent gardeners is the demands of their masters, who 

 seeinc at other tables, and in other gardens, productions superior to their own, and know- 

 ing that they spare no expense, &c. naturally enquire into the cause of the default. This 

 sort of observation when abroad, and comparison with home, ought never to be neglected 

 by those who wish to keep servants of any description to their duty. The deficiencies and 

 bad points of other gardens and gardeners may be let alone ; but their excellencies should 

 always be particularised, and dwelt on to our own ; and where a failure happens in the 

 one case, the reasons required for the other's superiority in that particular, and our in- 

 feriority. If the master ultimately becomes dissatisfied with the condition and produce 

 of his garden, let him first call in the nurseryman who recommended the gardener, as 

 counsel for both sides ; and let him consign him to this nurseryman, with such a charac- 

 ter as he may be considered to merit. 



7437. On the order and neatness ivith which a garden is kept, so much of its beauty 

 and effect depends, that often as we have mentioned the subject in the course of this 

 work, we must again advert to it. Many excellent gardeners are deficient in these par- 

 ticulars, from causes which, at first sight, would seem calculated to have a contrary 

 effect ; such as staying constantly at home in their own gardens, and daily inspecting 

 every part of them. The consequence of this is, that the changes which take place in the 

 growth, decay, or deterioration of objects is so gradual as not to be observed, and that an 

 object seen twice every day for ten days, seems the same thing the twentieth time which 

 it did the first, when, in fact, and to the person who has only seen it two or three times, 

 it is something different. To illustrate this, let us suppose a collection of green-house 

 plants, newly shifted, surfaced, pruned, trimmed, tied, washed, and replaced on the stage, 

 and that one man attends to the watering of them regularly every day for a month. 

 They are newly shifted plants the first day, and consequently require nothing done to 

 them ; so they are the second, third, fourth, and so on, even after a week or ten days 

 they are so considered, and this notion now becomes habitual to the attendant. Every- 

 day as he enters the green-house to water, he sees, without even opening his eyes, (that 

 is, the idea recurs,) a stage of newly shifted plants, all fresh, and free from weeds and 

 decayed leaves, and wanting nothing ; therefore weeds and decayed leaves he never 

 thinks of looking for, but waters on ; whilst a stranger, or one who has not seen them for 

 a few days, is struck with the slovenliness displayed, and though perhaps the same thing 

 may take place in his own garden, or his own department in the same residence ; he goes 

 away not willing to benefit the other by corrective advice, but ' ' thanking God he is not 

 like this man." 



7438. This cause of slovenliness we think there are few gardeners who will deny to be 

 correctly stated ; and we think, the cause being discovered, the remedy very easily pre- 

 sents itself. Let master gardeners not inspect every part of what is under their care every 

 day at the same time, and in the same order, but let them omit some parts on some days, 

 occasionally omit the whole, and often vary the time and order of their visits. Let them 

 also, instead of going round to look if such and such scenes are in order, go impressed 

 with the idea of finding them in bad order, in search of particular sorts of weeds, of de- 

 cayed, damaged, or straggling parts of plants, insects, &e. It may seem ludicrous to add, 

 let him go round sometimes in the night instead of during day ; but we are persuaded 

 that viewing particular scenes by the light of a lantern or the moon, would present them in 

 such a new aspect, as would probably show deformities or deficiencies. It is a common 

 observation of servants, that after their master has been a day or two confined with illness, 

 or on the morning after an evening of dissipation, he is generally very apt to find fault 

 and be cross, and difficult to please. This is actually the case, and is satisfactorily 

 accounted for without reference to humor or temper : the master sees faults which before 

 escaped him, because the machinery of his faculties has been deranged, and he sees dif- 

 ferently. But why does he see faults rather than beauties ? Because it is his business 

 to seek for them, and this impression being habitual on his mind, the strongest images re- 

 flected by the eye are of that nature. 



7439. Visiting neighboring gardens is another important part of a head gardener's duty. 

 This should be done with a view not only to order and neatness, but also to good culture, 

 intelligence as to the state of gardening, &c. ; he should not limit his visits to those 

 near him, but include all the principal gardens for forty or fifty miles round ; and he 

 should, at least, once a-year, visit the capital or the metropolis, to inform himself, by 

 means of the nurserymen, and among the numerous first-rate gardens that are always found 

 round capital cities, the horticultural societies, and agricultural libraries, of what is going 

 on in the gardening world. 



7440. The mansion and demesne (7270. ) is less common than the villa near large towns, 

 but more so in the country. The proprietors are sometimes commercial men, but more 

 generally country-gentlemen. Their extent varies from a hundred to a thousand acres, 



