INTRODUCTION. 9 



his occupation doubly gratifying by adding the study of botany 

 and physiology ; but he can do his duty without ; and experi- 

 ence has taught many employers, to their cost, that reading and 

 studying gardeners are the most expensive, the most useless, 

 and most annoying of all men, and merely receive their salaries 

 for amusiag themselves, while the foremen and under-gar- 

 deners do the work. It is all very well, if a man shall have 

 studied the scientific part of his busiaess in his youth ; but 

 the parrot-like acquirements of a great majority of even the 

 reputed first-rate men, who lecture here and write there, and 

 talk everywhere, give one a sad distaste for learned gardeners. 

 The mere book-knowledge which enables a man to pass an 

 examination conducted by theorists, is so easily acquired, and 

 is so utterly irrespective of practical knowledge, that it is 

 quite possible to find such men totally unfit for head-managers ; 

 nevertheless, such men do fill places, and, where the employer 

 is ignorant, and the under-gardeners sound practical men, all 

 goes on well, without its being suspected that the good order 

 is owing to the unpretending working-gardener, and that no 

 benefit is derived from the superintendence of the chief. Be 

 this as it may, the advantages of gardening are manifold, and 

 open to all classes ; the most ignorant may profitably employ 

 themselves, without losing time over their studies ; their 

 cabbages avlU eat as well, their mignonette smell as sweet, 

 their flowers be as bright, and their fruit-trees yield as plenti- 

 fully, in their ignorance of science, as though they were pro- 

 fessors of the highest grade. In this fact it is that we find 

 80 much real benefit ; it is this fact that throws open the 

 enjojTnent of gardening to the poor industrious classes. It 

 is not necessary that we should find fault mth those authors 

 who surround the knowledge they impart v,'iih. a barrier that 

 shuts out millions ; it is enough that w^e throw abroad all we 

 know for everybody who wishes to pick up. We will not 

 complain that others make the road to enjoyment through 

 thorns and briers impervious to the multitude ; it is enough 

 that we open an easier and a better way, through which the 

 urchin at school, and the poorest, weakest, and least informed 

 of oui" fellow-men, may walk pleasantly, and not have to walk 

 far. 



Abercrombie, whose admii^ablc worli:, called "Every Man 

 his own Gardener," has stood the test of years, and is even 

 now the best of its kind, never made the study of botany the 



