C 4-18 J 



PROFESSION OF A GARDENER, 



HE who undertakes the profejjion of a gardener, 

 takes upon himfelf a work of fome wiportance,and 

 which requires no fmall degree of knowledge, ingenuity^ 

 and indujlry, to perform well. There are few bnfinefles 

 which may not be learned in much lefs time than that 

 of a gardener can poiiibly be. 



It often happens, however, that a man who has 

 been verv little in a garden, and that only as ^labourer, 

 tvho can do little more than dig, or put out cabbage 

 plants, will call himfelf a gardener ; but he only 13 

 worthy of the name who having had much pra6lice in 

 the various parts of horticulture, poflefles a genius and 

 adroitnefs, fitting him for making experiments, and 

 for getting through difficulties that the exiilirig circum- 

 ftances of untoward feafons,' &c. may bring him into.^ 

 He mould poffefs a fpirtt of enquiry into the nature of 

 plants and vegetation, and how far art (in his way) 

 may be made fuccefsfully ufeful, or at leafi probably io. 

 The mode of growth, the pruning, the foil, the heat, 

 and the moiflure that fuits particular plants, are not to 

 be uuderltood without a native talle, and clofe applica- 

 tion of the mind. " Gardening depends more upon 

 the labour cf the brain than of the body." 



There 



