CHAPTER XXVII 

 ECONOMY IN GARDENING* 



MR. COLMAN, in his Agricultural Tour,f remarks, 

 that his observations abroad convinced him that 

 the Americans are the most extravagant people 

 in the world; and the truth of the remark is corroborated 

 by the experience of every sensible traveller that returns 

 from Europe. The much greater facility of getting money 

 here, makes us more regardless of system in its expendi- 

 ture; and the income of many an estate abroad, amounting 

 to twenty thousand dollars, is expended with an exactness, 

 and nicety of calculation, that would astonish persons in 

 this country, who have only an income of twenty hundred 

 dollars. Abroad, it is the study of those who have, how to 

 save; or, in the case of spending, how to get the most for 

 their money. At home, it seems to be the desire of every 

 body to get and, having obtained wealth, to expend it in 

 the most lavish and careless manner. 



There are, again, many who wish to be economical in 

 their disbursements, but find, in a country where labor is 

 one of the dearest of commodities, J that every thing which 

 is attained by the expenditure of labor, costs so much more 

 than they had supposed, that moderate "improvements" 



* Original date of May, 1849. 



t This and several other references to Mr. Colman's "Agricultural 

 Tour" show that Mr. Downing was deeply impressed. Rev. Henry Col- 

 man of Massachusetts, after making extended agricultural surveys in 

 this country, visited Europe (1843) and wrote extensively of his travels 

 and observations. Besides several volumes of letters he published two 

 volumes of "European Agriculture and Rural Economy," in Boston 

 (1846-48). --F. A. W. 



$ At the lime this was written, fairly good farm labor generally re- 

 ceived SI 5 a month "and board." A high price for agricultural labor 

 was $1 a day, often working "from sun-up to sun-down." - F. A. \V. 



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