WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 8? 



Talk about the Darwinian theory of develop- 

 ment, and the principle of natural selection ! I 

 should like to see a garden let to run in accord- 

 ance with it. If I had left my vegetables and 

 weeds to a free fight, in which the strongest 

 specimens only should come to maturity, and 

 the weaker go to the wall, I can clearly see 

 that I should have had a pretty mess of it. It 

 would have been a scene of passion and license 

 and brutality. The " pusley " would have stran- 

 gled the strawberry ; the upright corn, which 

 has now ears to hear the guilty beating of the 

 hearts of the children who steal the raspberries, 

 would have been dragged to the earth by the 

 wandering bean ; the snake-grass would have 

 left no place for the potatoes under ground ; 

 and the tomatoes would have been swamped by 

 the lusty weeds. With a firm hand, I have had 

 to make my own " natural selection." Nothing 

 will so well bear watching as a garden, except a 



