226 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



averse from experiment. It is the consciousness that 

 he can fail if he chooses which makes the amateur so 

 eager for experiment. We wonder why the presenta- 

 tion portraits which we see in the Academy are so 

 dull and unadventurous. We should remember that 

 the artist who paints portraits for a living has to pro- 

 duce good likenesses. If he does not, he is held by his 

 customer to have failed. He cannot begin on the 

 portrait of an alderman, and then, if the whim seizes 

 him, turn it into a picture of light. If he does, the 

 alderman will not buy it. So a gardener has to pro- 

 duce a certain amount of cabbages in the year and 

 a certain amount of flowers; and if he knows one 

 sure way of producing them, he sees no reason for 

 trying another. Thus there is a cause, much deeper 

 than mere perversity of taste, for horticultural routine; 

 and many an eager amateur who rails at it would 

 soon slip into, it if he were in his gardener's place. 

 The free play of the intelligence and the consideration 

 of first principles are excellent things; but very few 

 of us have enough energy to combine them with prac- 

 tice, and this is the reason why practice is usually 

 so much less clever than criticism. It is the business 

 of criticism to be clever. It is the business of prac- 

 tice to produce results; and practice will usually take 

 the line of least resistance towards that object. 



These are general considerations; but they have a 

 very -particular application to gardeners, who have 

 much more difficult work to do than most men of so 

 little general education. It is only genius that can 



