228 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



sheer vice in the gardener that he likes bedding out, 

 but the natural tendency of even conscientious men 

 to simplify their tasks. Their minds flinch from the 

 insecurity and bewilderment that await them as soon 

 as they leave their routine, and the more conscientious 

 they are the more they prefer a narrow and obvious 

 success to an ambitious failure. 



These reflections are not intended to dishearten 

 the enthusiast. Their purpose is that he shall make 

 the best of his gardener by first learning to under- 

 stand him. When he does that he may teach his 

 gardener to understand his own aims and to see that 

 they are not merely the results of ignorance. Gar- 

 deners are apt to think meanly of all information got 

 from books, for they know that books are usually 

 written by amateurs. It is no use, therefore, to try 

 to impress your gardener with your knowledge, for he 

 will assume that you have got it from a book written 

 by some one who has never grown a cabbage. The 

 only way to convince him that you know something 

 is to prove it by results. Then he will respect you, 

 even if he disagrees with you. You may, by per- 

 suasion and artifice, even induce him to agree with 

 you to some extent in time. At any rate, that is the 

 object to aim at; otherwise you must be always at 

 odds with your gardener, or else always changing him 

 until you find a paragon; an event which may never 

 happen. 



