CHAPTER VIII. 



LAYING OUT A GARDEN. 



BY this I mean, so dividing it when first made into parts, that 

 later the said parts shall be easily recognised, and separately 

 or differently treated, as they may require it. 



The usual custom is to begin at one end of a plantation, 

 and dig it right through to the other. In the same way 

 with the pruning and plucking, and I believe the system is 

 a very bad one. Different portions of gardens require differ- 

 ent treatment, inasmuch as they differ in soil, and otherwise. 

 One part of a plantation is much more prolific of weeds than 

 another how absurd that it should be cleaned no oftener ! 

 This is only one exemplification of difference of treatment, 

 but in many ways it is necessary, most of all in plucking 

 leaf. 



All parts of a plantation, owing in some places to the 

 different ages of the plants, in others to the variety in the soil 

 and its productive powers, in others to slopes or to aspect, 

 do not yield leaf equally, that is, flush does not follow flush 

 with equal rapidity. In some places (supposing each part 

 to be picked when the flush is ready) seven days' interval 

 will exist between the flushes, in others nine, ten, or twelve ; 

 but no attention, as a rille, is paid to this. The pickers have 

 finished the garden at the west end, the east end is again 

 ready, and when done, the middle part will be taken in hand, 

 be it ready or be it not ! It may be that the middle part 

 flushes quicker than any other ; in this case the flush will be 

 more than mature when it is taken, in fact it will have begun 

 to harden ; or it may be the middle part does not flush as 



