OPERATIONS OF ORDER AND KEEPING. 377 



The term keeping in horticulture relates to the degree of order and 

 neatness which are maintained in management ; and hence the expres- 

 sions, badly kept, highly kept. A garden that is in high order and 

 keeping must have been correctly laid out and planted at first, and 

 cultivated and managed with great care afterwards. This care must 

 not be devoted merely to some particular department, or to some object 

 under the gardener's charge, but must extend to everything according 

 to its importance. In a kitchen garden the system of managing the wall 

 and espalier fruit trees, and of cropping the compartments, demands 

 the first attention, because the result will not only influence the most 

 conspicuous features in the garden, but also increase or diminish the 

 quantity or quality of the produce. 



The following rules may perhaps be of some use, if impressed on the 

 mind of the young gardener, and if the master or the amateur insist 

 on their being kept by the workmen : 



1. Perform every operation in the proper season and in the best 

 manner, on the principle that " whatever is worth doing at all is worth 

 doing well." Nothing can be more annoying to a person who is 

 desirous of having his garden kept in the highest order, than to see the 

 slovenly manner in which some gardeners thrust plants into the soil, 

 tie them up when they require support, and hack and cut at them 

 when they require pruning. " Cut to the bud" is a precept too often 

 disregarded by such persons ; among whom we have known excellent 

 growers of crops, both in the open air and under glass. 



2. Complete every operation consecutively. The neglect of this is 

 a very common fault. For example, the wall-trees are receiving their 

 summer pruning, and as, this occupies a day or two, or is necessarily 

 performed at intervals, so as not to deprive the trees of too much 

 foliage at once, the shoots cut off are left on the ground till all the 

 trees have been gone over. The same mode of proceeding is followed 

 in every other operation. We allow that, on the principle of the divi- 

 sion of labour, this is the most economical mode, but on the principle 

 of high keeping it is most objectionable. 



3. Never, if possible, perform one operation in such a manner as to 

 render another necessary. It is a common practice with many gar- 

 deners, when weeding borders or trimming plants, to throw the weeds 

 or trimmings on the gravel-walks, thereby occasioning the labour of 

 sweeping them up, as well as soiling the gravel of the walk. There is 

 scarcely a practice more to be condemned than this, both with reference 

 to economy of time and to high keeping. The walk is disfigured by 

 the weeds and trimmings perhaps for a whole day, and when they are 

 swept off it is found that the gravel has been disturbed and is dis- 

 coloured. In all cases of weeding borders and pruning shrubs, or 

 hedges, close to walks, the weeds and prunings should be put at once 

 into a wheelbarrow or basket. 



4. When calkd off from any operation, leave your work and your tools 

 in an orderly manner. Do not leave a plant half planted, or a pot half 

 watered, and do not throw down your tools as if you never intended 

 to take them up again. Never leave a hoe or a rake with the blade 



