380 OPERATIONS OF GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 



is, the number of hands required for its cultivation, and how many of 

 these men are to be professional gardeners, as journeymen or appren- 

 tices, and how many common country labourers or women. It is 

 scarcely possible to keep a garden in the highest order, however small 

 it may be, without a professional gardener in constant attendance ; or 

 without a garden-labourer, directed by the amateur, who in this case 

 may be supposed to perform all the more delicate operations of propa- 

 gating, pruning, training, &c., himself. Where only one professional 

 gardener is kept, he will frequently require the help of a labourer to 

 assist in operations that cannot well be done by a single person, or that 

 require to be done quickly ; or of one or more women, to assist in 

 weeding, gathering crops, or keeping down insects. 



The books to be kept by a gardener in a small place need not be 

 more, as far as the business of the garden is concerned, than an inven- 

 tory-book of the tools, &c. ; a cash-book, in which to enter what he 

 pays and receives ; and a memorandum-book, to enter the dates and 

 other particulars of orders given to tradesmen, &c., of sowing main 

 crops, of fruit-ripening, and such other particulars as his master may 

 require, or as he may think useful. Such books should be furnished 

 by the master, and consequently be delivered to him when they are 

 filled up. In some gardens a cropping-book is kept, in which on one 

 page is registered the date, and other particulars of putting in the 

 crops; the page opposite being kept blank, to enter the dates when 

 they begin to be gathered, and how long they last. In all large gardens 

 a produce-book is kept, in which every article sent to the kitchen every 

 day in the year is recorded. There are various modes of keeping 

 books of this kind, but one of the simplest and best appears to us to be 

 the following : A list, or kitchen-bill, is printed of all the culinary 

 articles which the garden is supposed to produce in the course of the 

 year ; and a similar list, or dessert-bill, of all the dessert articles. On 

 these lists, every morning, the gardener marks such articles as are in 

 season, or as he can supply, and sends the kitchen-bill to the cook or 

 steward, and the dessert-bill to the housekeeper, who put their marks 

 to every article which is wanted for that day. The bills are carried 

 back to the gardener, who puts them into the hands of his foreman ; 

 who sends the articles to the kitchen in the course of the forenoon with 

 the bills, which are signed by persons receiving the articles, and re- 

 turned to the gardener ; who preserves them, and has them bound up 

 in a volume at the end of the year. This book forms an excellent 

 record of garden-produce for future reference. 



The ordering of seeds and plants is one of the most important duties 

 of the head-gardener; the difficulty being to determine the exact 

 quantity of seed required, which is of some importance when the 

 garden is at a considerable distance from the seedsman. A little 

 practice, however, will soon make any gardener familiar with the 

 exact quantities of the different kinds of seeds required for the garden 

 in which he may be employed, especially if he is careful to make me- 

 moranda for this purpose. 



The management of men and the distribution of work are the great 

 points to which a head-gardener ought to direct his daily attention. 



