OPERATIONS OP GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 381 



The work of every day ought to be foreseen the day before, subject, 

 however, to changes in the weather, to meet which other work should 

 be provided. A general idea of the labours and operations of the 

 coming week should be formed the week before, and communicated to 

 the foreman, who ought to receive his directions every evening for what 

 is to be done the following day. For this and all other matters of 

 general management, gardeners' calendars are of the greatest use as 

 remembrancers; but the gardener's principal dependence must be on 

 his own knowledge and experience. Unless he think and act for him- 

 self, as if no calendar had been in existence, he will never succeed ; 

 and if this may be said of a professional gardener, it applies still more 

 forcibly to the amateur. 



The Wages of a Gardener. Something may here be expected to be 

 said on this subject, and we shall observe : (1) That there cannot be 

 a greater mistake than to suppose that the products and enjoyments of 

 a garden, however small, can be obtained without the services of a 

 really good professional gardener; and (2) that all the difference between 

 a garden-labourer, who perhaps can barely read or write, and who can 

 neither spell nor pronounce botanical names, is not above 20/. or 30/. 

 a year. No man would think of giving a garden -labourer, to whom 

 he committed the management of his garden, less than a guinea a week, 

 with his lodging, and some other perquisites, such as spare vegetables, 

 fuel, &c. Now, for 701. or 80/. a year, a scientific professional 

 gardener may be engaged ; one who can understand and reason upon 

 all that is written in this volume, as well as carry all the practices 

 described into operation, and who in consequence will elicit more 

 enjoyment from a quarter of an acre than a man who has no scientific 

 knowledge will do from any extent of ground, and means without 

 limits. We by no means set down 70/. or 80/. as adequate wages 

 for such a person; we know many gardeners who receive 100/., and 

 some 150/. and 200/. a year, with house, coals, candles, and various 

 other perquisites. We merely state that such is the salary at which a 

 scientific gardener may be engaged at the present time. It is a com- 

 mon notion that it requires a much less skilful gardener to manage a 

 small place than a large one; but this only holds true where the 

 variety of products required is small in proportion to the extent of 

 the ground on which they are to be grown. If all the kinds of pro- 

 duce are required from a small garden that are required from- a large 

 one : if, for example, forcing in all its departments is to be carried on 

 in both ; if there are to be small crops in the cottage garden of all those 

 plants which are grown in the mansion garden on a large scale ; then 

 we affirm that a more skilful, experienced, and attentive gardener is 

 required for the former than for the latter. More skill is necessary, 

 because more is required with less means ; more experience is 

 requisite, because it is only by experience, joined to skill and know- 

 ledge, that success can be rendered tolerably certain ; and more 

 attention is required to watch the progress of favourable or unfavourable 

 circumstances, because, on a small scale, these circumstances are more 

 immediate in their operations, and their results, if unfavourable, are 

 more severely felt. The wages of a professional gardener, it must be 



