How to manage a Garden 



plainly shows that no principle can be laid down for all 

 localities with unerring exactitude as in other trades. A 

 joiner may erect a wardrobe for Penzance in precisely the 

 same way as if it were intended for Edinburgh, but the 

 gardener who wishes to grow grapes in both districts 

 cannot adhere to the self-same programme, but has two 

 separate and widely different problems to grapple with. 

 Even in the two adjoining counties, Devon and Cornwall, 

 the same horticultural knowledge will not suffice without 

 modification ; and cases could be pointed out where 

 adjoining fields could not be successfully cultivated by 

 precisely the same methods. There are in fact so many 

 governing factors, operating with helpful or baneful in- 

 fluence on plants, that it is necessary to know, not so 

 much what the plant requires, as how best to fit in those 

 requirements with the governing elements. The fickleness 

 of horticulture possibly has its advantages in alluring its 

 devotees into an intense interest, and making success even 

 more richly prized. Something of this resemblance must 

 have been perceived by Councillor W. Coutts, of Aber- 

 deen, who is reported to have advised unmarried ladies 

 to take unto themselves gardeners as husbands, for "he 

 felt that a man who loved flowers would surely love his 

 wife." 



If the amateur is able to make his choice of locality, 

 and that choice is to be governed solely by his gardening 

 desires, he should subject himself to a process of minute 

 self-examination as to what feature of gardening his tastes 

 incline to, and he will then the more easily discover where 

 his efforts in that particular direction are most likely to 

 prove successful. If, for instance, he is attracted by the 



