16 INTRODUCTION. 



it is only from this quarter that much improvement, in our 

 present state of knowledge, can be expected. Truth, how- 

 over, obliges us to admit that gardening has been most 

 successfully practiced when treated as an empirical art. 

 Few of those who are minutely conversant with its numer- 

 ous manipulations have undergone such an intellectual 

 training as to enable them to wield general principles with 

 effect. Many who are not inexpert or unsuccessful while 

 they follow the routine practice (a practice be it remem- 

 bered, founded on long experience, and close observation), 

 egregiously fail when, with imperfect information, or ill- 

 advised ingenuity, they endeavor to strike out new paths 

 for themselves. The object of the art, too, limits the ap- 

 plication of the deductions of science. Its whole business 

 consists in the imitation of Nature, whose processes may 

 indeed be, in some measure, originated, as when a seed is 

 inserted in the ground, or modified, as in the artificial 

 training of fruit-trees, but which may not be entirely con- 

 trolled, much less counteracted. The principle of vege- 

 table life will not endure interference beyond a certain point, 

 and our theoretical views should be so directed as to inter- 

 fere with it as little as possible. Observation and experi- 

 ment are the grand means by which the art has arrived at 

 its present state of advancement : at the same time, it is 

 obvious that an enlarged acquaintance with science will 

 aid us in imitating the processes of nature, will guide the 

 hand of experiment, suggest contrivances, and enable us 

 to guard against error ; and, above all, will tend to dispel 

 those prejudices which practitioners in the empirical arts 

 are so prone to cherish. 



Gardening, Mr. Walpole observes, was probably one of 

 the first arts which succeeded to that of building houses, 

 and naturally attended property and individual possession. 



