CHAPTER IX. 



On Vegetable Gardening. 



IN the rudest states of society men depend for sup- 

 plies of food upon the spontaneous products of un- 

 cultivated wilds. An acre of vegetation will not then 

 suffice for a single meal. It is a great step in ad- 

 vance when shepherd tribes convert the pastures, 

 which grow without any human care, into milk and 

 meat. When agriculture is established, civilization 

 has advanced some distance on its journey. But 

 gardening is a much later stage ; commerce precedes 

 it. There are few native plants, at least iu the more 

 northern parts of Europe, as we have seen, that can 

 be rendered wholesome and agreeable by cultivation. 

 The inhabitants have received them from distant 

 soils. When a nation has commercial intercourse 

 with the uttermost ends of the earth, it soon makes 

 all the valuable products of other places its own soon, 

 in comparison with the length of time it takes to build 

 up a flourishing, because active and intelligent com- 

 munity. The Dutch were great gardeners, but they 

 were previously great merchants. The Dutch, too, 

 in the height of their prosperity, enjoyed free institu- 

 tions. Gardening may, to a certain extent, prevail in 

 despotic countries. There may be splendid retreats of 

 luxury bowers and fountains and conservatories 

 for the great ; but the cottages have no pretty patches 

 of rich soil, in which the owner has raised the vegeta- 

 bles of almost every clime. This power of the most 

 humble to partake of the same class of enjoyments 

 with the most exalted in station, is the best indication 



