414 OPERATIONS OF GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 



dener's principal dependence must be on his own knowledge and experience. 

 Unless lie think and act for himself, as if no calendar had been in existence, 

 he will never succeed ; andif this may be said of a professional gardener, it 

 applies still more forcibly to the amateur. 



884. 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 and write, and who can neither 

 spell nor pronounce botanic 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 70 

 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 with- 

 out 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 a 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. But let us not be supposed to undervalue the 

 garden-labourer. Wherever an amateur is his own head-gardener, there 

 the garden-labourer is his fittest assistant, and far better adapted for his 

 purpose than a professional gardener, whose superior knowledge and skill 

 might discourage him in his operations. The wages of a professional 

 gardener, it must be allowed, are but small, compared with the amount of 

 knowledge and the steady attention which the exercise of his profession 

 requires ; but wages in this, as in every other case, depends on demand 

 and supply, and it would serve little purpose here to discuss the subject of 

 increasing the one or diminishing the other. This much it may be useful to 

 observe that gardening, when studied scientifically, is a profession which 

 tends to elevate the mind, and confer intellectual enjoyments of a much 

 more exalted character than mere money-making can ever do. This, we 

 think, is proved by the excellent moral character of almost all professional 

 gardeners, and by the high degree of intelligence and scientific knowledge 

 which many of them acquire. There are few persons, we believe, who have 

 a more extensive personal knowledge of British master-gardeners than we 

 have, and we also know a good many on the Continent ; and we must say 

 that, as a body, we have the very highest respect for them. They are 

 almost all great readers ; and in consequence of this, the intellectual and 

 moral powers of many of them have been developed in a manner that com- 

 mands our utmost veneration. There is scarcely a science or an art which 

 some master-gardener of our acquaintance has not of his own accord taken 

 up and studied from books, so as to obtain a respectable degree of knowledge 

 of it. We know a number who have taught themselves several languages, 

 and one of the best Hebrew scholars in Scotland, as we are informed by a 

 clergyman (a good judge), is a gardener, who taught himself that language 

 without the assistance of a master. We know gardeners that excel in almost 



