ON THE 



PROFESSION OF A GARDENER. 



H.E who undertakes the profession of a gardener, 

 takes upon himself a work of some importance, and 

 which requires no small degree of knowledge, inge- 

 nuity, and interest, to perform well. There are few 

 businesses which may not be learned in much less 

 time than that of a gardener can possibly be. 



It often happens, however, that a man who has 

 been very little in a garden, and that only as a la- 

 bourer, who can do little more than dig, or put out 

 cabbage plants, will call himself a gardener ; but he 

 only is worthy of the name who having had much 

 practice in the various parts of horticulture, possesses 

 a genius and adroitness, fitting him for making expe- 

 riments, and for getting through difficulties that the 

 existing circumstances of untoward seasons, &c. may 

 bring him into. He should possess a spirit of en- 

 quiry into the nature of plants and vegetation, and 

 how far art (in his way) may be made successfully 

 useful, or at least probably so. The mode of growth, 

 the pruning, the soil, the heat, and the moisture that 

 suits particular plants, are not to be understood 

 without a native taste, and close application of the 

 mind. " Gardening depends more upon the lab'our; 

 of the brain than of the body." 



