. Nursety and Gardening Professions. 1 35 



those noblemen and gentlemen who do continue to improve 

 their grounds in this manner, have very generally adopted 

 the plan of forming nurseries for themselves. This last cause 

 affects nurserymen most; and, if upheld, will ere long render 

 them useless. To remedy this, it is only necessary, I think, 

 that proprietors should keep a minute account of the expense 

 of their nurseries : for I am persuaded such departments are 

 kept up at a considerable loss ; and the reason why this prac- 

 tice has not been discontinued is, because no correct notice 

 is taken of the expenditure. They imagine, that, since they 

 pay no rent, their gardeners or foresters can rear plants 

 cheaper than they can purchase them : but if they take into 

 consideration the time expended in sowing, weeding, trans- 

 planting, &c., which should be appropriated by those who 

 hold either of these offices to employments more closely 

 connected with their respective businesses, they will find that 

 (especially in these times, when the multiplicity of nurserymen 

 is a pledge against their being overcharged) it is quite super- 

 fluous to keep up nurseries for themselves. 



In the northern districts of Scotland, the trade consists 

 principally in growing the leading kinds of forest trees ; and 

 of course it is easier injured than one more varied. The first 

 dependence is upon landed proprietors, for no one else re- 

 quires any quantity of hardwood ; and so soon as they with- 

 draw their aid, the nurserymen are left with a useless stock 

 upon their hands. In this respect, they are much more de- 

 pressed than their brethren in the more populous districts ; 

 the trade of the latter being more general, and consequently 

 less dependent upon a few patrons. 



Whether or not there will ever be a revival in this useful 

 profession, is a question highly problematical. Past expe- 

 rience knew not such a stagnation. If we look upon the 

 increasing mortgages on land in Scotland, weighing so heavily 

 upon the spirit of improvement, the future becomes gloomy. 



The gardening profession is likewise at a low ebb : but not 

 so low as to prevent those who have a proper degree of in- 

 formation from finding comfortable situations. A majority 

 of the gardeners of the present day rest contented with the 

 acquisition of mere horticultural skill ; and hence their many 

 ineffectual attempts to obtain such situations as afford a toler- 

 able living. I would have them consider that a change has 

 taken place in the minds of their employers ; and that, in the 

 person of a gardener of any note, it is now required to unite 

 many important offices. To widen the boundaries of their 

 knowledge is therefore indispensable; since, without a thorough 

 understanding of rural affairs in general, they can scarcely 



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