171 the Neighboiirhood of Philadelphia. ^*75 



Some Englishmen, who might be denominated good gardeners, 

 are too sanguine of making a rapid fortune in America: they, 

 of course, are disappointed. There are numbers who, from 

 an aversion to study, and from other causes, affect to despise 

 all "book learning" (as they call it), who, by dint of plodding 

 the same round for a number of years, manage to scrape to- 

 gether a scanty knowledge of the routine of forcing, nailing 

 wall trees, cropping ground, &c. &c. : to them I would say, 

 if you want employment as a gardener, you had better seek 

 for it at home, at least not here. Peaches are as cheap 

 as 25 cents [about a shilling] per bushel ; pine-apples from the 

 West Indies from 5 to 15 cents [2^. to 6rf.] each, and water 

 melons cheaper: so that you perceive a mere forcing gar- 

 dener would be like a fish out of water; the climate anti- 

 cipates him in almost all the art he knows. A man who can 

 procure a good situation in Britain, if he is fond of his profes- 

 sion, should not come here; except he can set up in business 

 for himself, where he can find a ready market for any thing 

 he can grow ; but to the young gardener, who has studied the 

 principles of his profession, who is not afraid of work, and 

 who has not sufficient interest with the principal nurserymen 

 to procure a situation worth his acceptance at home, to him 

 I say, this is the country in which you can have plenty of 

 employment, at wages on which you can live well. 



Colonel Carr told me (with regret) that most of the Eu- 

 ropean gardeners turned farmers soon after they came here. 

 This speaks volumes. There are no American gardeners 

 except amateurs. 



I have not seen any princely palaces, and nearly as few 

 wretched cottages. I have, it is true, seen one of the latter ; 

 but, being very free from prejudice, I will not, like Mr. How- 

 den (Vol. VI. p. 657.), magnify it into thousands, neither will 

 I insult its unfortunate inmates. By the by, I cannot help 

 remarking that the law of primogeniture is (with all its mon- 

 strosities) the best friend of gardening. No such law exists 

 in this country (the laws being here [as they ought to be, and 

 finally will be, every where] all made for the benefit of the 

 greatest number); and I know of nothing that feels the loss of 

 this so much as horticulture. There is more than one instance, 

 in the vicinity of Philadelphia, of fine houses and gardens going 

 to wreck, from the individual of the family to whom they were 

 left not being able to support the expense. 



You have expressed a determination, in one of your last 

 Numbers, to visit this land of freedom and plenty : I can assure 

 you, that your readers here are highly delighted with the 

 hope of seeing you. .... 



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