6i8 General Results of a Gardening Tour : — 



By no other means, so well as by newspapers, could the introduction 

 and dissemination of the fundamental principles of morals and politics be 

 effected among the grown-up part of society : for, by recurring to these 

 princijiles incidentally, in discussing the passing topics of the day, and by 

 their being developed one at a time, they take root in minds that are not 

 prepared by previous knowledge either to peruse or to understand a 

 condensed or systematic form of conveying the princi])les of any science. 

 The same observation will apply to the diffusion of every kind of know- 

 ledge. Cooperative and temperance societies are not to be lost sight 

 of, if it were for no other reason than their showing evidence of the active 

 state of the public mind in all that regards the progress of societ3^ There 

 cannot be a doubt that, both in America and in Scotland, very great evils 

 have resulted from the taste, so long prevalent, for ardent spirits. The 

 indulgence in fermented liquors may render men sots, but the excessive use 

 of ardent spirits turns them into infuriated madmen. 



T/ie Progress made hy Gardeners in professional and general Knowledge, in 

 this part of the country, since we last passed through it, requires particu- 

 lar notice ; but we confess that we have felt so much flattered by the man- 

 ner in which both gardeners and their employers have every where received 

 us, that v^e are afraid to trust ourselves with the subject. The numerous 

 nurseries which have sprung up show the patronage which planting has 

 received ; and the hot-houses, of some kind or other, which are now to 

 be found in every walled garden, attest the demand which has existed for 

 skill in forcing. It is obvious that, to supply the demand thus created, 

 gardeners must of necessity have become more intelligent. Hence the 

 fact of their having made progress does not rest on our opinion, but on the 

 evidence derived from the actual state of the countr}'. The gardeners in 

 Scotland are, perhaps, less botanical and scientific than those in England; 

 but they seem to have a more general knowledge of all the practical 

 departments of gardening, and of agriculture and rural affau's generally 

 The cause is easily found in the circumstance of most of them uniting the 

 duties of forester to those of gardener, and many of them atlding those of 

 farmer or land-steward. The same men, if in situations in England, would 

 probably be limited to the practice of horticulture or of floriculture, and 

 might carry these branches to a higher pitch than they ever could do in 

 Scotland. It cannot have been otherwise than highly gratifying to us, to be 

 every where informed, both by the gardeners and theu* employers, that the 

 Gardener's Magazine (read by every gardener in the west of Scotland, and 

 by many farmers, chiefly from the Dumfries and Ayr horticultural libraries, 

 or from copies purchased and lent out by the local nurserjmen) has contri- 

 buted materially to spread a knowledge of horticulture, and to raise the 

 character of gardeners ; and we consider it as a proof of the sincerity of 

 this avowal, that the gardeners and amateurs of gardening in Ayrshire no 

 sooner heard of our arrival at Dumfries, than they sent to invite us to a 

 public dinner at Ayr with which they honoured us ; and this dinner had no 

 sooner taken place than we received a similar honour from the gardeners 

 and amateurs at Kilmarnock.* 



Of the Gardens and Gardeners generally, which we have seen dialing the 

 whole of our tour from London to Paisley, we should say, that the gar- 

 dens have received a considerable accession of new f'uits, plants, and other 

 objects; that the gardeners have evinced an increased knowledge of cul- 

 ture, and even of the science of plants, soils, and climates, but that they 

 have, nevertheless, made very little progress in gardening as an art of design 

 and taste. Clearly and decidedly the want of taste in planting and lay- 

 ing out grounds, and in keeping them in order afterwards, is the radical 



* See Ayr Advertiser, Augui^t 25. 1831, and Kilmarnock Chronicle, 

 August 30. 1831. 



