PREFACE. Vil 



the country. I, therefore, for the most part, 

 make my directions applicable to seasons, or 

 states of the weather, rather than to dates. 

 When I make no particular mention as to times 

 of the year, or month, it is to be understood, 

 that I am supposing myself at, or near, the City 

 of New York, and that I am speaking of what 

 ought to be done there. With this clearly borne 

 in mind, the reader, who will know the dif- 

 ference in the degrees of heat and cold in the 

 different parts of the country, will know how 

 io apply the instructions accordingly. 



8. Those persons, who perform their garden 

 work themselves, will need no caution with res- 

 pct to men that they employ as 'Gardeners; 

 but, those who employ Gardeners ought by no 

 means to leave them to do as they please. Their 

 practical experience is worth something ; but, 

 if they are generally found very deficient in 

 knowledge of their business in England, what 

 must those of them be who come to America ? 

 Every man, who can dig and hoe and rake, calls 

 himself a Gardener as soon as he lands here 

 from England. This description of persons are 

 genei'ally handy men, and, having been used to 

 spade-work, they, from habit, do things well 

 and neatly. But as to the art of gardening, 

 they generally know nothing of it. I wished 

 to carry the nicer parts of gardening to per- 

 fection, at Botley. I succeeded. But I took 

 care to employ no man who called himself a 

 gardener. I selected handy and clear-headed 

 farm-labourers. They did what I ordered them 

 to do ; and offered me none of their ad-vice or 



