A MANUAL OF GARDENING 



FOB 



BENGAL AND UPPER INDIA. 



INTEODUCTION. 



UNDER the most favourable point of view it can hardly be said 

 that horticulture has as yet made much advancement in India. 

 Of the natives, those of the higher class, it would seem, have 

 never manifested much fondness for it, nor taken much interest 

 in the pursuit ; while those who follow it for a livelihood have 

 not found it sufficiently remunerative to devote to it more than 

 the least possible of their time and thought. Of this we have 

 the plainest evidence, look in whatever direction we may. The 

 flowers they prize are confined to only a limited few ; and those 

 not especially for their beauty, but from having been consecrated 

 from time immemorial to certain religious or festive purposes. 

 And so, again, in regard to the fruit that we see exposed in 

 vast quantities for sale in the bazars ; it is always the most 

 inferior of its kind. The Mangos, Guavas, Pine-apples, and 

 Plantains, are uniformly all but of the very worst description. 

 That this should be the case no adequate reason can be assigned, 

 but the want of a very trifling amount of care and attention 

 bestowed upon the cultivation of better sorts. This little care 

 and attention, it does not appear that they think it worth their 

 while to bestow. Their fruit-trees, generally, are such as have 

 sprung up on the spot, where the seed of some worthless kind 

 has been casually dropped or cast away ; and although the 

 seed of a fine sort does not invariably produce a tree of equal 

 excellence to the one that bore it, from the seed of a bad sort 

 can only be expected a tree that will yield fruit no better than 

 that of its parent. Not only is it thus, however, that their trees 

 are multiplied ; but as they grow up they are left altogether 

 neglected, densely crowded, perhaps among others of their own 



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