BOOK II. 



EDUCATION OF GARDENERS. 



1145 



self, it may be proper to mention, that by far the best in the world are in England ; there 

 are some good situations in Scotland, and a few in Ireland ; and there are occasionally 

 good offers to go abroad as gardeners to the governors of British colonies, or to eminent 

 merchants there. The principal foreign openings for British gardeners, however, are in 

 Russia, where the emperor employs nearly a dozen head gardeners, generally British ; 

 and where the same, or a greater number, are in the service of the first-rate nobility. 

 The salaries given are not very great ; but the accommodations and necessary advantages 

 are sufficient to admit a frugal man's saving the greater part of the salary. Great care 

 is requisite, however, to have a written arrangement before leaving this country, includ- 

 ing a permission to return at pleasure, as no confidence can be placed in the verbal 

 agreements of most of even the highest Russian nobility. We know of no other foreign 

 situations worth notice. If a gardener thinks of going to America, or any of the colonies, 

 on his own account, he will, of course, require a certain capital, and must also reckon on 

 spending his days there. Supposing a young gardener to have obtained a tolerably good 

 situation at home, and to have proved it for a year or two, he should, in our opinion, set 

 about two things ; the first is saving money, and the second is entering into the married 

 state. The first is absolutely essential to the scheme of being independent in old age ; 

 the second nearly equally so to passing through life comfortably. 



7785. With respect to saving money, we shall not attempt to state the proportion of 

 neat wages that may be yearly saved ; nor how the money may be best laid out ; as these 

 depend on circumstances. All we need suggest, is the necessity of keeping the ultimate 

 object, and its great advantages, continually in view, and to prefer security of principal 

 to high interest. As some data to enable the reader to estimate the accumulation of 

 money saved, and put in a savings' bank, or in the funds, we shall suppose a gardener to 

 begin saving at the age of 27, and to continue saving till he attains his 50th year ; laying 

 out every year's savings at only 4 per cent., adding half-yearly the interest to the prin- 

 cipal ; and at the end of that period purchasing an annuity for his own life, or the joint 

 lives of himself and wife, with the accumulated sum : then 



20 

 85 



30 



40 ! a-year, it will amount, 

 in 23 years, to 



366 3- 



549 5 



732 7 



915 9 



1098 10 



1465 1 



1850 18 



2197 1 



2563 5 



2929 8 



3295 12 



1 16 



nrhich will purchase an annuity for a 

 person aged 50 years, or for two lives 

 of that value, of 



7786. By commencing master-gardener, and beginning to save at twenty years of age, 

 a gardener, or even a common laborer, may attain the same advantages as to inde- 

 pendence ; but with inferior domestic comforts, as he cannot afford to spend so much 

 annually ; and with less enjoyment from literary and intellectual sources, because his 

 time for previous improvement is reduced one half ; and in the after part of his life, 

 as he will only be able to obtain inferior situations, he must calculate on laboring 

 personally. If he begins at twenty, however, and saves till he is fifty, the additional 

 time will bring his smaller sums to very nearly the same totals as those of the more ac- 

 complished gardener : thus 

 4 



5 



8 



10 

 l/i 



If he saves 



a-year, it will amount, 

 in 30 years, to 



7787. These calculations being made at the rate of 4 per cent, interest, and the 

 Northampton valuation of life, (by which a man at 50 is estimated to live 18 years longer, 

 while in London only 16 years,) must be considered as low rather than otherwise. . 



7788. The vulgar reason why a young man ought to save money is, that he may get 

 together as much as may enable him to collect some furniture and get married. This, 

 however, may be called saving to produce want and misery. A young loving couple, 

 anxious to consummate their first wishes, will not be very nice in the quantity or quality 

 of their furniture. All they consider necessary is accordingly often acquired before either 

 are twenty. Housekeeping and propagation are commenced ; and thus, the foundation laid 

 of a life of hard labor, scanty food, and their attendants, bad temper, and often disease. 

 After twenty-five years of bustle and distraction, half a score of children have been pro- 

 duced, and are most probably growing up in rags and ignorance ; and all that this couple 

 can say is that they have struggled hard to create nine times as much misery as that by 



