VIII. 



ECONOMY IN GARDENING. 



May, 1849. 



MR. COLMAN, in his Agricultural Tour, remarks, that his ob- 

 servations abroad convinced him that the Americans are the 

 most extravagant people in the world ; and the truth of the remark 

 is corroborated by the experience of every sensible traveller that re- 

 turns from Europe. The much greater facility of getting money 

 here, makes us more regardless of system in its expenditure ; and 

 the income of many an estate abroad, amounting to twenty thou- 

 sand dollars, is expended with an exactness, and nicety of calcula- 

 tion, that would astonish persons in this country, who have only an 

 income of twenty hundred dollars. Abroad, it is the study of 

 those who have, how to save ; or, in the case of spending, how to 

 get the most for their money. At home, it seems to be the desire 

 of every body to get and, having obtained wealth, to expend it in 

 the most lavish and careless manner. 



There are, again, many who wish to be economical in their dis- 

 bursements, but find, in a country where labor is one of the dearest 

 of commodities, that every thing which is attained by the expendi- 

 ture of laborj costs so much more than they had supposed, that 

 moderate " improvements" as we call all kinds of building and 

 gardening in this country in a short time consume a handsome 

 competence. 



The fact, that in no country is labor better paid for than in ours, 

 is one that has much to do with the success and progress of the 

 country itself. Where the day-laborer is so poorly paid, that he 



