14 GARDENING FOR PROFIT. 



Many hundreds from our large cities delude them- 

 selves in this way every season iu different depart- 

 ments of horticulture perhaps more in the culture of 

 fruits than of vegetables. I have no doubt that thou- 

 sands of acres are annually planted, that in three years 

 afterwards are abandoned, and the golden dreams of 

 these sanguine gentlemen forever dissipated. Although 

 the workers of the soil will not, as a class, compare 

 in intelligence with the mercantile men of the cities, it 

 is a mistake to suppose that this want of education 

 or intelligence is much of a drawback when it comes 

 to cultivating strawberries or cabbages. True, the un- 

 tutored mind does not so readily comprehend theo- 

 retical or scientific knowledge, but for that very rea- 

 son it becomes more thoroughly practical, and I must 

 say that, as far as my experience has gone (without 

 being thought for a moment to derogate against the 

 utility of a true scientific knowledge in all matters 

 pertaining to the soil), that any common laborer with 

 ordinary sagacity and twelve months' working in a 

 garden would have a far better chance of success, 

 other things being equal, than another without the 

 practice, even if he had all the writings, from Lie- 

 big's down, at his fingers' ends. Not that a life-long 

 practice is absolutely necessary to success, for I can 

 see from where I write the homes of at least half a 

 dozen men, all now well to do in the world, not one 

 of whom had any knowledge of gardening, either prac- 

 tical or theoretical, when they started the business, 

 but they were all active working men, "actual set- 

 tler?/' and depended alone on their own heads and 

 hands for success, and not on the doubtful judgment 

 and industry of a hired gardener, who had no further 

 interest in the work than his monthly salary. 



"D. H." writes me thus: "I am a book-keeper 

 with a salary from which I can save b'lt little ; but 



