THE MANSE GARDEN. 41 



made will be judged worthy of your attention. The 

 village or the country gardener is a man that has 

 his price ; he is not always to be had, and what is 

 worse, he is least to be had when he is most needed. 

 The seed time is his harvest, and in that season of 

 his importance, he must divide himself amongst his 

 customers. Thus your reeking furrow, impatient to 

 receive the seed, must again get cold and wet before 

 the man of science makes his round ; and thus wait- 

 ing for your man you lose your crop. But know a 

 little of the thing yourself, and with the help of a 

 common labourer, you have the time and tide in your 

 own hands. But look to the workmanship of these 

 men of price, and you will discover your need of 

 knowing more than they do. How often do you see 

 on the best wall, every sort of tree, for "uniformity's 

 sake," submitted to the same rule of training, a rule 

 too which in the case of some is such as to prevent 

 the possibility of fruit bearing. The fault may be 

 in nature, making one tree to differ from another; 

 but the fault must not be in this man's science all 

 must conform to the same laws. He knows that the 

 young wood is an encumbrance to the pear; and he 

 lays down its well trimmed branches with many a 

 side-long glance at their exquisite parallelism ; and 

 this delight were marred if the plum might be any 

 exception. It insists, indeed, on not bearing a mor- 

 sel of fruit, except on its young wood; but Andrew 

 will not allow a twig to remain, and hence the tree, 

 after ten years of trial, by torture, is, with others of 

 the same family, condemned and burnt, either for 

 barrenness or contumacy. Meantime your wife and 

 children have often had watering teeth, on viewing, 



