362 SCIENCE OF GARDENING. Tart II. 



others because their forms or constructions were too obsolete for modern practice, or too 

 new and imperfect in construction to merit recommendation. A gardener of science 

 and experience is not to be confined in his choice to what is or has been in this or in any 

 department of his art ; but drawing from the resources of his own mind, he may, and 

 ought not only to improve what is already in use, but design and get executed, new 

 tools, instruments, and constructions, better calculated to effect the ends in view gene- 

 rally, or more suited to the exigencies of his particular case. Notwithstanding the al- 

 terations and ameliorations which have of late been so frequently made, there are few of 

 the mechanical agents of gardening now in use, that do not admit of some, and many 

 of them, unquestionably, of much improvement. The ultimate effect of all these amelior- 

 ations is to lessen human labor, and increase the quantity, or improve the quality, of gar- 

 den-productions, so that every attempt to extend them is highly meritorious. 



1848. As a general principle in respect to implements, structures, and buildings, the best 

 designs should be selected, and their execution procured in the best manner and of the 

 best materials. This can scarcely be too strongly impressed on the mind of the gardener 

 or bis employer. With tools or instruments made of improper timber or iron, and of in- 

 different workmanship, the operator can never satisfy himself or his master. The quan- 

 tity of his labor is less, and the quality inferior ; add to this, that the instrument soon 

 begins to decay, and requires to be renewed, so that independently altogether of the 

 loss in the quantity and quality of labor, the loss occasioned by the renewal of the tool, 

 instrument, or machine, ought to be a sufficient inducement to procure at first only the 

 very best. The true way to ensure this, where the party are not judges, is to employ 

 tradesmen of good repute and long standing. In general, seedsmen should be the per- 

 sons from whom all the implements of gardening ought to be procurable ; but as they 

 often omit this branch of their business, from the want of regular demand, recourse must 

 be had to ironmongers, or to those new establishments called Horticultural and Agri- 



. cultural Repositories. 



1849. Hot-houses are by far the most important class of garden-constructions. With respect 

 to them, no degree of horticultural skill and practical attention will compensate for the 

 want of light or air, or a bad exposure ; and where the arrangements for supplying arti- 

 ficial heat are imperfect, the risk is great, and painful for a zealous gardener to contem- 

 plate. One night may destroy the labors of the past year, and forbid hope for the year 

 to come ; the blame may be laid where it is not merited, and a faithful servant may lose 

 his situation and his character, without having committed either errors of ignorance or 

 carelessness. 



1850. In all structures and edifices, the most complete, elegant, or grand design, when 

 badly executed, is disagreeable to the view, defective in the object of its erection, and 

 ruinous to the proprietor. Bad foundations and roofs, improper materials, materials of 

 different degrees of durability, piled incongruously together, and bad workmanship form 

 the elements of bad execution. In no country are materials and labor obtained in 

 greater perfection than in England ; and in all regular works coming under the architect 

 or the engineer, we generally find little to condemn, and often much to admire in the 

 execution of the work. Garden-buildings, however, and especially that important class, 

 hot-houses, are, relatively to civil architecture, an anomalous class of structures ; and 

 hence they are more the subject of chance or caprice in design, and of local convenience 

 in execution, than those of any department of rural architecture. The subject of horti- 

 cultural architecture, indeed, till very lately, has not been deemed of sufficient import- 

 ance, to induce an architect to make himself master of the first step towards improvement 

 in every art, the knowledge of what has already been done in it by others. Hence it fol- 

 lows, that garden-buildings, and especially hot-houses, are left either wholly to gardeners, 

 who understand little of the science of architecture, or wholly to architects, who under- 

 stand as little of the science of gardening. The consequence in either case, generally is, 

 incongruity in appearance, want of success in the useful results, and want of permanency 

 in duration. It would be more easy to adduce examples than to avoid the charge of im- 

 partiality in the selection. 



1851. The recent improvement in the manufacture of iron, and the war-price of timber, 

 have greatly extended the use of the former material in most erections, and contributed, 

 from the novelty of the thing, to a good deal of incongruity in the disposition of the ma- 

 terials of buildings. Thus we have cast-iron sashes in deal frames, cast-iron rafters 

 placed on timber wall-plates, iron bars sheathed with copper, and many such dis- 

 cordant arrangements, certain in the end of defeating the purpose for which they were 

 adopted. 



1852. Artists. There are two modes which proprietors may adopt who are desirous of 

 embodying in garden-erections the modern improvements. The first is, to employ a 

 first-rate head gardener, and to authorise and require of him, to consult with a regular 

 architect or engineer, previously to fixing on any plan for a structure or machine ; and 

 the second is, to employ a regular garden-architect. A connoisseur will, no doubt, think 



