10 



PART I. 

 ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Oil the present State of Gardening in Ireland, with 

 Hints for its future Improvement. By Mr. James Fraser, 

 Gardener, author of a Letter to the President and Vice- 

 President of the Horticultural Society of Ireland. 



^PHOSE who are practically acquainted with the improver 

 ments which have been made in Horticulture for these 

 twenty years past in Britain, and have not visited Ireland, will 

 scarcely credit the assertion, that during this time the art in the 

 latter country has rather retrograded than advanced ; that even 

 around Dublin, the far-famed environs of Dublin, little, com- 

 parativ ly speaking, has been done. It is a fact which can- 

 not be denied, that the numerous wealthy absentees have 

 tended to injure gardening upon an extensive scale, as also to 

 retard the modern improvements. But there are still numerous 

 resident wealthy gentlemen, fond of every elegant enjoyment, 

 who possess, generally speaking, demesnes of greater extent 

 than is usually to be met with in England, which, in point of 

 variety of surface, of hill and dale, of wood and water, are far 

 more susceptible of every rural improvement. Yet, strange 

 to say, we still plod on in the old beaten track ; wedded to the 

 old customs, the gardener looks upon every new method in- 

 troduced as an innovation on his rights ; and the employer 

 cares little for those elegancies which render a country life de- 

 lightful, but feels content if the wants of the family are sup- 

 plied. There is one obvious cause, however, that has contri- 

 buted in no small degree to produce the evil of which we 

 complain, namely, the employment of men as gardeners not 

 regularly bred to the business, at a low rate of wages : — men 

 of a very limited education, who are treated as mere indoor 

 servants, placed on an equality with them, and hold then- 

 places on the same uncertain tenure. Under these circum- 

 stances, we do contend, that it is morally impossible for im- 



