INTRODUCTION. 



ing and gardeners, we hope not to forget the horticultural com- 

 forts of the poor. We shall endeavour to promote a taste for 

 the art among country labourers, and to draw the attention 

 of every cottager who has a garden, to the profit and enjoyment 

 which he may derive from its improved cultivation. We shall 

 be the more attentive to this subject, as we think that it, no less 

 than landscape-gardening, has been rather overlooked by our 

 horticultural societies. 



Agriculture is so intimately connected with garden culture, 

 that no publication on the one art can wholly separate itself 

 from the other. In this Magazine we will avoid the business 

 of farming, and all discussions on political agriculture, tithes, 

 prices, markets, &c. These subjects have long been conducted 

 in a manner productive of the most beneficial results in the 

 Farmer's Magazine, and in different agricultural newspapers. 

 The introduction of agriculture in the Gardener's Magazine 

 will be limited, in general, to such improvements as are made 

 on a proprietor's demesne, and to the reviews of such agricul- 

 tural publications as chiefly concern bailiffs and land-stewards, 

 the beneficial direction of rural expenditure, and the general 

 improvement of territorial property, by planting, draining, 

 ro?d-making, &c. Improvements in domestic economy and 

 rural architecture, will, also, come in for a subordinate share 

 of attention, especially such as tend to the amelioration of the 

 operative classes of society. 



Finally, there is one subject which, more than every thing 

 else, will tend to improve gardening and agriculture, — the 

 better education of gardeners and agronomes. A man may 

 cultivate a common kitchen-garden, or a small farm, with very 

 little knowledge besides that which he may acquire in being 

 brought up to these occupations. Mr. Knight had a man who 

 could grow pine-apples " without knowing a letter or a figure;" 

 but to fit gardeners for the extent and variety of their duties 

 in first-rate situations, a scholastic education superior to that, 

 which, with very few exceptions, even the best of them receive 

 at present, is required. As gardening has advanced, as its 

 productions and its province have extended, the situation of 

 head gardener has become more and more important ; he has 

 become a more confidential servant ; he is entrusted with more 

 power, and is more frequently consulted by the master and 

 mistress of the family, with whom his communications are 

 more frequent than they used to be. It is highly necessary, 

 therefore, that an improvement should take place in the ele- 

 mentary education of those intended for head -gardeners; anu 

 as most gardeners are the sons of gardeners, we shall consida 

 it a part of our duty to impress on the minds of the parents, 



