THE 



GARDENER S MAGAZINE, 



APRIL, 1826. 



PART I. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. On the Benefits to be derived by the Country Labourer 

 from a Garden, and the Means of teaching him how to ac- 

 quire those Benefits. By William Stevenson, Esq. 

 Author of the Agricultural Surveys of Surrey and Dorset- 

 shire, &c. 



Sir, 

 ^HE Introduction to the first Number of your Gardener's 

 Magazine has one singularity, which distinguishes it from 

 all introductions I ever read : so far from exhausting the subjects 

 which your Magazine, from its title and character may be ex- 

 pected to contain, and being so lavish in your promises of ad- 

 vantages to be derived from it, as to stir up doubts in my mind, 

 whether with all your own industry and knowledge, aided by 

 those of a numerous correspondence, you will be able to accom- 

 plish them, it seems to me that you have entirely neglected 

 one most important benefit, which through your Magazine 

 may be conferred on the great mass of the country population. 

 The activity and enthusiasm lately displayed for the instruc- 

 tion and improvement of all classes of mechanics, and the 

 consequent amelioration of their condition, and opening unto 

 them new sources of utility and happiness, are highly cre- 

 ditable to the age in which we live. But these advantages 

 are from their very nature confined to the town population 

 of this kingdom. Institutions, associations, and lectures, may 

 be carried on in towns, but they are impracticable in the 

 country, where the. population is thinly scattered. In towns, 

 mechanics, by mutual collision, while they are at work, and 

 at other times, strike out new ideas 3 and thus benefit one 

 another ; but in the country this can seldom be the case. 

 In short, it seems to me, that, by the present measures for 

 Vol. I. No. 2. i 



