Field Gardening. 259 



Art. IV. On Field Gardening, and on the Gardens of Farm 

 Servants in Scotland. By Verus of Berwickshire. 



Sir, 



I have perused the first number of your Magazine with 

 much satisfaction, and am disposed to believe that amateur and 

 professional gardeners may derive much benefit from such a 

 work, provided it continues to be conducted with the like spirit 

 and judgment as is displayed at its commencement. It was 

 my intention to offer a few remarks upon some of the articles 

 that you have presented, but as the copy sent me is in the 

 hands of a neighbour, it is out of my power at this time to 

 fulfil my intentions. Suffice it to say that the remarks were of 

 an approbatory nature, and, as such, were rather calculated to 

 illustrate the subjects discussed than to censure or condemn any 

 thing that was stated. In short, whilst the work promises to 

 be useful to the public, there is every probability that it will 

 not only add to the character of its conductor, but also prove 

 of advantage to the publishers. 



Though these are my sentiments with regard to the nature 

 of the work, as it presently stands, it strikes me that the 

 original design might be greatly improved by including, what 

 I call, Field Gardening, amongst the subjects mentioned in 

 the prospectus. The husbandry of the field, in various dis- 

 tricts, is now conducted with as much neatness and regularity 

 as can be displayed in the best managed gardens, and, in point 

 of fact, there is no difference betwixt culture in the one case 

 and culture in the other, except that field-gardening is carried 

 on upon a greater scale than the husbandry, as you must 

 allow me to call it, of a garden. I have seen fields of beans, 

 consisting perhaps of fifty acres, and fields of turnips of the 

 same extent, all as neatly rowed in drills, at intervals of 

 twenty-seven inches, and as carefully dressed by the horse-hoe 

 as I ever witnessed the crops of the best managed garden. 

 Now, to treat of these matters surely cannot be inconsistent 

 with the work you have undertaken ; on the contrary I am 

 disposed to reckon, that were you to intimate that articles 

 concerning the cultivation of the fields would be acceptable, 

 the utility of your work would be vastly increased. Mistake 

 me not. I do not recommend the introduction of what is 

 called Political Economy, because I am aware that any thing of 

 that nature would lead you into a wider field than can be 

 conveniently occupied; nor do I mean that the management 

 of live stock, or any matters which relate to grass-land, should 

 be taken up. No; the recommendation given extends no 



