Con duct of Gardeners. 279 



practical gardeners, I avail myself of your general invitation 

 to forward a few remarks, which, in my opinion, may not 

 prove altogether useless. 



In the course of my practice as a gardener, I have ob- 

 served that gentlemen are frequently deprived of the proper 

 returns which their gardens ought to yield, and also gardeners 

 of their situations, more from the neglect than from the in- 

 capacity of the practitioner. Such are the effects of this negli- 

 gence, which, I am sorry to say, too generally prevails ; but 

 the causes are not so easily ascertained, as the sources are 

 various from whence they originate. I will therefore decline 

 entering into details, but state generally, that regularity, 

 method, and attention, constitute the very essence of garden- 

 ing, and every deviation from these principles will prove in- 

 jurious both to the interests of the employer and the 

 employed. 



Is it not by dint of perseverance, assiduous attention, and 

 steady conduct, that day-labourers, of whom your correspon- 

 dent Mr. M'Naughton complains, have been enabled so to 

 undermine and intrude on the province of the practical 

 gardener ? And for this intrusion who is blameable ? — I 

 unhesitatingly answer, the practical gardener himself. How 

 frequently, although the confession be painful, do we per- 

 ceive a garden in all its various departments flourish in a 

 superior manner under the superintendence of the attentive day 

 labourer ? His predecessor, perhaps, had been regularly in- 

 structed under an able tutor, and fully competent to the task 

 he had undertaken, but completely distanced in all his under- 

 takings merely on account of his own careless and inattentive 

 manner in regulating his operations. My motive for making 

 these remarks is, earnestly to intreat regularly initiated and 

 well-educated gardeners, to add to their stock of knowledge, a 

 steady conduct, and a regular system of action. Let those 

 gardeners who have the true interests of their profession at 

 heart, whose ambition it is to excel in their occupation, 

 whose abilities enable them to combine the practical with the 

 scientific, — let such, I say, consolidate themselves into one 

 regular community, and adopt the same principles ; and let 

 those principles be regularity, method, and attention : and, 

 without fear of contradiction, I boldly affirm, they will soon 

 obtain that superiority over the ignorant or partially in- 

 structed operative, to which their merit and knowledge will 

 render them justly entitled ; — the day labourer will descend 

 to his proper station, and the gardener regain his wonted 

 ascendancy. 



Champion Hill, March 10. 1826. G. R. 



