Management and Keeping. Si 5 



more hardy kinds, need never be dug above five or six years 

 after being planted ; they should then be turfed over in all 

 those parts where the soil would otherwise appear. To al- 

 low of this being done at an early period, the more tender 

 under-shrubs, such as Z)aphne Cneorum, ^rica (different 

 species), Faccinium, &c., should never be planted with the 

 stronger-growing American shrubs, but kept in beds or 

 borders by themselves, near those parts of the grounds where 

 flowers are cultivated, and where, of course, the beds always 

 require to be dug. A thinking gardener may easily remedy 

 these and other evils, if he will constantly keep in his mind, 

 that digging, hoeing, and raking are only means to an end ; 

 and that, in ornamental scenery, in proportion as these oper- 

 ations are conspicuous, they are injurious to the effect to be 

 produced. 



It is a common practice with some gardeners to hoe and 

 rake gravel walks, whether they require it for the sake of 

 eradicating the weeds or not. They think it gives a fresh 

 appearance, and is a mark of care and keeping. This is pro- 

 ceeding; on the same false taste which directs the diffffins: and 

 hoeing of clumps and beds, and the constant paring of edges. 

 The gravel of a walk or road should, if possible, never be 

 disturbed ; because doing so not only interferes with its use- 

 fulness, that is, its smoothness and dryness as a walk, but 

 conveys the idea of its being lately made, and consequently 

 unsettled, and without that mellowness and air of perfection 

 which time gives to almost every thing. When walks, therefore, 

 are disturbed by the hoe and rake, they ought immediately to 

 be smoothly rolled, so as to convey the idea of finish, stability, 

 and perfection. Every practice in gardening, from the most 

 trifling to the most extensive, is capable of being tested by 

 some general principle, applicable to every art; and every 

 gardener who intends to place himself in the first rank of his 

 profession should, by reading and refleclion, endeavour to make 

 himself master of these principles and of their application. 

 Those who have not leisure to master the principles may, 

 at all events, • comprehend the rules derived from them. 

 Rules are practical directions for the application of principles; 

 and though they cannot be laid down in such a way as to 

 apply to every case, yet general precepts may be given, and 

 the gardener who follows them, even though he may not be 

 able to argue upon the principles from which they are de- 

 rived, will move in a much safer course than one who has no 

 rules to guide him, and who merely does what he sees others 

 do, without knowing the reason why. The following rules 

 may be derived from the principles we have just laid down ;■— 



Vol. VII. — No. 34. n n 



