58 Le Bon Jardinier. 



little comes to them ; whereas every other class, even many 

 classes that have not in reality contributed to this increase, 

 are partakers of it, in a greater or less degree. 



It is instructive and interesting to have the living means of 

 comparing past times with present : a person a century old, 

 who retains the opinions, manners, and dress of his youth, 

 enables us to form a better judgment of the change that has 

 taken place in these respects than any record can do ; it is as 

 if our ancestoi's were placed before us. So, if we wish to have 

 the best means of estimating the advances of the country 

 during the last century, let us first look around us, at the 

 land, roads, towns, houses, inside and out, manufactures, 

 food, dress, comforts, and luxuries of all classes except one ; — 

 all these have advanced with the improving- age ; this one 

 alone is stationary. The improving spirit of the age has shed 

 its influence over all classes except one ; on that one it has 

 fallen powerless. Is not this an extraordinary fact, well worth 

 enquiring into, not merely for its extraordinary nature, but 

 much more deserving of investigation when we reflect, that it 

 relates to the condition of a very numerous, and certainly the 

 most valuable part of our population ? 



But is it a. solitary fact ? Is it not connected with another 

 fact, of a still more alarming description ? Has there not been 

 a falling off in the character, as well as in the condition of our 

 agricultural labourers ? That this has been the case, we will 

 attempt to show in our next Number. 



Art. II. Le Bon Jardinier, pour V Annee 1826, contenant les Prin- 

 cipes generaux de Culture; V Indication, Mois par Mois, des Tra- 

 vaitx a J "aire dans les Jardins, fyc. By A. Poiteau, principal 

 Editor ; senior Head Gardener of the Royal Nurseries at 

 Versailles ; Botanist to the King; Director of the Royal Habi- 

 tations of Guiana ; Author of the Natural History of the Orange ; 

 — And Vilmorin Seedsman' to the King; Member of several 

 Societies. Paris, 12mo. 2 Plates. 27th Edition. 



This work, which contains both a calendar and a dictionary 

 of culture, must be of great use to the landed proprietors of 

 France, and to the few gardeners in that country who rank 

 above common labourers. It appears annually, with a new title, 

 and a few pages in the way of a review of the horticultural im- 

 provements of the past year. The body of the work in this edi- 

 tion is stated to have undergone considerable improvement by 



