HO A Catalogue of Books 



a gardener cannot be even moderately acquainted with his profession, or fit 

 for even an ordinary situation as master, without 



1. Such a preliminary or elementary education as will prepare his mind 

 for deriving instruction from reading ; and 



2. A course of reading, both varied and extensive, on the subject of his 

 profession. 



If, therefore, the present improved state of gardening science and botanical 

 discovery is to be adopted, diffused, and perpetuated in the practice of gar- 

 dening, there is only one way of accomplishing it, that of making these 

 improvements familiar to every gardener. This can only be done by giving 

 every gardener a better education, and a more ready access to books on the 

 subject of his profession ; and this again we know no means of effecting 

 otherwise than either by raising the wages of journeymen gardeners, so as 

 every individual might buy books for himself, as every journeyman carpenter 

 does tools for himself, or by every master keeping a library for the use of 

 his journeymen. If one of these methods be not adopted, and that speedily 

 and generally, it is easy to foresee that gardening improvements, as soon as 

 they are made, will be forgotten, by not being embodied in practice ; and 

 that the art will either stand still or retrograde. 



It has been suggested to us by more than one correspondent, that insti- 

 tutions like those recently established for mechanics, or travelling libraries, 

 like those in use in East Lothian, might be adopted ; but the isolated 

 situation of gardeners, unless perhaps about London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, 

 renders the former plan inapplicable, and the latter is more adapted for 

 general reading than for elementary and professional study. Though, there- 

 fore, the system of reciprocal borrowing and lending might be adopted in 

 connection with our plan, yet, after all the consideration which we have 

 been able to give to the subject, we are convinced that the object in view 

 can in no way so cheaply and effectually be attained, as by every garden 

 having its own library, as it has its own tool-house. 



Till, therefore, the wages of a journeyman gardener are brought nearer 

 to those of a journeyman mechanic, we really think it a duty ou their em- 

 ployers to supply them with books. By employers, we must be understood 

 as meaning the proprietors of gardens, and we do most respectfully submit 

 to all such our humble opinion, that it would only be an act of justice, and 

 much for their own interest to do so. They would immediately produce 

 more faithful and industrious servants, because the library would be felt at 

 once as increase of wages and an act of kindness ; and gentlemen, however 

 high in rank, cannot be ignorant, that in all kinds of labour, from the lowest 

 and most mechanical to the highest and most intellectual, men work as 

 they are paid, and are attached to their employers in proportion as they are 

 treated by them with kindness. That the moral habits of young men would 

 be improved by spending their evenings in such a library must be obvious, 

 and no longer being obliged to deny themselves the requisite quality and 

 quantity of food (for that is the fact), in order to be able to buy a few books ; 

 they would be able to live better and work harder. Every master gar- 

 dener knows that a common labourer will dig or hoe more ground per day 

 than any journeyman gardener ; and the reason is, the former has generally 

 three or four shillings a-week more wages than the latter, and consequently 

 lives better and is stronger. But farther details we consider are unnecessary 

 to show the necessity and advantage of affording the means of a superior de- 

 gree of instruction to journeymen gardeners. To afford them this means 

 by the establishment of garden libraries, we consider preferable to at once 

 raising their wages to an adequate extent, for various reasons ; but to this 

 subject we shall return at a future opportunity. 



A few years ago it might have been necessary, as a preliminary to what 

 we have recommended, to combat certain objections to enlightening the 



