140 Gardening Recreations, 



must be taken, so as to make it apparent that it will be 

 impossible to gain good situations without proportionate quali- 

 fications. I should be much gratified if either you, or some 

 of your correspondents, would bestow a little attention upon 

 this subject. If societies were formed where young gardeners 

 could be examined, by unbiassed competent judges, previously 

 to their obtaining situations, and certificates of character 

 awarded to them as first, second, or third, according to the 

 extent and depth of their abilities and knowledge, then igno- 

 rance would receive a mighty shock, every excuse for idleness 

 would be thrown aside, and the principles of knowledge make 

 rapid progress amongst us. If something of this nature were 

 fairly commenced, there would be little doubt as to its success. 

 Gentlemen would naturally apply for gardeners where they 

 would run the least risk of being disappointed. There is 

 scarcely a class of men that, in general, are in possession of 

 so many means and opportunities for mental improvement as 

 gardeners ; and the necessity of such improvement being 

 once made clearly apparent, and absolutely indispensable, 

 the prosecution of it will not fail to follow. The advantages 

 resulting from the formation of such a society would be very 

 great. Then we should see few of those pretended gardeners, 

 who are a disgrace to the name; then merit, unaided by 

 patronage and favour, would work its own way; then care- 

 lessness and idleness would see that something else was 

 necessary besides the influence of a Sir this, or a Lord that; 

 and then every assemblage of gardeners, instead of exhibiting 

 scenes of idleness or nonsense, would be converted into 

 debating and literary meetings, classes of experimental philo- 

 sophy, and mutual instruction societies. 

 I am, Sir, yours, &c. 



SCIENTI-E ET JUSTITI.E AMATOR. 



Near London, Feb. 7. 1832. 



Art. IV. On Gardening Recreations, as a Substitute for Fox- 

 hunting, Horse-racing, and other brutalising Sports. By Mr. 

 Thomas Clark, Jun. 



Sir, 

 It must be a source of great pleasure to every virtuous 

 and reflecting mind, to observe how generally a taste for 

 rational pleasures, as exemplified in the growing partiality 

 for the study of natural history, and in the encouragement 

 given to all the various branches of horticulture, is superseding 

 the more hardy -sports of the field, and the brutalising amuse- 



