Advice to young Gardeners. 643 



take in moving from one establishment to another. I lately 

 worked in a nobleman's garden near London, and the wages I 

 received were three shillings a week less than was paid to the 

 ploughmen at the farm, independent of their lodgings and 

 other privileges, which would, at least, make their wages 

 one third more than those received by a young gardener; 

 and, moreover, incredible as it may appear, it is no less true, 

 that there is scarcely a boy in a gentleman's stables, or a 

 servant girl in his house, but receives about as much money 

 for board wages as the journeyman gardener does altogether. 

 Surely if, in these circumstances, it were possible to save so 

 much money as Mr. Mallet speaks of, we cannot err in 

 coming to the conclusion, that want and misery are always 

 the concomitants of inattention or carelessness. If Mr. Mallet 

 had known experimentally what he treats of theoretically, 

 he would have found, as I have done, that the strictest 

 carefulness and economy are absolutely necessary to enable 

 us to appear moderately respectable, and defray the expenses 

 unavoidably incurred in prosecuting the attainment of pro- 

 fessional knowledge. 



With regard to Mr. Mallet's first statement, that every 

 young gardener ought to travel abroad ; I should consider it 

 as advisable, allowing him to have a little money, first to 

 take a tour through his own country. If my means allowed 

 it, I should be very desirous to visit the Continent, as few 

 things are better calculated than, travelling for expanding the 

 mind : but, would it not be the height of folly for any man, to 

 spend what little money he may have rigidly saved upon such 

 an undertaking, with no better prospects, when he returned, 

 than that of being without employment, or of receiving a 

 compensation for his labours barely sufficient to support him 

 in existence ? If gentlemen were desirous that their gardeners 

 should be thus highly accomplished, and would esteem and 

 reward them accordingly, men would be found making every 

 sacrifice to obtain the necessary acquirements : but it is in 

 vain that you endeavour to advance the profession by extend- 

 ing the necessary qualifications of its operatives, or that your 

 correspondents address you on the necessity of our exerting 

 ourselves to obtain knowledge, if so little attention is paid to 

 these things by the employers of gardeners, that we often see 

 men of good abilities passing through life in obscurity, and, 

 in first-rate establishments, individuals not more remarkable 

 for their haughtiness and pride, than for their want of intel- 

 lectual accomplishments. In the acquiring and in the pos- 

 session of useful knowledge, there is doubtless a realisation of 

 happiness ; but a thirst for general and scientific information 



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