Cultivation of a small and a large Garden. 163 



large proprietor, in short, has only to give an order ; the small 

 one must give his time and his attention. 



But it is in the laying out and cultivation of a garden that the 

 greatest difference between the large proprietor and the small 

 one exists. From the ample space possessed by the former, 

 there is room for every description of beauty, and the culture of 

 every desirable crop or plant ; but from the limited space of the 

 latter he can only produce a limited quantity of beauty, and cul- 

 tivate a comparatively small number of crops and plants. If 

 one crop in the large garden fails, its place is readily supplied 

 by the quantity produced of other crops of a similar description; 

 because, from the abundance of room, more is sown or planted 

 of every thing than enough. In the small garden, on the other 

 hand, there is only a very limited space for each particular crop, 

 of which crop enough is sown or planted, and no more ; and, 

 consequently, the failure of that crop would not only occasion a 

 want of the particular article, but a want of the requisite quan- 

 tity of vegetables, fruits, or flowers, as the case might be, for the 

 family. To give a familiar illustration of this, 1 may observe 

 that in a large kitchen-garden there are grown several sorts of 

 cabbages for winter use, while in a small garden probably only 

 one sort of cabbage is grown. If, in the large garden, any one 

 of the sorts fails, the table can be supplied from the others which 

 have succeeded ; but in the small garden, if the sort of cabbage 

 sown has failed, there will be a positive deficiency of that kind 

 of vegetable during the winter. In the article of strawberries, 

 perhaps, the proprietor of a small garden has only space for one 

 kind, and, if that one kind fail, he will be without that descrip- 

 tion of fruit. In the large garden, on the other hand, several 

 kinds are planted, and, if one fail, another, in all probability, 

 will succeed. Some sorts of strawberries, such as Keen's seed- 

 ling, seldom fail in producing a crop ; others, as the old pine, 

 frequently fail in this result; hence, if the proprietor of the small 

 garden has chosen the latter variety, he will frequently fail of 

 success ; whereas in the large garden both sorts would probably 

 be planted, and even the entire failure of any one sort might 

 take place without being noticed by the proprietor, or missed in 

 the dessert. It would be easy to go through all the details of 

 cropping and managing culinary vegetables, fruits, and flowers, 

 to show that in every department of the small garden more 

 knowledge of the crops and plants to be cultivated, and espe- 

 cially more care and attention in cultivating them, are required 

 than in the large one ; provided the object be, as it ought to be, 

 to get a maximum of beneficial results. I am certain that 

 every gardener who has fulfilled the duties of a small place will 

 bear me out in this conclusion. 



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