THE 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE, 



APRIL, 1842. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Recollections of a Gardening Tour in the North of England 

 and Part of Scotland, made from June 22. to September 30. 1841. 

 By the Conductor. 



(Continued from p. 150.) 



From Glasgow to Uddingstone the road is broad, firm, and 

 smooth, accompanied by an excellent footpath ; the fences are in 

 good repair, the hedges well trained, the stone walls substantial, 

 and frequently of ashlar-work. The crops of wheat, potatoes, 

 and oats, and clover and rye-grass, are most luxuriant, without 

 the appearance of a single weed, except in the margins of the 

 fences, where they are not unfrequent, and at present coming 

 into flower. This is a crying sin throughout Scotland. With 

 the finest crops in the interior of the field that could possibly 

 be wished, the vilest weeds, such as docks and thistles, are 

 found flowering and running to seed in the hedgerow margins. 

 We cannot make an exception in favour of any part of the 

 country between Stirling and Kinross on the north, and Berwick- 

 upon-Tweed on the south. It seems difficult to reconcile this 

 slovenly conduct with reference to the margins and the road 

 sides, with the care and culture exhibited in the interior of the 

 fields ; but we suppose it arises from this, that the benefit from 

 keeping the crops clean is direct, while that from cutting down 

 the weeds in the margins, being the prevention of their dis- 

 semination, is comparatively remote. We were particularly 

 struck with the luxuriance of the weeds by the road sides in the 

 neighbourhood of Paisley, and between that town and Glasgow ; 

 but we were soon able to account for it from the personal habits 

 of the mass of the population, which are the very reverse of 

 delicacy or cleanliness. There ought certainly to be some 

 general law, as there is in some parts of Belgium and Germany, 

 that all weeds whatever ought to be cut down before they come 

 into flower, and that when this is not done by the occupant of 

 3d Ser. — 1842. IV. o 



