556 Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. 



put on. By continually hoeing and stirring the earth, nature 

 supplies the wants of the plants better than we can do by adding 

 any thing to assist : my rough system of potting, when we 

 come to speak of it, will explain this. Fix me in the room I 

 am now in, for one month, with my cloth shoes and hat on, with 

 a comfortable place to lie down on, and plenty of the best food 

 and drink, do you not think I should be blighted, cankered, or 

 mildewed, or in some way stagnated ? I fancy I should be 

 better off turned out for the same time without any of the above 

 luxuries. I have six different sizes of those hoes, from one inch 

 to six inches ; and I use two at a time, one in each hand. 



You next caught a sight of my Kitchen-Garden Rules, and 

 asked my reason for adopting them, which I think you under- 

 stood. I enclose a copy of those rules [printed at the end of 

 this letter], likewise a copy of my Vegetable and Fruit List for 

 the week ending Sept. 25. [see the opposite page]. Your time 

 being so short, we did not come to any explanation why I adopted 

 this weekly list. The following are the principal reasons : — 1st, 

 That my employer's housekeeper, butler, and cook should 

 know what is in season, and fit for table every day in the week 

 or year. 2d, That they should know what they have had, and 

 what they ought to have. 3d, Because I do not like to be 

 imposed on : for you know that gardening is a very anxious, 

 bustling, persevering business, and that we gardeners have 

 blights of all kinds to contend with, without having hand-blights, 

 and idle and neglectful blights. I speak feelingly on this subject ; 

 for the facts which I am about to relate I have seen with my 

 own eyes. I have taken or sent in a dessert to the housekeeper's 

 room, and, having occasion to go in afterwards (I speak of a 

 place where I lived in the house), I have seen one third or half 

 of this dessert gone, by first one person, then another, taking 

 article after article. But that is not the worst; for what fruit is 

 left, in such a case, I have seen pinched or squeezed and bruised 

 to that degree that it was not fit to send to a nobleman's or 

 gentleman's table, or, indeed, any other. For example, grapes 

 with the shoulders picked off; peaches and nectarines squeezed ; 

 cherries, gooseberries, &c, the best and finest all picked out 

 and eaten up ; cucumbers, &c, in the pantry, put aside be- 

 cause they had not time to slice them up and get them ready 

 for table ; the same cucumbers sent in next day after lying 

 about, having become withered up and spoiled ; and hence I 

 have been blamed for sending in so tough a salad. I have seen 

 the very best of vegetables, of all kinds, and at all seasons, come 

 from the scullery in the hog-tub ; never having been touched 

 after leaving the garden basket, except being bundled into the 

 hog-tub; at the same time I have been complained of because 

 there was such a short supply of fruit, salads, and vegetables. 





