PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. ix 



culture, that he thought it necessary, in recommending a new 

 mode. of ctiltivating the Pine-apple, and in ohjecting to methods 

 at that time commonly in use, to express himseK in the fol- 

 lowing words : — ■" I beg it to be understood that I condemn the 

 machinery only which our gardeners employ, and that I admit 

 most fully their skill in the application of that machinery to be 

 very superior to that which I myself possess. Nor do I mean, 

 in the slightest degree, to censure them for not having 

 invented better machinery, for it is their duty to put in 

 practice that which they have learned ; and, having to expend 

 the capital of others, they ought to be cautious in trying 

 expensive experiments, of which the results must necessarily 

 be uncertain; and, I believe, a very able and experienced 

 gardener, after having been the inventor of the most perfect 

 machinery, might, in very many instances, have lost both his 

 character and his place before he had made himself sufficiently 

 acquainted with it, and consequently become able to regulate 

 its powers." 



