Book IV. 



SUPERINTENDENCE OF GARDENS. 



445 



2331. Barks produced by British gardening are applied only to one purpose, that of 

 tanning. Little or no culture is ever given expressly to increase or improve the bark ; 

 but abundant nourishment and all the requisites of vegetable growth will increase that 

 part of the plant in common with others. Moss, or any other cortical parasites, should be 

 removed. Bark is best separated from the wood, when the sap is ascending with the 

 greatest vigor, late in spring. 



2332. Woods. The production of timber, and coppice-wood or small timber, is an 

 important and extensive branch of gardening. Timber is propagated in various ways, 

 but the principal sorts generally from seed, either sown where it is finally to arrive at 

 maturity, or in nursery-gardens, and transplanted into prepared or unprepared ground. 

 Tlie growth of all timber may be greatly increased by culture, and especially by deeply 

 turning over, and pulverising the soil previously to planting or sowing, and stirring it, 

 and removing weeds afterwards. The timber is also produced in the most useful, or in 

 any desired form, as in trunks or branches, straight or crooked, or in spray or small shoots, 

 by pruning. But as it is chiefly desired in the form of a straight stem or trunk, pruning 

 is particularly useful in this respect, especially when joined to judicious thinning, to al- 

 low of the beneficial effects of air, and the motion produced by wind. Though pruning 

 and pulverising the soil are undoubtedly of great use in hastening the growth of trees 

 when young, and consolidating their timber as they grow old, yet planting trees in a more 

 rich, warm, and moist soil than is natural to them, is to be avoided. The timber of the 

 Scotch pine and the oak, grown in deep fertile valleys, or in alluvial depositions, is found 

 to be less hard, tough, and durable, than when grown in colder situations and thinner 

 soils. This doctrine applies more especially to the resinous tribe of timber-trees, which, 

 as every one knows, thrive best in cold regions, produced by elevation in warm countries, 

 as in the Alps of Italy, or by high latitudes, as in Russia and Sweden. Where timber 

 is grown for fuel, the more rapidly it is made to grow, whether by culture or the choice 

 of species (as the willow, robinia, &c. ), the greater will be the produce and profit within 

 a given period. The presei-vation of timber from fungi, insects, dry rot, and natural de- 

 cay is best effected by immersion in water or in earth, or complete desiccation in the open 

 air. (Su]}]). Encyc, Brit. art. Dry Rot.) 



2333. The entire j)la?it is produced in gardening, for ornament, in herbs, shrubs, and 

 trees, but especially in exotics ; sometimes for culinary purposes, as in the fungi and 

 fuci ; for purposes of general economy, as in hedge-plants ; for shelter and shade, in 

 hardy trees ; and for picturesque effect in trees and shrubs, in parks and pleasure- 

 grounds. In general, the object of culture for this purpose ought to be to give each in- 

 dividual plant sufficient nourishment and space fully to expand itself, and, as it were, 

 show and express its nature or character : but though this will often apply in hot-houses 

 and artificial gardens, it is in general but partially accomplished, even in picturesque scenery, 

 in the open air, where the object is connection and grouping of different objects, rather 

 than the display of single ones j and it is inconsistent with the formation of hedges, rows, 

 strips, and masses. 



Sect. II. Of the Superintendence and Management of Gardens. 



2334. Whenever the culture and management of a garden requires more than the labor 

 of one man, one of those employed must necessarily be apj^ointed to arrange the labors of 

 the rest, and, in fact, to establish a general system of management. It is only under such 

 a system that the performance of operations can be procured in the proper season, and the 

 objects in view successfully attained, and at a moderate expenditure. 



2335. On being apjminted to a situation as head gardener, the first thing to be done, 

 in that capacity, is to survey the extent of the field of operations, and to asceftain any 

 peculiar products or objects desired by the master, so as to determine the number of per- 

 manent hands that will be required. Then the number of implements of every kind must 

 be fixed on and procured, and an estimate formed of the occasional hands, men or women, 

 that may be necessary as extraordinary assistants at particular seasons. If only two or 

 three permanent men are required, then one of them should be appointed foreman, to act 

 as master during absence or sickness, and to have constantly the special charge of the hot- 

 iiouses, or forcing and exotic departments. If, however, ^e situation is of such extent 

 as to require a dozen permanent hands or upwards, then it will generally be found best 

 to appoint a foreman to each department ; as one to the artificial clim,ates of the kitchen- 

 garden, another to the open garden, one to the flower-garden and shrubbery, pleasure- 

 ground, &c. (when there are plant-stoves and collections of florists* flowers, these de- 

 partments should be divided), and one to the woods and plantations, unless there is a 

 regular forester directly under the control of the master. To each of these foremen a 

 limited number of permanent men should be assigned, and when occasion requires, 

 assistance should be allowed them, either by common laborers or women, or by a 

 temporary transfer of hands from any of the other departments from which they can be 

 spared. 



