1036 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



flower will thrive in an atmosphere impregnated with coal-smoke. Very little skill is 

 requisite for laying out either of these gardens to those who understand the culture they 

 Require. The hot-house, pit, and frame departments should be kept together ; close to 

 them the compost, dung, and tan grounds or sheds ; next the ground where pots of roses, 

 &c. are plunged ; and the least near parts remain to be devoted to the culture of flowers 

 or flowering shrubs in the open ground. For the conveniency both of culture, without 

 treading on the plants, and of gathering the flowers, the whole is generally laid out in 

 beds, sometimes with box-edgings, but more commonly without any, which for bulbs 

 and plants to be annually removed, admits of more effectual culture. 



7358. Market-gardens are of two kinds ; those cultivated by manual labor, and those 

 wholly or in part by the plough. In choosing a fit situation for a market-garden, regard 

 must not only be had to the requisites for a good kitchen-garden, as to shelter, soil, 

 water, &c. (2382. to 2430.), but to the probable market-kind of produce to be grown, 

 &c. The extent must depend jointly on these circumstances and the capital to be em- 

 ployed. The smallest extent of surface and capital is that in which a man performs the 

 whole of the labor himself, and this so entirely depends on the articles cultivated, the 

 nature of the soil, and mode of culture, that it may vary from one to two acres, and 

 where grain and seed crops are introduced, to a greater number. As to the quantity 

 of ground which a man of capital may manage by this way, no limits can well be as- 

 signed to an active and vigilant master. Some London gardens of this description, en- 

 tirely cultivated by manual labor, exceed 100 acres. In laying out a market-garden 

 tliere cannot be said to be any thing peculiar : the general points of order, distinctness 

 of compartments, and keeping the plots as much as possible in squares and parallelograms, 

 are of obvious importance. 



7359. Public orchards are of various kinds ; garden-orchards, where the ground is cul- 

 tivated and cropped with culinary vegetables or small fruits ; arable orchards, where the 

 trees are in rows, and the spaces between in aration ; and pasture-orchards, where the 

 trees are scattered over pasture-lands. In fixing on a situation for either kind, the three 

 chief points are soil, sub-soil, and shelter, which have been already considered in treating 

 on private orchards, as well as the planting and kinds of fruit-trees. 



7360. Physic or herb-gardens, if for growing aquatic herbs, as mint, should be situated 

 in a low moist soil ; if for aromatic herbs, as lavender, rosemary, &c. on a dry poor soil ; 

 and if for roses and similar plants, for producing flower-leaves, for the distiller, the soil 

 should be loamy and rich. In laying out this kind of garden, the only point in which 

 skill is requisite, is the contrivance of a system of irrigation for the mints. 



7361. Seed-gardens, or seed-farms, require a dry soil ; and two should never be 

 situated together, if destined for the same sorts of seeds. All the art in them consists 

 in cropping, so as to ensure seeds true io their kind. Indeed, the culture is by far the 

 most important consideration, not only in this, but in the four preceding descriptions of 

 public gardens ; and this is still more the case with respect to gardens for peculiar crops, 

 as for the bulbs of white lily, rhubarb-roots, licorice, &c. which, as to laying out, require 

 no further notice. 



Chap. V. 



Of the Practitioners of Landscape- Gardening. 



7362. The practice of landscape-gardening has^een thought such a simple business, 

 that every proprietor might perform it for himself. The same thing, indeed, may be said 

 of the practice of medicine, law, or cookery, for every one can prescribe a cure, decide a 

 quarrel, or boil an egg. " Had the art of laying out grounds," Repton observes, 

 " still continued under the direction of working-gardeners or nurserymen, the proprietor 

 might supersede the necessity of such landscape-gardeners, provided he had previously 

 made this art his study; but not (as it is frequently asserted,) because the gentleman 

 who constantly resides at his place must be a better judge of the means of improving it, 

 than the professor, whose visits are only occasional ; for if this reason for a preference 

 were granted, we might with equal truth assert, that the constant companion of a sick 

 man has an advantage over his physician. Improvements may be suggested by any one ; 

 but the professor only acquires a knowledge of effects before they are produced, and a 

 facility in producing them by various methods, expedients, and resources, the result of 

 study, observation, and experience. He knows what can and what cannot be accom- 

 plished within certain limits. He ought to know what to adopt, and what to reject ; he 

 must endeavor to accommodate his plans to the wishes of the person who consults him, al- 

 though in some cases they may not strictly accord with his own taste." {Observ. owLandsc. 



