Part IV. 



STATISTICS OF BRITISH GARDENING. 



1039 



able, unless a contractor of some respectability is employed, the work is much better done 

 by the laborers of the proprietor. 



7371. Buildings. All alterations or new erections may be readily estimated and exe- 

 cuted by, contract, and, almost in every case, at less expense to the proprietor. The 

 mere difference between the trade price and the gentleman's price of the materials and 

 labor, and between the hours kept, and quantity of work done in a given time by a 

 journeyman to a master-tradesman and to a gentleman, will (if the former should, by 

 error in estimating, find no other gain), afford a certain profit to the tradesman ; and thus, 

 suppose a contractor to estimate a piece of work at 1000/., and which the proprietor, 

 changing his mind, instead of letting to the contractor, executes himself, and finds the 

 amount 1100/., the contractor, had he got the job, would have actually had a profit, and 

 the owner been a gainer of 100/. The mansion, domestic and farming offices, garden- 

 walls, and hot-houses, may all be separately contracted for. 



7372. Ground. The removal of ground, fences, or digging, may in every case be let 

 by the job, and with decided advantage to both parties. The extent of particular con- 

 tracts should, of course, be in proportion to the responsibility of the contracting parties. 



7373. Planting. The enclosures and the preparation of the soil may, in all extensive 

 cases, be executed by contract ; but the planting or insertion of the plants, on which so 

 much depends, should uniformly be done by day-work ; excepting, however, those cases 

 in which a respectable nurseryman will engage to put in a certain number of plants of a 

 certain kind, size^ and age, and maintain them there for at least three years. In some 

 extensive cases, the land may be prepared by fallowing, which the adjoining farmers will 

 generally undertake at a very moderate price per acre. In most cases, the contractor for 

 fences, of whatever description, should undertake to uphold them for a given number of 

 years ; and in cases of thorn-hedges, or other live fences, until they become sufficient 

 barriers. 



7374. Road and walk making may frequently be contracted for ; but in this case, as in 

 every other, much will depend on the skill, activity, and experience of the gardener or 

 general overseer. This subject will be found illustrated at greater length, and in a man- 

 ner incompatible with the nature of this work, in the second edition of our Treatise on 

 Country- Residences, 4to. 



PART IV. 



STATISTICS OF BRITISH GARDENING. 



7375. After having considered gardening as to its history, as to the scientific princi- 

 ples on which it is founded, and the application of these principles to the different branches 

 of practice ; it remains only to take a statistical survey and estimate of its present state and 

 future progress in the British isles. 



BOOK I. 



OF THE PRESENT STATE OF GARDENING IN THE BRITISH ISLES. 



7376. The present state of British gardening, as to knowledge, has been the subject of 

 the former parts of this work ; but its importance, in the general economy of society, can 

 only be learned by a statement of the manner in which it is actually carried on ; the mo- 

 difications to which it has given rise in the pursuits of those who have embraced the art as 

 a source of livelihood ; of the kinds of gardens employed by men of different orders in 

 the state ; of the principal gardens as distributed in the different counties of Britain and 

 Ireland ; of the British authors who have written on gardening , and of the private or 

 professional police, and public laws relative to gardeners and gardens. 



