1044 



STATISTICS OF GARDENING. 



Part IV. 



nips, carrots, onions, leeks, pease, beans, and kidneybeans ; a plant or two of celery (not to be blanched), 

 thyme, mint, and chives for seasoning ; and a few plants of rhubarb for tarts. 



7417. The fruit-shrubs, which ought never to be omitted, are the gooseberry, and black and red currant, 

 as standards, in the margins of the plots, or against the walls or pales, if the garden is surroimded by 

 these : the kinds of gooseberry should be those which grow with straight upright shoots, as the Manches- 

 ter and Warrington reds, the amber, yellow globe, rough green, and crystal. The fruit-trees should be 

 of the best bearers among the baking apples and jjlums ; as the hawthoriidean, and any of the codling ap- 

 ples for early use, the grey russet and winter pearmain for winter and spring ; and the damson, bullace, 

 and winesour plums ; the may-duke cherries, or yair, and a winter bergamot pear may be added. If the 

 climate and aspect is favorable, the most southerly sides of the house may be covered with a white musca- 

 dine, or black July grape, or otherwise with pears in the best aspects, currants in the worst, and a rose and 

 honeysuckle on the porch. (See 7310.) 



7418. 7??. the management of cottage-gardens, no opportunity should be neglected by the 

 cottager of collecting manure from the highways, from the grass, weeds, and mud of ditches 

 and lanes ; leaves of trees, soot-ashes, and all household refuse, should be collected, and the 

 whole mixed together in the dunghill (1977.)> and turned frequently over before using. 

 In the culture of these gardens, the principle of a change of surface (2549. )> and of a ro- 

 tation of crops (2556.), should be attended to ; and also that of continually stirring the soil 

 among growing plants as deep as possible ; of watering in dry weather, regularly every 

 evening, and of gathering by hand all worms, snails, slugs, grubs, and other insects, as 

 soon as they appear. Of potatoes only the early sorts should be cultivated in the cottage- 

 garden, because that plant is no%v so generally a subject of field-culture, that for a main 

 supply the cottager will find it cheaper to purchase from the farmer ; or to rent a few 

 square yards of a field devoted to drilled green crops, and cultivate himself as many as 

 may serve his family and his pigs and poultry. Besides, in either of these ways, he is 

 more certain of obtaining potatoes of good quality, as even though the sorts be changed, 

 still the quality is much deteriorated by repeated culture on the same spot. 



7419. Improvement of cottage-gardens. It would be a most desirable circumstance, if 

 proprietors who keep head gardeners would desire them to attend to the gardens of the 

 cottagers on their estates ; to supply them with proper seeds and plants ; to propagate for 

 them a few fruit-trees, and distribute them in the proper places in their plots ; to teach 

 them modes of culture suitable for their circumstances ; and to enforce them by adequate 

 motives of hope or fear, of reward or removal, as the case might require. In this way, at 

 no additional expense whatever to tlie proprietor, much happiness might be diffused ; and 

 constantly recurring objects too often indicating wi-etchedness, or at least slovenliness, 

 rendered useful, neat, and even ornamental. 



7420. Domestic i>nprove»ien( of cottagers. It would also be a very desirable circumstance if some of the 

 female servants, or even some of the charitably disposed female members of the family, would instruct 

 the cottagers' wives on their estates in improved modes of cookery, washing, making, and mending. It is 

 astonishing how ignors'.it and how extravagant the humblest classes are in these respects ; it is rare to 

 find in operation any principle of action, or much regard to economy in domestic management. It ap- 

 pears to be all work" at random, from the making of soup to the baking of pastry. Much might be done 

 by taking any one cottager's dish, and cooking it in different ways before her. For example, soup from 

 vegetables, water, and a little butter only. How diffeient that made by merely boiling the ingredients 

 au naturel, and that by burning a part of the butter ; adding toasted crumbs of bread, a few lea'^es of 

 chives, and half a leaflet of green celery ! How few cottagers know how to make the most of their bees, 

 ■which, besides honey, afford a most refreshing and enlivening drink, little inferior, when properly made, 

 to champagne. Man, in the condition of a day-laborer, is generally so much engaged in procuring the 

 raw materials of subsistence, that he is without leisure to invent the machinery, or resort to the manipu- 

 lations necessary for manufacturing them into the best fabrics. But let him once be properly instructed 

 in this matter; let him once feel the enjoyments of which, even his condition of life is susceptible, and he 

 will not easily afterwards relinquish them. In a state of labor and servitude, man is generally so dull and 

 stupid, that almost e\-ery de,';ree of refinement, or sensation beyond that of mere animal feefing, is lost on 

 him. The rich man is happily willing to put his hand in his pocket to help him ; but that merely affords 

 a temporary relief from evil. ' To supply instruction in plain practicable economy, and patiently to follow 

 it up till it becomes a habit in the instructed, is to effect a radical improvement in this condition of life ; 

 which will be felt by the subjects of it during their lives ; and being transferred to their posterity like' 

 other habits and customs, must ultimately ameliorate this most numerous and efficient order of society. 



7421. Supplying economical knowledge to cottagers. Something in furtherance of the above ideas might be 

 effected by distributing tracts on cottage-gardening and house-economy ; but man, grown up in ignorance 

 without the habit of reading, docs not readily receive instruction from books. His want of experience in 

 book-knowledge prevents him from discerning what is practicable from what is speculative, and conse- 

 quently he cannot, like the man who is conversant both with books and practice, seize on what is valuable 

 and appropriate it to his use. The mind requires a certain preparation before it will receive new ideas ; 

 and its faculties must have been exercised on ordinary matters, before reason can be properly employed, 

 on any subject not common. Tracts, therefore, among the laboring classes are chiefly useful to their 

 children ; and if children were taught the common labors and operations of husbandry and domestic 

 economy at school, which they might easily be by the Lancasterian method of instruction, it would tit 

 them for entering on a life of labor with superior advantages, both in point of performing their labor, 

 and in making the most of its reward. 



7422. The cottage-gardens of artificers, that is, of operative mechanics and manufac- 

 turers, small tradesmen, and other country artisans, differ from those of the common la- 

 borer in being somewhat larger, and in having a larger portion of the space devoted to 

 the culture of fruit-trees and flowers. They are cultivated by the occupier and his family, 

 and very frequently sufficient ground is connected with these gardens to enable the oc- 

 cupier to keep a cow or horse. These indeed are often half-starved animals, producing 

 little benefit to their owners beyond the feelings of satisfaction which the idea of possess-^ 

 ing them confers. In several parts, and especially the north of England, and generally 

 in Scotland, the gardens of artisans differ from those of the cottager, in being held on a 



