40 



PROPAGATION AND 



[chap. 



twig when young but, here, there needs no force ; nay, not 

 even persuasion. The thing is so pleasant in itself ; it so natu- 

 rally meets the w ishes ; that the taste is fixed at once, and it 

 remains, to the exclusion of cards and dice, to the end of life. 

 Indeed, gardening in general is favourable to the well-being of 

 man. As the taste for it decreases in any country, vicious amuse- 

 ments and vicious habits are sure to increase. Towns are preferred 

 to the country; and the time is spent in something or other that 

 conduces to vice and misery. Gardening is a source of much 

 greater profit than is generally imagined ; but, merely as an amuse- 

 ment, or recreation, it is a thing of very great value : it is a pur- 

 suit not only compatible with," but favourable to, the study of 

 any art or science : it is conducive to health by means of the 

 irresistible temptation which it offers to early rising ; to the stirring 

 abroad upon one's legs ; for a man may really ride till he cannot 

 walk, sit till he cannot stand, and lie abed till he cannot get up. 

 It tends to turn the minds of youth from amusements and attach- 

 ments of a frivolous or vicious nature : it is a taste which is in- 

 dulged at home : it tends to make home pleasant, and to endear us 

 to the spot on which it is our lot to live ; and, as to the expenses 

 attending it, what are all these expenses compared with those 

 of the short, the unsatisfactory, the injurious enjoyments of the 

 card-table, and the rest of those amusements or pastimes which 

 are sought for in the town ? 



CHAPTER IV. 

 On Propagation and Cultivation in general. 



68. In order to have good products, we must be careful and 

 diligent in the propagation and cultivation of the several plants ; 

 for, though nature does much, she wall not do ail. He who 

 trusts to chance for a crop deserves none, and he generally has 

 what he deserves. 



59. The propagation of plants is the bringing of them forth, 

 or the increasing and multiplying of them. This is effected in 

 several different ways : by seed, by suckers, by offsets, by lagers, by 

 cuttings. But, bear in mind that all plants, from the radish to the 

 oak, may be propagated by the means of seed ; while there are 



