18 



THE GARDENER. 



garden assistant or labourer has his professional plea- 

 sures in the occupations and pursuits of the garden, 

 according to his attainments. He may assure himself 

 too for his comfort that he is a very useful character, 

 and, as Mr. Loudon truly says, often more valuable to 

 the amateur who is his own head gardener, than a pro- 

 fessional gardener, whose superior knowledge and skill 

 might discourage him in his operations. 



The following rules are worth attending to 

 Have a place for everything, and put everything into 

 its place ; let the tools be collected in their proper 

 shed, always at hand, without loss of time in searching 

 for them ; the seeds papered and labelled in their ap- 

 propriate drawers ; memorandum and account books 

 carefully noted and indexed, keys on their own nails, 

 dried fruits and roots neatly arranged on their floors 

 and shelves, and empty flower-pots put together in 

 sizes ; for nothing is more unsightly than the appear- 

 ance of things straggling about the v/alks and borders, 

 nor more annoying to an orderly person than irregu- 

 larity in such particulars. 



If you are obliged to leave any work unfinished, do 

 not lay your spade, rake, &;c., in the way, and when 

 you have done using the garden line, wind it up, and 

 lay it aside at once. From slovenliness in this respect, 

 and the careless habit of leaving the line out in wet 

 w*eather when work is broken ofl*, it is soon destroyed. 



Always finish what you have commenced, if you 

 can ; do not, for instance, leave the same drill half 

 formed or half covered, or any seeds exposed. Sup- 

 pose you are planting cabbages or cauliflowers ; fix 

 them firmly at once, not leaving to a succeeding hour 

 or day what ought to be done without interruption or 

 delay- Perform each work in its proper course as 

 much as possible, and save all unnecessary labour by 

 completing what has been taken in hand. Suppose, 

 for example, you have been hoeing weeds from plats 



