PURCHASING PLANTS. 



85 



from thinking it so indispensable to the interests of 

 planting that proprietors should become their own 

 nurserymen, as some would represent it. That 

 such a practice would have some advantages pecu- 

 liar to itself, there is no reason to doubt ; but I am 

 persuaded that these advantages will be found, on 

 a fair trial, to be both fewer, and of less import- 

 ance, than many would lead us to suppose. Those 

 who recommend that every person, who intends 

 planting, should raise his plants himself, always 

 take it for granted, that our public nurseries are 

 universally conducted on wrong principles. This, 

 however, is not true In some of them, indeed, 



at a much more reasonable rate than the proprietor. In the 

 treatment of plants after they are removed from the seed-bed, 

 the rent of the ground in which they are placed is the chief 

 source of expense, as any common gardener will be able to ma- 

 nage them. Now, in the country, where the estates of all who 

 have waste lands to plant universally lie, rent is often below one- 

 tenth of what it is in the neighbourhood of large towns, where 

 public nurseries are, for the most part, situated. In addition 

 to these considerations, the plan here recommended will enable 

 the planter to put his young trees in such soil as he may deem 

 best adapted to prepare them for their future stations. 



* I know of no reasonable objection that lies against any 

 one of the public nurseries in this country, different from what 



