412 



OPERATIONS OF GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 



sary to be understood by both the gardener and the amateur ; and for this 

 purpose, and that of the preceding paragraph, some knowledge of geometry, 

 land-surveying, and drawing is requisite. We would recommend Pasleys 

 Practical Geometry and Plan-drawing, 8vo. 16*., and Crocker's Land-sur- 

 veying, 8vo. 12*. 



877. Reducing a surface to a level, or to a uniform slope, is one of the 

 most common operations required of a gardener in forming a garden or 

 laying out grounds. For this purpose he must have learnt the use of the 

 spirit-level or of the common mason's level, so as to be able to stake out level 

 or regularly sloping lines on irregular surfaces. We recommend, as the best 

 work on this subject for the practical gardener, Jones's Principles and Prac- 

 tice of Levelling, 1840, 8vo. 4*. 



878. The laying out of walks, roads, lawns, and the formation of pieces 

 of artificial v/ater, fountains, rockwork, and various other works that fall 

 more or less under the superintendence of the gardener, are given at length 

 in the volume referred to. 



CHAPTER V. 

 OPERATIONS OF GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 



879. The general management of a garden, whether it includes the 

 pleasure-ground, and all the scenes which come under the gardener's depart- 

 ment in an extensive country residence, or merely a few rods of ground 

 for growing culinary crops and flowers, requires such constant attention 

 throughout the year, that gardeners have wisely invented calendars to remind 

 them of tlieir duty, monthly and even weekly. An abbreviated calendar of 

 this kind will be found at the end of our volume, and we shall here coniine 

 ourselves to giving some hints on general management. 



880. On undertaking the charge of a garden, the first point to determine 

 is, the number of hands required for its cultivation, and how many of these 

 men are to be professional gardeners, as journeymen or apprentices, and how 

 many common country labourers or women. It is scarcely possible to keep 

 a garden in the highest order, however small it may be, without a profes- 

 sional gardener in constant attendance ; or without a garden-labourer, 

 directed by the amateur ; who in this case may be supposed to perform 

 all the more delicate operations of propagating, pruning, training, &c., 

 himself. Where only one professional gardener is kept, he will frequently 

 require a labourer to assist in operations that cannot well be done by a single 

 person, or that require to be done quickly ; or of one or more women, to 

 assist in weeding, gathering crops, or keeping down insects. Though as a 

 general and permanent practice we do not advocate the employment of 

 women in out-door work, yet in the present state of things in this country 

 there are generally to be found women glad to accept the remuneration for 

 working in a garden, and the healthiness of the employment in good weather 

 is a recommendation to it. 



881. The hooks to be kepi by a gardener in a small place need not be more, as 

 far as the business of the garden is concerned, than an inventory -book of the 



