OPERATIONS OF GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 



413 



tools, &c. ; a cash-book, in which to enter wliat he pays and receives ; and 

 a memorandum-book, to enter the dates and other particulars of orders 

 given to tradesmen, &c., of sowing main crops, of fruit-ripening, and such 

 other particulars as his master may require, or as he may think useful. 

 Such books should be furnished by the master, and consequently be delivered 

 to him when they are filled up. In some gardens a cropping-book is kept, 

 in which on one page is registered the date, and other particulars of putting 

 in the crops ; the page opposite being kept blank, to enter the dates when 

 they begin to be gathered, and how long they last. In all large gardens a 

 produce-book is kept, in which every article sent to the kitchen every day 

 in the year is recorded. There are various modes of keeping books of this 

 kind, but one of the simplest and best appears to us to be the following : — A 

 list, or kitchen-hill^ is printed of all the culinary articles which the garden is 

 supposed to produce in the course of the year ; and a similar list, or dessert- 

 hill^ of all the dessert articles. On these lists,every morning, the gardener 

 marks such articles as are in season, or as he can supply, and sends the 

 kitchen-bill to the cook or steward, and the dessert-bill to the housekeeper, 

 who put their marks to every article which is wanted for that day. The 

 bills are carried back to the gardener, who puts them into the hands of his 

 foreman ; who sends the articles to the kitchen in the course of the forenoon 

 with the bills, which are signed by persons receiving the articles, and 

 returned to the gardener; who preserves them, and has them bound up 

 in a volume at the end of the year. This book forms an excellent record 

 of garden-produce for future reference. See a form of kitchen-bill and also 

 of dessert-bill, in G. Jf., for 1841, p. 9. 



882. The ordering of seeds and plants is one of the most important 

 duties of the head-gardener ; the difficulty being to determine the exact 

 quantity of seed required, which is of some importance when the garden is 

 at a considerable distance from the seedsman. Abercrombie's Seed Estimate 

 is a useful memorial for this purpose, and a year's experience in any garden 

 will enable the gardener to give his future orders with sufficient exactness. 

 Some seeds in most gardens are saved by the gardener, particularly flower- 

 seeds ; and many kinds of plants are now propagated by him which, were 

 they to be procured from nurserymen, would increase the expenses of even 

 a small garden to such an amount as to put such gardens out of the reach of 

 thousands who now enjoy them. Gardeners also exchange many articles 

 with one another, by which means their gardens are much enriched at little 

 or no expense to their master ; and thus the richer any garden is in plants 

 or seeds, the more likely are these riches to be increased, from there being 

 a greater number of articles to exchange. Hence also the great advantage 

 of employing a good professional gardener, who in many situations saves far 

 more than the amount of his wages, by propagation and exchanges. 



883. The management of men and the distrihution of work are the 

 great points to which a head-gardener ought to direct his daily attention. 

 The work of every day ought to be foreseen the day before, subject, how- 

 ever, to changes in the weather, against which other work should be pro- 

 vided. A general idea of the labours and operations of the coming week 

 should be formed the week before, and communicated to the foreman, who 

 ought to receive his directions every evening for what is to be done the 

 following day. For this, and all other matters of general management, 

 gardeners' calendars are of the gi-eatest use as remembrancers ; but the gar- 



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