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GARDENERS AND GARDEN MANAGE- 

 mENT. 



BY WM. SAUNDERS, AVASHINGTON, D. C. 



Read hefore tlie Pa. Hort. Society. June 4th, '67. 



I regret that my duties have prevented me from 

 treating this important subject so fully as it deserves, 

 and also that, even the few remarks that I am en- 

 abled to submit, are so fragmentary and desultory. 



One of the earliest of gardening authors, writing 

 in 1626, remarks that, " Honesty in a gardener will 

 grace your garden and all your house, giving offense 

 to none, nor calling your name in question by dis- 

 honest acts, nor inflicting your family by evil coun- 

 sel or example ; and concerning his skill, he must 

 not be a scholist, to make show of or to take in hand 

 that which he cannot perform." 



The position of a gardener is in many respects, a 

 peculiar one. Although ho is too generally looked 

 upon and treated merely as an operative 1-aborer, yet 

 there is a certain amount of responsibility attached 

 to his duties altogether different from what is usu- 

 ally expected from that class of working men. 

 Taking them as a whole, gardeners are more gener- 

 ally intelligent than those whose time is occupied in 

 merely mechanical operations. The duties of a 

 gardener compel him to study. He must think for 

 himself, and be fertile in expedients on extraordi- 

 nary occasions ; and in cases of novelty, difRculty, 

 or emergency. His mind must be well stored with 

 general knowledge, and he must be assiduous in 

 constantly adding to this store, by earnestly endea- 

 voring to be informed of every improvement and 

 invention not only in his particular line, but also lay 

 up in his memory as many ideas as he can on all 

 other subjects connected with the arts and sciences. 

 From facts thus accumulated the mind is led to 

 generalize, and trace up to their principles, the 

 reasons for any particular practice ; thereby he will 

 be enabled to apply his knowledge to sudden emer- 

 gencies or unforseen circumstances. Every day calls 

 for the performance of some apparently trivial opera- 

 tion which is only in continuation of attentions pe- 

 riodically required for months, or it may be for 3'ears, 

 to attain certain foreseen results, liable to be dis- 

 arranged by unforseen circumstances, which have to 

 be promptly met, and counteracted as flir as prac- 

 ticable. 



Therefore it is, that a gardener, if he means to 

 keep pace with the progress of the age, must be a 

 reading man. When no such propensity exists, he 

 is of much less value to his emploj^er. 'He must 

 necessarily soon be left behind on the road to excel- 

 lence, if he has not the laudable desire to peruse, at 

 the least, those periodicals devoted to the interests 



of his professional operations. As to those who 

 make it a boast that they " never read any of these 

 papers," meaning to convey the idea that they have 

 finished their education, they should be carefully 

 shunned by those who desire that their gardens and 

 greenhouses should be maintained in the highest 

 perfection. It is only by the interchange of ideas 

 that progresses accomplished, and the constant ac- 

 cessions to Horticulture in the introduction of new 

 vegetables, flowers and fruits, as well as new modes 

 of practice and working expedients, renders it an 

 absolute requirement to be familiar with the chan- 

 nels through which such information is communi- 

 cated. 



I have already inferred that promptness is an in- 

 dispensable quality in a gardener. If nowhere else, 

 certainly in the garden, delays are dangerous. Plans 

 must be matured in proper season, so that when the 

 period arrives for their execution, nothing will in- 

 terfere with rapid and intelligent action. 



How many failures have been caused by the ne- 

 glect of sowing seeds at the proper time? and here 

 I maybe allowed to remark, that many are not fully 

 and experimentally aware of the vast difference it 

 makes in crops, even when the periods of sowing 

 are but slightly apart, more particularly in those of 

 the earliest spring sowings, when so much depends 

 upon the proper condition of the soil, and where a 

 shower of rain may cause a week's delay, probably 

 making all the difference between a success or failure 

 in the crop. 



Neglect in hoeing is a frequent cause of loss, or, 

 if not altogether a loss, yet the crops severely in- 

 jured, an 1 even that partial crop secured at double 

 the amount of labor required in destroying weeds 

 after they have gained an ascendency. There is no 

 point in garden management, when the results of 

 procrastination are so insinuatingly expensive as in 

 neglecting the early destruction of weeds. What 

 may be accomplished by one hour labor to-day, if 

 neglected for a week, may require ten hours labor, 

 and at the sane time the value of the crop has been 

 depreciated fifty per cent, on account of the weeds, 

 a loss that no after treatment or skill can repair. 

 Occasions are constantly occurring where prompt 

 action is all -important. A lawn may be divested of 

 half its beauty for the summer, by a week's delay of 

 cutting in spring. A few minutes spent in attend- 

 ing to a tree in May, by pinching outgrowing points, 

 or rubbing off superfluous buds, may prove of incal- 

 culable benefit to the crop produced, and which, if 

 left undisturbed, involves at some future time, the 

 use of the pruning knife, and the destructive waste 

 of the energies of the plant. The evil results of a 



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