LAYING-OUT OF HORTICULTURAL GARDENS. 245 



food, the philanthropist must be ready to approve and 

 rejoice. 



Laying-out of Horticultural Gardens. — In the 

 arrangement of these gardens, the special objects to 

 which they are destined must be kept distinctly in 

 view. When furnished with complete appointments, 

 they include divisions for culinary vegetables, fruit- 

 trees, forcing, flowers, shrubs, etc.; in other words, 

 they embrace gardening in all its branches, and so re- 

 quire treatment of the most varied description. Our 

 limits forbid us to enter into full details; we shall, 

 therefore, suppose that a suitable locality in respect to 

 soil and situation has been chosen, and shall content 

 ourselves with throwing out a few hints which may be 

 useful to persons contemplating work of this kind. 



The extent of such a garden ought to be a matter 

 of primary and serious consideration. It should be 

 first of all ascertained what amount of expense the 

 average resources of the society are adequate to meet. 

 Financial difficulties always operate most injuriously 

 on institutions of this kind, as they impede or obstruct 

 direct experiment, and by limiting the number of 

 workmen employed, embarrass the superintendents 

 and divert them from their proper work. Such gar- 

 dens ought never to be too extensive ; they should 

 rather be small than otherwise. A large flower-garden, 

 to be filled with beds of ordinary annuals, or even 

 common florists' flowers which have been cultivated 

 perhaps for half a century, is wholly unnecessary. 

 We should even be inclined to abridge the extent of 

 ground sometimes allotted to culinary vegetables: a 

 few plots would be sufficient to cultivate and exhibit 

 the newer sorts. The orchard-ground must always be 



