208 
HINTS TO YOUNG GARDENERS ON MENTAL IMPROVEMENT. 
of every description to exalt to a much higher degree their intellectual standard. 
That this impulse may be imparted to the members of the gardening profession we 
cannot but most fervently desire ; and if the suggestions we may now furnish 
shall in any measure conduce to this desirable consummation, we shall have 
abundant cause to rejoice in our labours. 
There are a variety of means of self-improvemeut available to the youthful 
gardener, to the principal of which we shall briefly advert. Individual applica- 
tion, oral communication with fellow- workmen, careful observation, and frequent 
experiment, are the modes to which our remarks will be restrained. The first of 
these — individual application — is, without question, the most important, and 
includes several branches of study. If his rudimentary education has been but 
superficial, primary and chief attention should be devoted to its completion. 
Reading, composition, and dravfing, sliould then occupy his leisure hours. 
Reading, if judiciously conducted, is calculated to prove immensely beneficial ; 
but much depends upon the choice of books, the manner in which they are 
perused, and the methods adopted for impressing their contents on the mind. 
Many young gardeners meet only with those works which detail the procedure of 
cultivating all kinds of plants, but in which the science and principles of horticul- 
ture are rarely referred to. These, notwithstanding every effort to keep alive 
attention, become insipid and wearisome, and are soon discarded, as utterly devoid 
of interest. A disposition to loathe and despise gardening publications is thus 
engendered, which, if not timely subverted, frequently proves fatal to further 
progress and future prosperity. Others obtain works of a directly opposite nature, 
wherein the style and mode of treating the subject are so abstruse, that they 
speedily meet with a similar fate (and for the same self-evident reasons) to those 
already mentioned. 
Removed alike from either of these, however, there is a class of works 
precisely suited to the circumstances of the individuals in question. These are 
such as combine principle with practice, which illustrate science with familiar and 
interesting exemplification, and are explicable to the weakest understanding, 
while they convey knowledge needful to the most capacious. To peruse them with 
advantage, every sentiment advanced must be subjected to the strictest scrutiny, 
and no opinions imbibed but such as are consonant to reason, and, as far as they 
can be tested, to truth. We would say — always read with a view not only to 
receive information, but to discover error. Do not imagine, however, that you 
have detected an erroneous opinion or deduction, unless you can demonstrate it 
to be such by fair confutation. Neither let any proposition be considered un- 
worthy of credence because you cannot comprehend it. Much as a cavilling spirit 
is to be deprecated, it is far preferable to a simple and credulous disposition, 
which receives every assertion for fact, because it will not take the trouble to 
investigate it. 
An excellent method of reading with profit, is for two individuals to choose a 
