68 
HERBACEOUS GARDEN 
He will save seed when possible from his 
own good stock, often getting a better strain 
thereby than if he bought them ; he will take 
his pea-sticks under cover directly the flower- 
ing is finished, and keep them for another 
season, and will pull up all stakes as soon as 
possible, instead of leaving them out in the 
rain. He will use soot water and liquid 
manure instead of ordering the more expensive 
compounds from the nurseryman, and he will 
prolong the life of his tools by seeing that 
they are kept clean and dry. 
He will save the manure bill by digging in 
all green refuse, instead of burning it, and gets 
it quickly out of the way ; and if he has to 
have a smother-fire, he will save the valuable 
wood-ash before it is spoiled by rain, and will 
store it up with his compost heap. 
But if this instinct is not in him, the instinct 
of preservation rather than destruction, you will 
find that any effort to implant it is looked upon 
either as a useless fad, or as mere parsimony. 
It is not easy for a gardener and his master 
to look on things from the same point of view, 
especially where it is a question of herbaceous 
plants ousting bedding plants. Sometimes one 
is inclined to wonder whether the owner is 
not the true gardener, and the professional 
