79 
THE GARDEN ALBUM AND REVIEW. 
This is the view usually taken, and often 
even accepted by non-commercial gardeners as 
strictly in accordance with fact. But is it ? 
Just think of an estate on which is built a 
beautiful mansion surrounded by lawns, 
terraces, parterres, woodland walks, artificial 
lakes, and the grounds studded with exotic 
trees of all kinds. Such places do not spring 
up naturally out of the soil. They are not 
indigenous to any country, civilised or other¬ 
wise. They have to be made, and the making 
costs a lot of money. How much they are 
worth may be guaged by the enormous prices 
some of them realise when put in the market 
for sale. 
Apart from the grounds and their landscape 
effects, there are the ranges of glasshouses and 
frames, often with miles of hot water-piping to 
keep the temperature at such a level that plants 
from the tropics and sub-tropics may be kept 
alive in our climate. 
The mere frame-work of a garden, although 
it costs a large sum, would be quite useless 
unless there was some object in view, that of 
course being the cultivation of plants, flowers, 
fruit and vegetables. Employment is given to 
many men in various branches of the garden¬ 
ing business, and it is not unnatural that the 
owner of a large establishment should expect 
to see some return for the money spent. The 
return, as a rule, is not looked upon purely 
from the commercial point of view. The 
beautiful grounds, the noble trees, the delight¬ 
ful rock and water gardens, the herbaceous 
borders, the exquisite orchids, the luscious 
fruits from the hothouse and open air, the 
fresh and succulent vegetables all the year 
round—all these not only constitute a valuable 
return for the money spent, but also gratify 
the senses, please the soul, and keep the mind 
and body healthy. 
Some will say all this sounds very nice, but 
it is a well-known fact, that when a man wishes 
to economise he usually begins to dispense with 
luxuries, of which gardening is the first. This 
is quite true, but it is nevertheless a foolish 
thing to do. Should it be really necessary to 
curtail expenses, a careful examination of 
receipts and expenses would probably show 
that if a profit was not actually made out of 
the garden as a whole, there had been very 
little loss. 
Let us take the case of a gentleman who 
has a decided liking for orchids. He buys the 
best varieties—may be gives from ioo to 1,000 
guineas each for remarkable ones, and in due 
course he acquires a collection of some 
hundreds or thousands of the finest orchids in 
cultivation. Indeed his collection of orchids 
alone may be valued by experts at anything 
from ^*5,000 to ^50,000. To grow these plants 
to perfection, and keep them in health—in 
other words to see that the £ 5,000 or ^"50,000 
worth of goods do not depreciate, but rather 
increase in value, the owner must employ one 
or more gardeners. But whatever “ luxury ” 
is attached to the cultivation of orchids, very 
little of it comes in the way of the man who 
actually grows them. On the contrary, he 
usually advises his employer as to the choice 
and price of varieties, and frequently valuable 
kinds are purchased in an unflowered state for 
a few shillings. The gardener then takes the 
cultivation in hand, and at the end of a year 
or so, he brings to perfection a plant for which 
anything up to 1,000 guineas may be obtained 
by his employer. So that the “ luxury of 
gardening ” in such cases is distinctly good 
from a business point of view. 
The same may be said of gardening in 
almost every other branch. Whether under¬ 
taken by the tradesman or amateur, the idea 
that predominates is not so much one of luxury, 
as how much can be gained, or at least, how 
little is to be lost. If the venture is a success 
—which means that money is being made—so 
much the better ; but it is too often forgotten 
that the man who makes the money is the 
gardener and not the master. 
Many other points could be mentioned to 
show that gardening is not so much a luxury 
as a business ; that thousands, if not millions, 
of pounds sterling are invested in it in various 
ways, and that it is subject to the ordinary 
fluctuations of trade. Some people think that 
because one cannot eat an orchid or a conifer, 
that gardening is a luxury from the mere 
gastronomic point of view. Man, however, 
does not live by bread alone, otherwise we 
should all be growing wheat in our back 
garden. 
Even in public establishments like Kew, 
and the public parks and gardens, gardening 
is not a luxury but a necessity. If Kew 
gardens were closed and untouched by the 
hand of the gardener for twelve months the 
British Empire would be almost dislocated, 
and would certainly be disorganised. The 
millions of money spent on it during years past 
would be all thrown away, and what is known 
as the finest garden in the world—the garden 
which has sent pioneers to establish rubber, 
cocoa, tea, coffee, and other plantations all 
over the world for the benefit of mankind— 
would itself become a useless and howling 
wilderness in a very short time. Precisely the 
same thing would happen to our parks and 
gardens and large private establishments and 
nurseries which employ thousands of gardeners. 
It is essential, it is absolutely necessary that 
these different gardening places must be kept 
in order for the benefit of the community, as 
well as for private individuals, and any attempt 
to discard them merely as luxuries would lead 
to loss and confusion. Gardening, therefore, 
is a real necessity. It has been practised since 
the world began, because it was necessary to 
mankind, and it will continue to be practised, 
more as a necessity than as a luxury, until the 
end of time, at least in all civilised parts of the 
globe. 
W. 
