The practical gardener, and modern horticulturist

Front matter

THE

PEACTICAL GARDENER,

AND

Preface

Amongst the various pursuits which occupy the attention of man, whether considered in regard to profit or amusement, few hold a more distinguished place than Horticulture. Even in the primeval ages of the world, before luxury had established its controul over every relation of human life, and the wants and necessities of man were confined to the immediate productions of his native soil, we even then find, that the culture of the garden was one of the primary objects of his industry, and the principal source on which he depended for his subsistence. With the lapse of years, the benefits of Horticulture gradually developed themselves, and the pages of history furnish us with innumerable examples, of the great and important advantages which have resulted to a country, in which its princes and nobility have applied themselves to the study of practical Horticulture, thereby opening fresh sources of national grandeur, and enlarging the sphere of individual prosperity. Grateful, however, as we ought to be to such exalted characters, who, indifferent to the elevated station in which their destiny has placed them, have boldly shaken off the fetters thrown over them by ignorance and prejudice, and have descended from " their high estate " to vAeid the spade and plough ; yet our thanks are still more pre-eminently due to such men as a Bacon, an Evelyn, and a Piatt, who have not only, by the transcendant power of their abilities, penetrated into the arcana of agricultural and botanical science, but who have also, by their invaluable writings, transmitted to us the results of their laborious researches, and thereby laid the foundation to those important discoveries in the practical management of the garden for which the present age is so happily distinguished.

Agriculture, and with it its twin -sister. Horticulture, may be considered as the immediate precursors of human civilization ; and we find that all nations advanced in general and individual pros* perity, in proportion to their progress in, and to their attachment to agricultural pursuits. The native beholds his fields ripening with corn —his vineyards blushing with the grape— the spirit of patriot-

PREFACE.

ism arises in him — his love of industry is awakened, and his country is enriched by his labors. Wherever the earth is richly cultivated, there plenty and happiness abound — the desert becomes peopled — the barren waste is transformed into golden fields of corn and the orchards and the gardens teem with their luscious fruits.

Horticulture has, within these few years, made more rapid advances towards perfection, than perhaps any other science, but it is a principle, which cannot be too forcibly and frequently impressed on the mind of those, who undertake the cultivation of a field or garden, that with the possession of mere theoretical knowledge, a positive failure must be the consequence. The knowledge of the management of a garden is not to be obtained by pertinaciously adhering to one particular system, however recommended by high and celebrated names. There are various and other important points to be taken into consideration, the particular knowledge of which is only to be acquired by the most constant perseverance and the most unremitting industry, and by reducing the principles of theory to the certain and infallible test of 'practice. But how is this knowledge to be acquired ? how is it to be obtained at an expense which the limited income of the gardener or the peasant will enable him to bear ? The answer is obvious : it is only to be acquired by closely attending to the rules and precepts laid down by those eminent men, who have made the science of Horticulture their sole study, who have had time and ability to examine the systems and the experiments of others, and who, by their indefatigable industry, have penetrated into the mysteries of nature, and wrested from her, as it were by force, those secrets, which she seemed determined should never be disclosed.

We disclaim all intention of decrying or depreciating the labors of those, who have preceded us in the important task wliich we have at present undertaken. The systems which they laid down for the management of a garden were probably the most proper, and the best adapted to the limited knowledge and experience of the times in which they lived; but as the spirit of discovery proceeded, and the light of improvement was more generally diffused, the ancient systems gradually gave way, and in process of time were utterly exploded. Were a gardener of the middle 'of the eighteenth century to be suddenly placed in a garden cultivated on the principles of the present day, his surprise would perhaps be as great as that of the untutored savage on seeing a gigantic fabric moving on the waters of the ocean, impelled by a little steam

PREFACE.

arising from a cauldron of boiling water. An Abercromby, a Miller, a M'Phail, and a Nicol, have, it must be acknowledged, contributed much to enlarge the sphere of our horticultural knowledge, and we readily and willingly offer them the meed of merit for the benefit which the country has derived from their labors ; it must, however, be admitted, that the channels through which their discoveries and improvements have been hitherto disseminated through the country, are placed beyond the reach of the middhng or lower classes, by the great expense with which the purchase of them is attended. The transactions of the Horticultural Society, however valuable and useful they may be to noblemen and gentlemen, are only circulated within the sphere of a chosen few, and are by far too expensive to become the property of persons of moderate fortune. In the purchase of those works, excellent as they may be in their kind, and highly useful as they may prove to the scientific or experimental Horticulturist, the mere simple Gardener, to whom the principles of practice are alone valuable, would find, that to obtain the single grain of corn of which he vv'as in search, he has also bought a mass of extraneous matter, destitute to him of all benefit and utility.

It becomes therefore a desideratum, that a work should be circu- ' lated, in which those defects are remedied ; in which the entire system of practical science is laid down in the most clear and explicit terms, and in which the nobleman, as well as the more humble operative gardener, may, at one glance, survey the experience and knowledge of the most celebrated practical men, and find those valuable rules laid down for their guidance in the management of their gardens, on which must depend the plenty and excellence of their produce.

The principles which should be particularly attended to in the compilation of such a work, and which will be found to have been invariably adhered to in the present instance, are conciseness, perspicuity, clearness of definition, a total absence of all abstruse and useless terms, and a general attention to the explanation of those minutise of horticultural science, which must necessarily render a work of this kind so invaluable to every individual, who takes upon himself the management of a garden, whether for amusement or for profit. We discard from our pages all the crude and undigested theories of the mere experimentalist, which only tend to mislead and confuse the mind, and we direct our attention solely to the dissemination of that solid and valuable instruction, by which every class of society, fiom the nobleman to the peasant, may be initiated

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in the practical department of one of the most interesting arts, which can occupy the attention of man.

Horticulture is not confined, at the present day, to a few individuals, who may have selected it as the immediate means of their subsistence ; its spirit is transfused into all classes of society ; it has become a favorite object of the attention and study of the fair sex, in the most elevated ranks of life. As a source of agreeable domestic recreation, especially to the female sex, few objects stand higher in estimation than the care of a garden. It is a source of health to the valetudinarian ; the aspect of his flowers renovates his spirits, and in their balsamic odour he seems to inhale fresh life, and a delightful invigoration of his exhausted frame. What is more pleasing and gratifying to age, when the customary scenes of life have lost their relish, than to spend the evening of his days in the cultivation and amusement of a garden ? he looks on his flowers as his children, and in their bloom and blossom feels himself young again. A taste for gardening, unlike all other tastes, diminishes not as we advance in years ; it lives with us to the last hour, and it is our last wish, that the flowers which we have reared, should be strewn on our grave.

The gardens of the great were formerly under the sole control of a well-educated scientific man, but now we see the peeress directing the management of her own gardens and green-houses, by the force of her own knowledge and experience ; we see her ransacking the most distant quarters of the world for those beautiful exotics, which are now the pride and beauty of our gardens; we see the opulent merchant, after a meritorious life spent in the harassing and uncertain walks of commerce, retiring to his suburban retreat, and there passing the evening of his life in the cultivation of his garden, or the management of his hot-houses. We see the peasant, after the labor of the day is over, recreating himself in the cultivation of his garden, that pride and boast of an English cottage : in fine, whithersoever we direct our view, we behold the spirit of Horticulture pervading every rank in life ; it decorates the table of the nobleman with the luscious pine — it cheers the frugal board of the peasant with wholesome vegetables. If we direct our attention to the general aspect of the country, how much has the spirit of Horticulture contributed to its present beautified condition. Where the steps of our forefathers trod over wastes and wilds, now smiles the garden, with its fruits and flowers. There is scarcely a spot in the remotest parts of England, in the dells of Wales, or the glens of Scotland, in which the effects of

PREFACE.

Vll the spade are not to be seen : k may be said, in fact, to have civilized the country ; it has endeared the peasant to his native soil ; it has opened to him a never-failing source of sustenance, at once prolific and wholesome, and it has imparted to him a spirit of pride and emulation, which enables him to surmount the cares and privations of a dependant life.

Partial, however, as we must naturally be supposed to be to our own individual mode of practice, as having been the result of a longtried experience, we are by no means insensible to the merits'^of the various methods of management ardopted by others, nor do we treat with indifference many late valuable inventions and discoveries, by which the operations of the garden are facilitated, and ultimate success more decidedly insured. In our exposition, however, of the practice and inventions of others, we beg not to be considered as giving our unqualified approval of their excellence or superiority over the method recommended by ourselves ; but in a work of general practical utility, which this especially professes to be, we might expose ourselves to the imputation of partiality and prejudice, and even of ignorance, were we to exclude from our pages all mention of the different methods of management at present adopted by several eminent Horticulturists, and which, in many instances, are in reality founded on the most acknowledged principles of practical science. The positive and apparent advantages of each method are fully and impartially exhibited, and the option is thereby given to every individual, to adopt that particular one, which is most congenial to his taste and condition in life.

With the view of rendering this work more practically useful and perfect than some others which have preceded it, and which cannot fail to recommend it to the serious attention of every Horticulturist, it will be sufficient to enumerate the following subjects, which will come under discussion, the value of which cannot be too highly appreciated by every individual, who may contemplate the design of establishing a garden, either on a large or a limited scale.

The cultivation of culinary vegetables is the primary object of attention of every Gardener. In this work their mode of culture is exhibited, according to the latest approved system, arranged for every month in the year, at the same time that a specification is given of the choicest sorts, famed for the excellence of their flavor, or the abundance of their supply. The Fruit-garden is next in consideration, and therein we profess to give the most ample instruction for the management of our native fruits, accompanied by a new systematic catalogue of all their varieties and sub-varieties, as a viii

PREFACE.

guide to those, who may be desirous to obtain tlie choicest fruits, either as an ornament to the table, or as an article of commerce. Under the respective departments of the Hot-house, the Green-house, the Conservatory and Forcing-garden, the latest improvements in their management are displayed, exemplified by drawings of many valuable modern inventions for facilitating their respective operations. In the former department, the new system of heating forcing-houses by hot water is fully exhibited, accompanied by appropriate designs for the erection of the necessary apparatus. Our subordinate departments will treat of the nature of Soils — the application of Manures — the choice of situations for Gardens — the grafting and pruning of Trees — with every other topic connected with the practical management of a Garden.

The illustrative department of this Work will be enriched with engravings, executed in a superior style, of some of the choicest fruits and flowers, drawn and colored ad vivamj constituting itself a highly recommendatory feature, at the same time that it must prove of acknowledged importance to the Florist and the Pomonologist.

Having thus particularized the leading features of our Work, we confidently submit ourselves to the impartial decision of the Public, for the style and manner in which the various departments have been executed. Our claim to their approbation and patronage is founded on the production of a work, combining in itself the soundest principles of modern practice, with the latest improvements and discoveries of the most refined science. With oi;r view constantly directed to the diffusion of useful, practical information, we have been equally attentive to those branches, which depend on ornament for their excellence, or which require in their management a higher degree of professional skill. To attain perfection belongs not to the human character, but in proportion as it is approached, so is the meed of approbation which should be awarded ; it is by that standard that we are wiUing to be judged, and if by our efforts we have made a single blade of grass to grow where none grew before, —if we have awakened in a single individual, whether of high or low degree, a love and taste for the benefits and beauties of a garden, — if we have exploded a single erroneous custom in the practical department of Horticulture, or have simplified any of the difficult branches of the art, the principal objects of our labor have been attained, and we may say with the elegant writer of antiquity, that

" FINIS CORONAT OPUS."

THE

OF

GARDENING,

FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME.

Gardening, if not the most useful, is undoubtedly the most ancient of all arts : the sacred historian informs us, that the Almighty had no sooner created the universe, than he planted a garden eastward in Eden, and after this garden was finished, " The Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it." This may be considered as the first account which we have in sacred history of the origin of gardens ; although, in fabulous and profane history, we have many vague accounts of gardens, without conveying to us any positive information respecting their produce and cultivation.

We have no farther account of gardening in the antediluvian world, with the exception of the immediate results of the transgressions of our first parents, who, for their disobedience, were not only themselves thrust out of the garden of Eden, and doomed to till the sterile ground by the sweat of their brow, but also entailed a lasting curse upon all their posterity.

Soon after the general deluge, the Mosaic history informs us, that Noah no sooner found the earth in a state fit for cultivation, than he became a husbandman and planted a vineyard, and most probably a garden, and made wine.

h

X

Frequent mention is made by the same iffstorian of vineyards, which were the gardens of those days, being cultivated by the majority of the people, through whose lands the children of Israel passed on their journey to the promised land.

Several gardens, belonging to Jewish princes and their subjects, are mentioned in the sacred Scriptures ; but that of Solomon is the principal on record. Solomon was not only a cultivator of a garden, but is also the first person recorded in history in the character of a botanist. He is said to have been acquainted with all trees, " from the cedar of Lebanon, to the hyssop which springeth out of the wall."

The garden of Solomon was quadrangular, enclosed by a high wall, and contained, among other plants, the rose, the lilly of the valley, calamus, camphire, spikenard, saffron, and cinnamon; timber-trees, as the cedar, the pine, and the fir; and fruits, such as the grape, fig, apple, palm, and pomegranate. It also contained water, in wells and living streams, and the situation, in all probability, was contiguous to the palace, similar to the gardens of some of his successors.

Solomon had also a vineyard at Baalhamon, which he let out at one thousand pieces of silver, or £158. sterling, per annum.

Ahasuerus, also, had a garden near his palace, although we have no further account of it than that he returned out of the palace-garden into the place of the banquet of wine, where the queen was. {Esther vii. 7, 8.)

Ahab wished to have the vineyard of Naboth, the J ezreelite, to make it a garden of herbs, because it was contiguous to his palace. Upon being refused, he was very sorrowful, but his wife Jezebel found means to impeach Naboth, by false witnesses, of treason, and caused him to be stoned to death, and then delivered the desired vineyard into the hands of her husband.

Many other gardens are mentioned both in the Old and New Testaments, sufficient to bear ample testimony of the importance in which they were held by the Jews, and the people immediately connected with them.

Our account of the horticulture of the antient Jews is very imperfect; but, like tliat of the majority of the eastern nations,

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xi it was probably upon the same plan as is still adopted in Canaan, which is principally directed to the cultivation of cooling fruits, for the purpose of allaying thirst, and moderating the heat of the climate ; aromatic herbs were also cultivated to give a tone to the stomach, and wine was made to refresh and invigorate the spirits. Their gardens, according to the most authentic information, produced cucumbers, melons, gourds, onions, leeks, garlick, anise, cummin, coriander, mustard, and various spices. Cucumbers, melons, leeks, and garlick were eaten in Egypt, and the cultivation of them was probably continued as long as the Egyptians remained a powerful people.

In the 2d chap, of Numbers, ver. 5, we find them murmuring to Moses at the want of these fruits and vegetables.

The gardens of the Hesperides are the next in antiquity to that of Eden, and were situated in Africa, near Mount Atlas, or, according to others, near Cyrenaica. They are described by a geographer of the sixth century before Christ, as being situated in a place eighteen fathoms deep, with an acclivity on all sides, and two stadia in diameter, covered with a variety of trees planted closely and thickly interwoven. The most noted fruits of this garden were the golden apples, supposed to have been oranges, which Hercules carried off by stratagem, although guarded by a dreadful dragon, which never slept. Independently of these apple-trees, many other ornamental trees and shrubs grew in this garden, such as olives, almonds, mulberries, arbutus, ivy, and. myrtle.

The promised garden of Mahomet is the next in notoriety, of which we have any traditionary account, and it was the heaven of his religion. The pleasures of temporal gardens, ( which we so much covet and admire, are but of momentary consideration, compared with their duration in the gardens of Mahomet, which, to all true believers, were to last for one thousand years.

Having thus given a cursory detail of the gardens of the primary ages of the world, we will now proceed to a short review of those gardens of antiquity, of which an historical account is handed down to us by the Greek and Latin historians.

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The garden of Alcinous is supposed to have been situated in an island of that name ; but by some it is considered to be Corfu, in the Ionian Sea, and by others, with more probabihty, an Asiatic island.

It has been remarked by Sir William Temple, that this description contains all the justest rules and provisions vj^hicb are requisite for the construction of the most perfect garden. The extent of the garden of Alcinous was, in those days of simplicity, looked on as great, even for a prince. It was enclosed to protect it fi'om depredations, and, for conveniency, was placed near the gates of the palace.

This is the first garden, according to Harte, that we read of in ancient history. It contained only three or four kinds of fruit-trees, a few beds of culinary vegetables, and a small number of flowers. It contained two wells, one for the use of the garden, and the other for the palace.

The gardens of Laertes, described by Virgil, appear to have been nearly similar to that of Alcinous, but more varied in its productions. So attached was Laertes to his garden, that when his son Ulysses paid him a visit, he describes him to be found no where but in his garden, " attended by his servants, gathering shrubs to make a hedge, and the old man directing them, and weeding the plants with gloves on, because of the bushes."

The celebrated gardens of Babylon, commonly called the hanging-gardens, so celebrated among the Greeks, on account of their being elevated, according to some historians, upon vast blocks of stone, supported by pillars of the same material. These gardens are described by Strabo and Diodorus, as containing a square of four hundred feet on each side, giving an area of nearly four acres, and were carried to a considerable elevation, in the manner of several large terraces, one appearing incumbent on the other, till the height equalled that of the walls of the city. The ascent was from terrace to terrace by stairs ten feet wide. The whole pile was sustained by vast arches, raised upon other arches, one above the other, and strengthened by a wall of twenty-two feet in thickness, that surrounded it on every side. Large flat stones, sixteen feet long and four broad, were first laid on the top of the arches ;

OF GARDENING.

xiii over these was a layer of reed, mixed with a great quantity of bitumen, on which were two rows of bricks, closely cemented with plaster. The whole was covered with thick sheets of lead, on which the mould of the gardens was deposited, which was so deep, that the largest trees could take root in it, and with these the terraces were covered, as well as with plants and flowers.

These extraordinary and elevated gardens were built by Nebuchadnezzar, for the purpose of gratifying his queen Amistis, who, being a native of Media, could not be reconciled to the flat appearance of Babylon, which, for many miles round, was an immense level space ; and Media, her native country, being rather hilly, and presenting that undulation of surface, which has always been considered an indispensable beauty in landscape. This is the first instance we have on record of any attempt to give to a level surface that undulating eflect which is so much admired in nature. It is therefore probable, from the above circumstance, that landscapegardening had been studied in Media to some extent, and that the queen of Nebuchadnezzar had not been altogether an inattentive observer of the beauties of landscape. The erection of these gardens, from whatever motive they may have been erected, reflects greater credit on this king than any other action of his life.

We have another instance, of nearly the same date, of the preference given to lofty situations for gardens. Diodorus Siculus observes, " When Semiramis came to Chanon, a city of Media, she discovered on an elevated plane a rock of stupendous height, and of considerable extent. Here she erected another garden, exceedingly large, enclosing a rock in the midst of it, on which she erected sumptuous buildings for pleasure, commanding a view both of the plantations and encampments." This Amazonian queen had, it appears, a taste for gardening as well as for war.

Cyrus, the younger, was a great patron of gardening in Persia; and in whatever part of his dominions he fixed his residence, he carefully cultivated and established gardens. Plutarch informs us, that Lysander, the Spartan general, found Cyrus cultivating his garden with his own hands at

Xiv RISE AND PROGRESS

Sardis ; he was informed by Cyrus that the arrangement of his garden was entirely his own work, and that many of the trees were planted by himself. Lysander was astonished to hear this, and expressing his surprise to the king, Cyrus said, "Do you wonder at this, Lysander ? I swear, by the diadem I wear, that if I be in health, I never eat any food until I have exercised my body till I perspire, sometimes in martial exercises, at other times in gardening, or similar laborious exercises of husbandry."

Cyrus had many gardens : one of them, at Celenae, was of such extent, that he mustered the Grecian forces, to the number of thirteen thousand men, in it. Gardening must, therefore, have been reduced to a regular science, under such a patron as Cyrus, and we are informed by Pliny, that, in the Persian gardens, the trees were planted in straight lines, and regular figures. Among their trees, the Oriental plane, and, what may appear to us remarkable, the narrow-leaved elm, (now called English,) held a conspicuous place. Odoriferous plants, such as roses, violets, &c., were planted along the margins of the walks.

Epicurus, among the Greeks, delighted in the pleasures of the garden, and he chose one for the spot in which to teach his philosophy. Among the flowers cultivated by the Greeks were the narcissus, violet, and rose.

Lord Bacon and W. Mason considered gardening as rather neglected among the Greeks, notwithstanding the progress of the sister art of architecture, which gave rise to his lordship's remark, " That when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to build stately sooner than to garden finely ; as if gardening were the greater perfection."

The garden of Tarquinius Superbus, five hundred and four years before Christ, is mentioned by Livy and Dionysius Halicarnassus, as among the first in the annals of Roman history. It adjoined the royal palace, and abounded chiefly with roses and poppies.

The next in rotation was that of Lucullus, near Baiae, in the bay of Naples. In this garden, the peach, cherry, and apricot, were first introduced from the East, and were probably brought by Lucullus himself on his return from one of

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XV his expeditions from the eastern part of Asia, where it is most Hkely that he contracted a taste for gardening.

In the gardens of the Augustan age, Virgil describes the chicory, cucumber, ivy, acanthus, myrtle, narcissus, and rose ; but of the progress of gardening in this age, tradition is very silent. From Cicero and Pliny the elder, we learn, that the quincunx manner of planting trees was then generally in use ; and by Martial we are informed, that the clipping of trees was introduced by Cneus Matius, a friend of Augustus.

That which has been termed the Dutch style of gardening was used about this time, and it is supposed to have been the style adopted by Pliny, in the formation of his garden, and it was used in this country in the reigns of King William and of Queen Elizabeth, specimens of which still remain, the most perfect of which is at Holm-Court, in Herefordshire, and is supposed to have been laid out by Loudon and Wise. This taste, displayed by Pliny, appears to have prevailed until the decline of the Roman empire, and, owing to its having been displayed in a minor degree in the gardens of religious houses during the dark ages, as well as in the writings of Pliny, has thus been handed down to modern times. " Every countryhouse," says the Roman historian, "had its gardens in the days of PHny ; and it is not too much, taking this circumstance in connection with the remarks of Columella, to hazard a conjecture, that even the Romans themselves considered their gardens less perfect than their houses."