ing and gardeners, we hope not to forget the horticultural comforts of the poor. We shall endeavour to promote a taste for the art among country labourers, and to draw the attention of every cottager who has a garden, to the profit and enjoyment which he may derive from its improved cultivation. We shall be the more attentive to this subject, as we think that it, no less than landscape-gardening, has been rather overlooked by our horticultural societies. Agriculture is so intimately connected with garden culture, that no publication on the one art can wholly separate itself from the other. In this Magazine we will avoid the business of farming, and all discussions on political agriculture, tithes, prices, markets, &c. These subjects have long been conducted in a manner productive of the most beneficial results in the Farmer's Magazine, and in different agricultural newspapers. The introduction of agriculture in the Gardener's Magazine will be limited, in general, to such improvements as are made on a proprietor's demesne, and to the reviews of such agricultural publications as chiefly concern bailiffs and land-stewards, the beneficia! direction of rural expenditure, and the general improvement of territorial property, by planting, draining, road-making, &c. Improvements in domestic economy and rural architecture, will, also, come in for a subordinate share of attention, especially such as tend to the amelioration of the operative classes of society. -- Finally, there is one subject which, more than every thing else, will tend to improve gardening and agriculture, — the better education of gardeners and agronomes. A man may cultivate a common kitchen-garden, or a small farm, with very little knowledge besides that which he may acquire in being brought up to these occupations. Mr. Knight had a man who could grow pine-apples "without knowing a letter or a figure;" but to fit gardeners for the extent and variety of their duties in first-rate situations, a scholastic education superior to that, which, with very few exceptions, even the best of them receive at present, is required. As gardening has advanced, as its productions and its province have extended, the situation of head gardener has become more and more important; he has become a more confidential servant; he is entrusted with more power, and is more frequently consulted by the master and mistress of the family, with whom his communications are more frequent than they used to be. It is highly necessary, therefore, that an improvement should take place in the elementary education of those intended for head-gardeners; ano as most gardeners are the sons of gardeners, we shall conside it a part of our duty to impress on the minds of the parents, the necessity and advantage of an education for their children considerably beyond what they themselves have received. It is a common complaint among gardeners, that they are not sufficiently paid, and that a man who knows little more of gardening than a common labourer, is frequently as amply remunerated as a man who has served a regular apprenticeship to his business. This is perfectly true where the gardener is nearly or equally devoid of elementary instruction with the labourer. But the remark does not apply to gardeners who have either received a tolerable scholastic education, or have made up for the defect of it afterwards by self-improvement; or if it apply to them, the blame is their own. We know from the information of some respectable nurserymen, as well as of our own knowledge, that there are a number of proprietors in this country who cannot get gardeners so well qualified as they wish, and who would gladly increase the emolument for a superior class of men. We also know that there are some noblemen who do not allow their head gardener more than the wages of a servant in livery: but this evil we trust to see reformed; for if good gardeners be not sufficiently paid, they will soon cease to be produced. If a class of superiorly educated gardeners were to come forward, they would create a demand for themselves, on the principle that demand is influenced both by the supply and the quality of the article. Besides, as to education, parents will recollect that the better their children are educated, the fitter will they be to change their profession, if they should not succeed in it, or to suffer the disappointment with patience, and make the most of it, if they cannot do better. The same remarks will apply to agronomes." We substitute the word agronome for the hateful appellation bailiff, till some of our readers shall furnish us with a better. Having now stated at length the nature and object of the Gardener's Magazine, we proceed to lay before our readers such communications as our friends have favoured us with, hoping to render succeeding numbers more and more interesting as the circulation of the work extends, and its correspondents increase in number. We invite all those who take an interest in gardening to assist us by their advice, and by the communication of information on every subject connected with the work: we especially invite practical gardeners to come forward and support a work calculated to promote their own honour and advantage. Let them not make as excuses the being unaccustomed to write, want of style, &c. but let them fix on a subject, begin it at once, and write straight on to the end, regardless of every thing but the correctness of their statements. This done once or twice, a good style will come of itself. 10 PART I. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. ART. I. On the present State of Gardening in Ireland, with Hints for its future Improvement. By Mr. JAMes Fraser, Gardener, author of a Letter to the President and VicePresident of the Horticultural Society of Ireland. THOSE who are practically acquainted with the improve ments which have been made in Horticulture for these twenty years past in Britain, and have not visited Ireland, will scarcely credit the assertion, that during this time the art in the latter country has rather retrograded than advanced; that even around Dublin, the far-famed environs of Dublin, little, comparativ ly speaking, has been done. It is a fact which cannot be denied, that the numerous wealthy absentees have tended to injure gardening upon an extensive scale, as also to retard the modern improvements. But there are still numerous resident wealthy gentlemen, fond of every elegant enjoyment, who possess, generally speaking, demesnes of greater extent than is usually to be met with in England, which, in point of variety of surface, of hill and dale, of wood and water, are far more susceptible of every rural improvement. Yet, strange to say, we still plod on in the old beaten track; wedded to the old customs, the gardener looks upon every new method introduced as an innovation on his rights; and the employer cares little for those elegancies which render a country life delightful, but feels content if the wants of the family are supplied. There is one obvious cause, however, that has contributed in no small degree to produce the evil of which we complain, namely, the employment of men as gardeners not regularly bred to the business, at a low rate of wages:-men of a very limited education, who are treated as mere indoor servants, placed on an equality with them, and hold their places on the same uncertain tenure. Under these circumstances, we do contend, that it is morally impossible for im provements on an extensive scale, or where success depends upon any degree of accuracy in their application, to be carried into effect; and it is more than reasonable to expect that gardeners not feeling an interest in their situation, will enter warmly into any thing tending to the permanent benefit of the place; they will take advantage of such crops as may be produced, without any regard to the ultimate consequences. While on this subject, it is but fair to state that the gentry of Ireland have evinced an extraordinary degree of luke-warmness, in not coming forward to establish a horticultural society, after the noble practical examples set before them in the sister kingdoms. The society bearing the name of the horticultural society of Ireland, under the management of nurserymen and practical gardeners in the neighbourhood of Dublin, is too local in its influence to advance the art in a national point of view. These strictures, as regard the relative situations of gardeners, and the taste of their employers, we are happy to say, are only applicable in a very general sense. There are many honorable exceptions. In the course of our observations, we shall feel great pleasure in showing that, where the proprietors have given proper encouragement, their gardens vie, in point of extent, design, and management, and their gardeners in point of respectability and intelligence in their profession, with any in the empire. There are three botanic gardens in this country; two in Dublin, the other in Cork. The last mentioned is small in. extent, and the collection of plants few, comparatively speaking. Of the two in Dublin, one belongs to the Dublin Society, the other to Trinity College. The former is the largest in the mpire, and in point of picturesque beauty is wholly unequalled. The botanic gardens in Dublin possess this advantage over those in Britain, namely, a classical arrangement of trees and shrubs. It has often occurred to us, as an extraordinary circumstance, the great attention paid in the British botanic gardens to the collecting and arranging of herbaceous plants, while the greater part of trees and shrubs have been, till of late, neglected. The Dublin Society's garden is open to the public. A course of lectures is delivered annually, which is also free, and even the young men employed in the garden are obliged to attend. This garden was not laid out and managed by the late Dr. Wade, the professor of Botany, as was generally supposed, but by the present calented superintendant, Mr. W. Underwood. Mr. Mackay, the curator of the College garden, is so well known as an indefatigable botanist, that any observation here regarding him would be quite superfluous. All these botanic gardens are ably described in the Edinburgh and Gardening Encyclopedias. The only public grounds about Dublin are contained in the Phoenix Park, in which are also the country residences of the Lord Lieutenant, Chief and Under Secretaries, &c. This Park is very extensive, and the grounds are more elevated and contain a greater variety of surface than any of the Royal Parks in the vicinity of London. There appears to have been no general design in the disposition of the trees, if we except the alternate groups of English elm, on each side of the public road, and the trees around the residences we have just mentioned. A great many hawthorns have been irregularly scattered throughout the grounds, and during the administration of Earl Talbot several very formal groups and clumps were made without the least regard to the general ornament of the place. It is to be regretted that some professional landscape gardener was not employed in the ornamenting of this Park, for if it was judiciously planted, due advantage being taken of the numerous objects within itself, and of the endless variety of delightful scenery which surround it, assuredly there would be nothing like it in the empire. The enclosure around the Lord Lieutenant's house is of itself a very charming little demesne, and contains several fine ornamental trees. We observed some large well formed trees of the Ulmus parvifolia, generally confounded with the common English elm, which, from the different mode of growth, form a fine contrast with the nemoralis. There are several very fine oaks to the westward of the house, where the woody character has been properly preserved. The gardens are extensive in every department, and are admirably kept by the present superintendant, Mr. Robson. There is nothing very interesting or grand about them; on the contrary, all is plain, neat, and economical. The fruit trees on the walls are well managed. We observed a beautiful variety of pyracantha against the walls of one of the little enclosures near the gardener's house, with deep scarlet haws. Mr. Robson has been in the habit of propagating in autumn, by cuttings, large quantities of the different free growing sorts of pelargoniums, hemmemerises, and heliotropes, &c. which he keeps over the winter in frames, and in spring plants out distinctly in separate beds throughout the flower garden, where they blow during the summer and autumn in great luxuriance. Having had a number of plants this year of the Cobœa scandens, he planted several of them against walls, palings, &c. and their growth was really amazing. They all fruited, and many of them are likely to ripen seed. We mention this circum |