PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
This little treatise is intended as an inducement to young Gardeners especially, to seek for the reasons on which the operations of their daily practice are founded, and by which they are regulated. This announcement is here made, in order to prevent any reader from supposing that the author has unduly estimated the opinions of those who have benefited by a long course of application and experience. As, however, there can be no doubt that there is much to be learned, so is there but little question that there is also much to be unlearned, in the present state of the Science of Horticulture; and these pages are offered without hesitation, as a mite among the accumulating mass of available information on gardening subjects; and in the hope that some amongst those who are seeking to extend their knowledge, may at least be stimulated by their perusal, if they are not otherwise directly benefited.
The great truths which it is the object of this treatise to impress, are these: that the ultimate success of gardening operations does not depend on the performance of any part of them, at a particular time, or in a particular or even superior manner, but rather upon the supplying, in a natural manner, as far as possible, all the conditions which are necessary to the nutrition and perpetuation of plants; and, that it is within the open pathway of Science, and not the bye-ways of empiricism, that the finger-post of direction should be sought.
Royal Botanic Garden, Regent’s Park,
March 2nd, 1844.