Gardeners seldom want for confidence in
their own abilities; but this affair of raising perpendiculars upon a
given line is a thing settled in a moment: you have nothing to do but to
say to the gardener, "Come, let us see how you do it." He has but one way
in which he can do it; and, if he do not immediately begin to work in that
way, pack him off to get a bricklayer, even a botch in which trade will
perform the work to the truth of a hair.
_Seeds._
I incline to the opinion, that we should try seeds as our ancestors tried
witches; not by fire, but by water; and that, following up their practice,
we should reprobate and destroy all that do not _readily_ sink.
_Melons._
It is a received opinion, a thing taken for granted, an axiom in
horticulture, that _melon_ seed is the _better_ for being
_old_. Mr. Marshall says, that it ought to be "_about four years
old_, though some prefer it _much older_." And he afterwards
observes, that "if new seed only _can be had_, it should be carried a
week or two in the breeches-pocket, to dry away some of the more watery
particles!" If _age_ be a recommendation in rules as well as in
melon-seed, this rule has it; for English authors published it, and French
authors _laughed at it_, more than a _century past!_
Those who can afford to have melons raised in their gardens, can afford to
keep a _conjuror_ to raise them; and a conjuror will hardly
condescend to follow _common sense_ in his practice.
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