Abstract
THIS is one of the series of small handbooks on the British maufacturing industries, edited by Mr. G. Phillips Bevan, of which we have already noticed several volumes. A compact work on practical gardening, to serve as a guide to the amateur gardener and fruit-grower, was much wanted, and this volume to a certain extent supplies the desideratum. After a short chapter on commercial gardening, the author treats of the cultivation of fruit, and of the various descriptions of vegetables and herbs; and then of gardening in its various departments, but more from the economical than from the amateur's point of view. If the owner of a garden wants to turn his bit of land to the most profitable account, he will find Mr. Burbidge an admirable guide; but if he infers from the title of the book that he will obtain from it advice as to the treatment of his pelargoniums, fuchsias, and chrysanthemums, or the management of his hothouses, he will be disappointed. We fancy that information of this kind would commend itself to a larger number of readers than the guide-book information of the exact number of acres in each of our London parks, and the annual cost of maintaining them. The advice as to the culture of fruit and vegetables seems to us very good; but the rather poor woodcuts do not add to the value of the volume.
Horticulture.
By F. W. Burbidge. With Illustrations. (London: E. Stanford, 1877.)
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Our Book Shelf . Nature 17, 142 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/017142a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/017142a0