One word as to the management of villa residences; and that is, to recommend the employment of superior gardeners. For the sake of an apparent saving of 10l. a year, a gardener is employed who has very little knowledge of his profession, and under whose care half the uses and enjoyments which a garden and villa grounds are calculated to produce are lost. We believe it is very difficult to convince men of this who have become wealthy by habits of rigid economy: they know little difference between a gardener and a common country labourer. Our test for hiring a gardener would be, his being a reader; for, in the present state of the art, it is quite impossible to be a good general gardener without not only the habit of reading, but of reading a good deal. In many places, in the interior of the country, good gardeners are not easily obtained, unless it be from the London nurseries; but it is to be hoped that the number of good gardeners will be every where increased through the instrumentality of the local botanical and horticultural societies. That at Manchester, having a regular school for teaching young men, promises to do much in this respect.
