18 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



terms of the kind that may suit their mutual interests ; and thousands of 

 gardeners keep their situations the year round, under such arrangements, 

 who otherwise would have employment only during spring and summer. 

 It is granted, that when a gardener hecomes stahleman, cowkeeper, pig- 

 feeder, and manager of poultry all in one, there is not much chance of his 

 getting profitable practice in horticulture, and generally those who employ 

 a man in such a capacity are content to have their places always tidy, and 

 care little about choice flowers, orchard-houses, or plant collections of 

 any kind whatever. But the question of wages applies to all cases ; no 

 matter how a man may be employed, he must have sufficient pay, or it is 

 unfair to expect from him a display of skill, or an unremitting application 

 of industry. Compared with the manual occupations of the bricklayer, 

 the carpenter, and other of the leading handicrafts, the gardener's occupa- 

 tion must stand first, not last, as to its mental and physical requirements. 

 Why, then, is the gardener paid lower wages than any of these classes of 

 operatives ? — why is he obliged to dabble in plants at home, in order to 

 eke out a living for himself and family, because his wages are insufficient ? 

 Let him grow as many varieties as he can in his own garden, according to 

 the turn of his taste, but if he has to depend partly on the produce of his 

 own ground for his maintenance, he must either rob his employer of his 

 time or overtax his energies by working at home when his proper day's 

 work is done. We have in our mind's eye an example in illustration of 

 this. On a gentleman's model farm, five miles from London, a worthy 

 man has occupied the situation of " gardener " for a period of not less 

 than fourteen years. He, of course, keeps the garden " in order," and it 

 is of large extent, and has as many hands as he chooses to employ to help 

 him out when the work presses heavily, and especially when fences require 

 dressing, or large breadths of ground are broken up for kitchen crops. 

 He is responsible for the care of the live stock, has three cows to milk 

 Sundays and weekdays, two horses to keep in trim, and a flock of thirty 

 or forty ewes to attend to in the lambing season. Add to tbis five acres of 

 meadow and the anxieties of haymaking, and you may conclude that this 

 man is neither a fool nor an idler. "Wejjcan testify of our own knowledge 

 that the employer is fortunate in having the services of a man gifted with 

 natural abilities for every department of rural life, and whose sobriety, 

 industry, and gentlemanly deportment make him a credit to the establish- 

 ment. There are those who would exclaim against the contract alto- 

 gether ; that a gardener should be a gardener, and nothing else ; that 

 master and man are both disgraced where the care of sheep and cattle de- 

 volves upon the servant who is also responsible for the care of the lawn, 

 the trees, the vegetables, and the flowers. This is a matter on 

 which such an expression of opinion amounts to meddling, because em- 

 ployer and enqfloyed are entitled to make what arrangements they please, 

 and if the employer cares more about his model farm than for his unin- 

 teresting garden, he is entitled to have his way ; but the matter of wages 

 fairly comes into the category of questions for public discussion; and when 

 we say that our friend obtains but twenty-five shillings a week for his 

 multifarious labours, we think it will be agreed that the employer has the 

 best of it. On such a pittance it is impossible for a man to maintain a 

 wife and family in decency near London ; and when sickness or old age 

 unfits him for longer service, there can be no prospect for such a man ex- 

 cept the workhouse. Then the public are burdened with a rate to maintain 



