THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 19 



a man who ought to have secured out of his earnings a fund on which to 

 fall hack for support, and who would hare done so had his earnings been 

 sufficient. The rate of wages is a public question, and those who contri- 

 bute either by poor-rate alone or by the additional aid of private benevo- 

 lence to the support of the unfortunate, the disabled, and the aged, have a 

 right to demand that those who enjoy service, should pay for it sufficient 

 to enable the servant to live in decency on his own resources, and during 

 the days of his strength lay by something for contingencies. Our friend 

 finds his wages insufficient, and therefore has set up a small nursery, the 

 management of which compels him to labour instead of resting during 

 every moment of his home leisure. Before he goes to tho house in the 

 morning, he gets through a little of his home-work ; during his dinner- 

 time he does a little more, and after dark he sits athispotting-tencj., and, 

 with the help of a lantern, prepares his compost, shifts his young stock, 

 and keeps his fires going. During his absence, his wife attends to the sale 

 of goods, and thus they keep house and home in a degree of comfort that 

 might make them the envy of their neighbours, were it not visible to all 

 that the man is overworked, and is shortening his life by the consumption 

 of his strength and manhood. 



Some of our readers will be ready to cite the wages of gardeners in 

 their own districts to prove that our friend is supremely well off. About 

 London the salaries of head gardeners vary much. At establishments 

 where plants are grown for exhibition, and where the well-to-do proprie- 

 tors show a liberal hand in the whole economics of their households, the 

 head gardener invariably has a comfortable house and an enviable social 

 position ; but the under gardeners can boast of little either in comfort or 

 social position. The average rate of eighteen shillings a week is a 

 miserable stipend, and if it suffices to keep flesh and blood together during 

 the season of activity, it affords no resources against the dull time of year, 

 when, for weeks together, gardening operations are wholly or partially 

 suspended. 



We hear of "frozen-out gardeners," and have seen a troop of beggars 

 carrying bunches of green stuff mounted on poles, but we never yet knew 

 of a bondjidc gardener who could stoop to beg for bread. They starve at 

 home, nevertheless ; and the dispensations of Providence, by which the 

 hoar frost is scattered "like ashes," is to them no occasion for rejoicing 

 at the fulfilment of the promise that " winter " should " never cease;" 

 but a time of doleful misery, with an empty cupboard, hungry children's 

 faces, and the want of clothing and fire. We never hear of frozen-out 

 painters, carpenters, bricklayers, masons, et hoc genus omnc, because they 

 can earn sufficient in the season of activity to be enabled to tide over the 

 severities of winter without a prospect of the workhouse. 



We say that the rate of wages is a concern for the community, and 

 that gardeners generally are insufficiently paid ; and, therefore, the com- 

 munity have a right to complain against employers, and to demand of 

 them that they deal liberally with those who are employed to minister to 

 the most refined necessities of civilized life. 



Gardening should inspire, in all who are interested in the pursuit, 

 whether for profit or pleasure, or both combined, an earnest desire after 

 truth and goodness. Every blade of grass and every flower that appears 

 in its due season reminds us of the Almighty Creator, whose power is 

 manifested in its life, and whose desire to add to man's enjoyment is ex- 



