1869.] DIFFICULTIES. 277 



of our typical tree is rendered more pleasant and comparatively easy 

 to what it was when its stem was smooth and free from such friendly 

 supporting aids. Then, again, as we press upwards we collect new 

 facts, which help to fill up the spaces that exist between those already 

 collected, thus lessening the distance — the intervening spaces that are 

 so difficult to climb. It is easy to climb the smoothest tree when the 

 trunk or bole is covered with branches on which to rest our feet or cling 

 with our hands ; so it is with us in obtaining knowledge : at the first 

 onset it is diflScult, but as our minds become stored with facts we find 

 it simplified, until our intellectual powers gradually develop them- 

 selves ; and when they have done so to a certain extent, we find it com- 

 paratively easy to proceed onwards. 



One of the difficulties that under-gardeners have to contend with is 

 the low wages which that class, as a general rule, obtain in return for 

 their services. The author of this article, at fifteen years of age, 

 started as " crock-boy " in a private garden with a salary of 6s. per 

 week ; out of this sum he paid 2s. per week to the head-gardener by 

 way of premium, and Is. per week for a bed. Some people object to 

 a young man paying a premium, and will even venture to assert that 

 a head-gardener has no right to take one from those under him. 

 I must maintain that he has, providing that his employer allows 

 him to do so, and he himself is fully comjyetent to teach them the 

 true principles of our noble calling ; more than this, if every head- 

 gardener were to insist upon a premium of 2s. or 3s. per week being 

 paid to them, it would be at least one way — a very effectual one, I 

 think — of obtaining only such young men into our gardens as have a 

 real love for the profession, which, it must be owned, is sadly encum- 

 bered with come-day-go-day sort of fellows, who care nothing for 

 either the science or practice of gardening. I am very much mis- 

 taken if many of these lethargic characters would consent to pay 

 for instructions they do not require, or rather do not wish to be 

 troubled with, even though they were to be had for nothing. I 

 am perfectly well aware that to make a young man pay a weekly 

 premium is to place a difficulty in his path ; but, at the same time, 

 if the gardener were competent to teach, and performed his duty 

 in a straightforward and proper manner, the young man would 

 eventually become convinced that after all it was a difficulty he 

 had done well in surmounting. Again, if a gardener would endeavour 

 to approach perfection in his calling, he must know something at least 

 of the theoretical portion of it, notwithstanding that there are some 

 who would have us believe — in fact, have attempted to prove — that 

 the theory of horticulture is neither necessary nor useful to the young 

 gardener. I, with due respect to their opinions, must contend that a 



