1869.] DIFFICULTIES. 129 



experience tells me I should be wrong in doing so. They are also 

 extremely variable (many are but imaginary) — some require but a slight 

 effort' in order to surmount them, while others rise up like great and 

 mighty giants, and we have to strain every nerve before we can clear 

 them from our paths. Sometimes an older veteran will reach out his 

 hand and assist us in the fight. To those who do this our warmest 

 thanks are due. No one who possesses an honest heart can forget such 

 little acts of kindness from those who are placed in authority over us. 

 Some, it must be owned, jDlace difficulties in our way, perhaps because 

 we have at some time or other given them some slight offence, or 

 perhaps because they are ignorant of the exact way we are striking 

 out for ourselves. Let us forgive such frankly — a brave manly heart 

 never cries for revenge. 



One of the greatest difficulties common to young gardeners is a 

 want of inclination to study the various remarkable phsenomena 

 that are continually occurring in the vegetable kingdom around them. 

 There are hundreds of gardeners that work on from day to day with 

 a certain vague idea that ultimately they will be able to benefit their 

 profession ; this idea generally ends in nothing. Why ? Because they 

 are ignorant, not of the mere practical or physical part of their work, 

 but of those primary laws that ought to regulate it. 



If a gardener does not know something at least of vegetable physi- 

 ology, structural botany, and chemistry, his path will be strewed with 

 difficulties that it will be next to impossible for him to surmount. 

 Such men can but rarely give you a satisfactory " reason why." 



It may be taken as an axiom that where there exists an effect there 

 has been a cause. Every young gardener should think of this, and 

 when he sees any remarkable effect produced, should at once set 

 himself to discover the cause. This, for beginners, will be extremely 

 difficult at first, but rest assured you will learn something by your 

 failures, as well as by your successes. 



The want of books, time for study, etc., are all difficulties in a 

 young gardener's way onwards, but the greatest difficulty is want 

 of perseverance. "Where there's a will there's a way" should be 

 printed in letters of gold, and fastened up in every bothy throughout 

 the country. 



In a future number of the ' Gardener ' I propose to say a few 

 more words on this subject with the kind permission of its worthy 

 editor. Every one interested in horticulture will agree with me that 

 the condition of young gardeners is well worth considering ; not per- 

 haps for what they are at the present time, but we must, to get some 

 idea of their importance, consider the positions they, as a body, are 

 eventually destined to occupy. F. W. B. 



