230 THE GARDENER. [May 



position of tlie articles of ornament, in plate or otherwise ; also 

 chandeliers, if not suspended; the number of the dishes of dessert must 

 also be ascertained through our other friend and auxiliary, the house- 

 keeper, and also their position. These primary points decided, we 

 proceed to reconnoitre the position and form a plan in the mind's eye ; 

 the rest is detail and easy — that is, if the sleight-of-hand mentioned 

 above is in command, without which we will not guarantee an elegant 

 result. The Squire's Gardener. 



THE QUINCE STOCK. 



More things than Pears are worked upon the Quince stock in these 

 days. Precociousness is a feature which is nut confined either to 

 gardening or the vegetable kingdom. Ptapidity of action is the char- 

 acteristic of the present age.- The world has been going on slow, 

 but is now getting up steam, and concentrating its energies for the 

 grand and final effort. The forces of creation seem as if they were 

 converging to a focus, and rush on with accelerating speed, as if dragged 

 forward by some gravitating influence that exerts an ever-increasing 

 power. Every year the pace quickens. The momentum is communi- 

 cated to everything, and pervades all branches of industry. Even the 

 children seem to grow up sooner nowadays, and have a Quince-stock 

 maturity about them, talk sense, and imitate their grandmothers be- 

 fore their teeth are well cut. Good old-world notions and customs 

 are disappearing at an alarming rate, leaving in many cases but tem- 

 porary substitutes behind them. Now and then, in some quiet Eng- 

 lish hamlet or rustic Scottish clachan, where picnics love to rendez- 

 vous and indulge the hereditary instincts of human nature, we light 

 upon that old-world leisureliness and stability of purpose which char- 

 acterised our progenitors before the age of railways and electric tele- 

 graphs. But even around these isolated spots the circle is gradually 

 narrowing ; and before their present inhabitants have gone to rest 



" Where the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep," 



the tide of progress will have swept over them, and borne away upon 

 its rapid current the last vestiges of a former age. 



To no profession or industry are these remarks more applicable than to 

 gardening. The concentration of thought and action which has been 

 brought to bear upon all questions relating to horticulture is now visible 

 in the almost complete mastery which the gardener exercises over every 

 kind of fruit and vegetable that comes under his care. Perhaps the most 



