iSyi.] VINES AND VINE-BORDERS. 3 



cuous correspondence ; and all of that nature that reaches us will meet 

 with conscientious consideration and treatment — for it is gratifying to 

 think that gardeners are the only class of servants who, almost entirely, 

 support a literature of their own. This consideration alone prevents us 

 from endorsing much that has been bandied about the ignorance of 

 gardeners as a class; and, taking it as one criterion among many, it may 

 fairly be asked if they are not the most intelligent and not the least 

 moral of any class of servants in receipt of the same amount of re- 

 muneration. Perhaps it may be said that this is not saying much for 

 gardeners. It is at all events something said, if not much. They cer- 

 tainly deserve this credit — that as a class of servants they do more to 

 improve themselves and their brethren than any other that we know of. 

 The exigencies of our position render it absurd to think that we can 

 entice into our ranks the youth of superior education, at least until a 

 national system of compulsory education has left us none other. 



Our counsel to those who have been smitten with the poetry of the 

 garden is to do all in their power to improve their education, just 

 because they are men and gardeners, and to lend others a helping hand 

 in some way or other. Search the universe, and it will be found that 

 the most stunted objects of nature are among those that dispense the 

 least to others ; and the human mind is affected by the same law of 

 being. The more you dispense your own stores of knowledge, the 

 greater do they become. Just as the mountain-tops, instead of bottling 

 up the rains, send them down in cheering and sparkling streams to 

 refresh and water the plains betwixt them and the sea, receive all 

 back again ; or as the earth receives the flashing streams of light and 

 heat into her bosom, not to selfishly store them, but to gratefully yield 

 them up in fragrance, beauty, and nourishment to man and beast, 

 ultimately receiving herself the fullest benefit of all that she dispenses. 

 Let us thus act during the year 1871, that we may the more consis- 

 tently and hopefully anticipate ^' a happy new year." 



VINES AND VINE-BORDERS. 



I HAVE no doubt the readers of the ' Gardener,' like those of every 

 other horticultural periodical, consider they have had quite enough of 

 the subjects I have chosen for this and a few other papers of recent 

 years. Be that as it may, I think there is a good deal to be said on 

 the subjects in hand yet, and I mean to contribute my quota, and I 

 hope others will do the same. 



Nearly all gardeners of any extent of experience must have observed 

 that certain vineries become suddenly famous for their crops of Grapes, 



