1870.] GARDENERS IN AMERICA. 563 



GARDENERS AND GARDENING IN AMERICA. 



Mr William Robinson, the author of ' The Parks, Promenades, and Gardens of 

 Paris,' is at present making a tour through the United States of America. He has 

 written home some communications of a very interesting character, and the follow- 

 ing extract from one of them will not fail to interest many of our readers : — 



"No doubt many among the least fortunate gardeners in England look over 

 here with curious eyes, and may perhaps be interested in a few remarks on the 

 prospects of gardeners in this country. Of course I cannot pretend to know as 

 much about their chances here as persons who have been much longer in the 

 country, but I have perhaps seen as much of the gardening of the country since 

 coming here, as many who have been for years rooted in the spot. Of the capaci- 

 ties of the country for gardening I have no manner of doubt, notwithstanding the 

 complaints of many who have to do with it. To find a country or climate with- 

 out drawbacks, is not given to gardening men. In England, we often complain 

 of our cloudy skies, but here a brighter climate brings a murderous host of 

 insects, and the gardener finds a new source of grief and grumbling. But when 

 I reflect that in this country most things can be grown that we grow in England, 

 and that, on the other hand, not a few important products that with us require a 

 high artificial heat (Melons, for example) may be grown to perfection by merely 

 sowing them in the open air like common annuals, I have no hesitation in saying 

 that eventually this country will be found much more favourable for gardening than 

 our own. But to the professional gardener other things are of vital importance. 

 Of what avail to him are fertile soils, and fine and varied climates, if employers 

 are not to be had ? Now, in America there is a very large class who make money 

 freely — make it sometimes so rapidly as to astonish even Manchester — but it is a 

 fact that a very small proportion of these take anything like the interest in gar- 

 dens that corresponding classes do in England. Sundry reasons might be given 

 for this. Perhaps a good many of the new-rich are not sufficiently refined ; per- 

 haps all th-i money which they can devote to oeothetic purposes goes for the 

 absurdly large rings which decorate the fingers of themselves and their wives; 

 perhaps the amount of Nicotiana Virginica smoked and chewed may remove the 

 necessity for any other joys which the vegetable kiugdom can afford — but there 

 is little need to inquire. There are in America numbers of persons of highly- 

 refined taste, who delight in country and suburban life, and among these some 

 have good gardens, and are most agreeable masters ; but let it not be supposed 

 that even with these the life of a gardener is anything like what it is in England. 

 There is probably not a place in the country where a gardener has the same stand- 

 iug or the same comforts which fall to the lot of the first-class gardener in Eng- 

 land. Labour is so very expensive that no man can afford to keep a bevy of 

 workmen ; so manual labour from the head-gardener is indispensable. Thus 

 places for what are called first-class gardeners in England may be said not to 

 exist ! I have met young men who had been foremen in good places in England, 

 and who had got as good places as could be obtained here, who considered they 

 had made a mistake in leaving the old country. The rule here is, a small place 

 with one man or two to help ; and the master is usually master of the situation in 

 the garden, as well as in other departments, which we know is not always the 

 case in England. There he generally orders his own seeds and plants, which will 

 at once suggest a difference. Then, again, the pay, even in the best places, does 

 not leave a gardener better if so well off as he would be in England. But healthy, 

 hardy, young gardeners ought to be able to adapt themselves to the wants of a new 



