1880.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



155 



changed in some respects since first-class gar- 

 deners were in great demand. Tliere was a 

 time when clioice fruits, vegetables and flowers 

 were great luxuries. Only the wealthiest could 

 command them. And the wealthy were willing 

 to pay well for that intelligence which only 

 could raise them successfully by artificial means. 

 Since the age of steam the whole world is within 

 a few days of anybody's feet, and in the depth 

 of snow and ice the fruits and vegetables of the 

 tropics are cheaply at command. It is true that 

 these cannot be brought from distant places 

 quite as nice and as good as a first-class gardener 

 could make them. There are some who still 

 will have the best, but the facts we have stated 

 have cut down immensely the " great places." 

 Another difficulty has been that as good places 

 grew scarcer, it became harder for good garden- 

 ers to find them. Employers not well able to 

 distinguish between the good or the bad, or "ex- 

 perts " not being able to lay their hands on them 

 just as needed, poor fellows get into the good 

 places and disgust employers. Not long since, 

 we saw a "Tomato-house" for forcing. The 

 winter expense could have been hardly less than 

 $150, and three poor little plum-like fruits were 

 all so far up to the middle of January. There 

 are many other influences which we have not 

 space to enumerate, which keep down the de- 

 mand for the best educated class of gardeners. 



On the other hand, there is an immense field 

 for highly intelligent landscape gardeners and 

 florists. There is scarcely a large town in the 

 country where there is not at the present time 

 an opening for a good man of this class. At the 

 present time " florists" with little greenhouses 

 may be found almost everywhere ; but large 

 numbers of them are dirty, ignorant fellows, 

 who have no possible influence on the commu- 

 nity, yet they manage to " get on," and in many 

 cases get rich. Yery few take a gardening pa- 

 per, or indeed a paper of any kind, and know 

 absolutely nothing of anything under the sun 

 than to potter among the filth of a few slimy 

 flower-pots, in a "greenhouse" which a respect- 

 able pig would grumble at. We have noted for 

 some time past that wherever the intelligent 

 gardener goes he is welcomed. There is a uni- 

 versal want to know about gardens and plant- 

 houses and trees, and fruits and flowers. There 

 are few gardening examples in our country. 

 The florist must make his own customers. The 

 people are willing to be educated, and to pay 

 for the education. The gardener who knows all 



about trees and flowers, — who understands the 

 principles of landscape beauty, and how to ap- 

 ply them cheaply and effectively to small places 

 as well as large ones, — who has good command 

 of the pen, the pencil and the tongue, — who 

 knows enough of natural history and branches 

 of science connected with gardening to make his 

 company pleasant, and who to these accomplish- 

 ments has fair business ability, and who has, say 

 four or five hundred dollars to sustain himself 

 with until he becomes known, will find an 

 " opening" waiting for him in hundreds of towns 

 in our country. 



In brief, for combined intelligence and busi- 

 ness ability, there were never better opportuni- 

 ties for success in the gardening world than now. 

 For intelligent gardening without business 

 ability, — and for the mere average " gardener" 

 we fear the demand is not equal to the supply. 



Floricultural Missionaries. — It is sur- 

 prising that those who love flowers and garden- 

 ing, and know how much their own pleasure is 

 advanced by having nice gardens and flower 

 culture everywhere about them, do no more 

 than they often do to increase a love for flower 

 culture in their neighbors. Now and then 

 some one sees the point and tries. Before us is 

 a series of letters in the Melrose Journal., by our 

 esteemed correspondent Mrs. Edson. She tells 

 the Melrose people that it is not to their credit 

 that they have not the weakest pretension to 

 any public garden ; and suggests that an associa- 

 tion for the cultivation of aesthetic taste would 

 be of as much use to the town as "jubilee con- 

 certs," and various " unholy " devices for amus- 

 ing the people. She would also have tree-plant- 

 ing associations, and says: " My idea is for the 

 town to pass a law authorizing the association 

 to select and plant suitable trees,— and see them 

 properly cared for, — in all our streets where 

 there are not enough already, the abuttors to 

 pay the cost of the same. Perhaps there is 

 some better way. I merely offer this as a pass- 

 ing suggestion." 



She closes her admirable remarks by the fol- 

 lowing piece of " gospel" truth : " Coming now 

 to the practical value of all ornamental planting 

 and garden decoration, real estate dealers (and 

 they will not, I think, be accused of being sen- 

 timentalists), will tell you that there is no bet- 

 ter way of improving the value and saleability of 

 property, than the tasteful laying out of the 

 grounds belonging to it; a house, be it ever so 

 grand and imposing in architectural design, with 



