312 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[October, 



bridge House; thence to Kinghorn's Nursery .Rich- 

 mond ; thence successively to Wal ford's, Reeves 

 & Bros., Acton and Notting Hill, and Carter & 

 Co.'s nurseries, staying a year or two in each 

 place, as it suited me; my employers understood 

 that my aim was to improve myself. Being of- 

 fered a free passage to Fredericton, N. B., with 

 a situation for one or more years, I accepted it, 

 wishing for a change. At the end of my first 

 year, I desired to see Boston, and made my way 

 to the largest fioricultural establishment. I 

 sought an interview with C. M. Hovey, Esq., 

 whom I shall ever respect for the kindness he 

 showed me, a stranger and foreigner. He tiften 

 gave employment to such when he did not need 

 them. I was in their emploj' some two years, 

 which I think I may say proved satisfactory on 

 both sides. Desiring again a change, I spent a 

 year in the employ of W. C. Strong, florist and nur- 

 seryman, Brighton, Mass. Having a good private 

 place offered me at Fredericton, N. B., I accepted 

 and returned to that town, and held it nearly 

 three years. Seeing an opening here for busi- 

 ness, a gentleman of means offered me a loan 

 of five hundred dollars at reasonable interest, 

 for buying land, building house, and putting 

 up a little glass. He also wished me to pay some 

 attention to his garden and • greenhouses. His 

 place was not large enough to keep a gardener 

 the year round. The plan proved very satisfac 

 tory to both ; and now I am in a position either 

 to work or not when not busy, or reserve it for 

 something to fall back upon. 



Now I do not wish to be understood as boast- 

 ing. I am not in New York, Philadelphia or 

 Boston, but in poor, cold, long-wintered New 

 Brunswick ; and I have reason to believe I could 

 do far better in more stirring places. Service is 

 but service after all. Some employers are very 

 unreasonable ; or worse still, their wives, — when 

 they come and snatch the plant out of your 

 hand to show you how to plant it. Such con- 

 duct ill becomes a lady, I do not mean to say 

 the employers are always in fault and the gar- 

 dener right. The contrary is no doubt often as 

 true. Many gardeners, in my own experience, 

 are far better at talking and writing than work- 

 ing, yet make woful mistakes in practice. Such 

 as I have reference to had better keep employed 

 by rich men. Don't start for yourself or woe be 

 to you. But those who can make a bouquetj 

 wreath or cross quickly and tastefully, grow 

 plants of any country or clime, or propagate 

 them, lay out a garden, or make a croquet 



ground, or show an attractive example in the 

 laying out and planting of the ground under 

 their own special care ; these are the men who 

 have served so well that they may start for 

 themselves, if a promising opening presents 

 itself. 



Don't tell the people what wonders you have 

 done or are going to do. Example goes a long 

 way, and is the best means of educating the peo- 

 ple up to a higher standard of horticultural taste. 

 When people come some distance to look over 

 your fence at your well laid out plot and well 

 arranged flower beds in harmenious variation 

 of colors, or in winter, at your Roses, &c., under 

 glass, you will have the best class of people seek 

 for your society and advice, and copy your ideas. 

 They will rely upon you ; pay you well to build 

 them rockeries, arrange their greenhouses and 

 make them lists of trees, plants, shrubs, &c. 

 They will build up your trade. 



Your remarks, Mr. Editor, as to some garden- 

 ers and gardening, are too true. Their slatternly 

 plants, flowers, and their greenhouses scarcely 

 tit for a pig sty, are not congenial to the princi- 

 ples and qualities they are supposed to represent 

 — love, joy, faith, innocence and purity. 



There is another important matter about com- 

 mencing business. Many begin in too large a 

 way, and go in debt to start too largely. Creep 

 before you walk. Keep down expenses until 

 you see what you can do, and what demand 

 there is. Aim at having just what the people 

 want. Always keep a lookout at what others do 

 successfully. Utilize every moment of your time 

 to advantage. It does not pay to do without 

 horticultural papers any more than moral in- 

 struction. Let theory and practice go together. 

 Be thoroughly industrious in your own place. 

 Act square with all you deal with. Don't be 

 mean in any way or your business will die a 

 natural death. A bouquet or plant occasionally 

 thrown in does not lose anything. If you pos- 

 sess most of these characteristics be courageous; 

 I will risk you making a living. 



NOTES AND QUERIES-No. 17. 



BY JACQUES. 



One of the greatest sources of enjoyment result- 

 ing from the possession of a garden is the endless 

 variety which it affords, both in the process of 

 vegetation as it goes forward to maturity, dor- 

 mancy or decay, and in the almost innumerable 

 kinds of plants which may be raised even in the 

 smallest garden. Add to it a small greenhouse 



