PROSPECTS OF GARDENERS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



wants and miseries of mankind," at the same time that they are administering to the in 

 terests of themselves. 



" Gardeners are badly paid" — "there is no profession of whose members so much and 

 so varied duties are required, at so small a remuneration." These have now become pro- 

 verbs. To be "paid like a gardener," has become parallel to be " shod like a shoema- 

 ker's wife." But how can this be remedied? Not by repining or complaining, but by 

 constant and untiring endeavors to show that we are worth more than we get — by leaving 

 nothing undone that may let those who employ us know that our profession is a difficult 

 one, and requires much cost and labor to arrive at any perfection in — and by leaving no 

 opportunity to pass by which may lead us to the intelligence of how we may still be more 

 useful to those who employ us. 



It has been remarked by a correspondent in the July number of this Journal, that " a 

 dozen gardeners, who live with some of the first merchants in New-York city, do not 

 receive more money than is paid their porters for the scientific purpose of nailing up a 

 packing box." I have reason to believe that American employers are far more open to a 

 sense of the justice of a fair remuneration to useful intelligence, than English gentlemen; 

 and I would suggest the merchants in question are unacquainted with the labor and cost 

 that it requires to make a first rate gardener; at any rate never have given it a thought. 

 The gentlemen which Mr. Quinn alludes too, as giving fair wages to their gardeners, 

 do know this fact, and hence arises the difference. I know a fine garden in Connec- 

 ticut, that has some fine plant houses, in which some plants are grown that would not 

 disgrace a Chiswick exhibition, and which has or had as clever a gardener as ever came 

 to this country. This gardener was one of the "badly paid." Upon inquiring I fouxid 

 that none of the members of this family ever went into the garden or plant houses, from 

 one month's end to another. Can we expect gentlemen to pay for what they take no inte- 

 rest in? — or even if they do happen to take an interest, — for what they do not under- 

 stand? 



As I write these lines, I am strongly reminded of a maxim I learned while connected 

 with commercial gardening: — " He who can raise enough stock to supply a large and 

 varied market, is a 'smart' man; but he who can make a market for his stock, and 

 bring in its full value where no market already exists, is a ' smarter.' " In another 

 sense, this should be the aim of gardeners. If they find that they do not receive that 

 remuneration which their services are worth, and that a main cause of that is a want of 

 interest by employers in their profession, together with a want of knowledge as to its 

 pleasures, and the cost and labor which the gardener has had to put himself to, to make 

 himself capable of administering those pleasures — then it must be apparent that the re- 

 moval of these obstacles alone, must be his object. One great means of effecting this, is 

 to promote the extension and usefulness of horticultural societies and publications. They 

 demand the enthusiastic support of the gardener. I have met with some gardeners who 

 denounce them. I remember well that when the Gardener's Chronicle was first started 

 in England, the majority of gardeners in our district denounced it. It was asserted that 

 employers already " knew enough," and that if "such things" were encouraged, "the 

 gentry" would soon " know as much as themselves." A few gardeners, with more judg- 

 ment, knew that the more intimately the " gentry" were acquainted with gardening, the 

 more they would be acquainted with the worth of a gardener, and the more interest they 

 were likely to take in its pursuits. The sequel showed the correctness of their judgment 

 few men would now deny that the Gardener's Chronicle has done more in its estab- 

 ent towards the present position of gardening in England, with regard to its patron 



