The Gardener's Opportunity 



By M. C. Ebel. 



The subject selected tonight is one so broad that it will 

 permit of most any discus^i()^ which centres about the 

 gardener. I shall, however, attempt to confine m\self 

 strictly to a discourse on the real opportunity which is 

 presenting itself to the gardener, as an individual, and to 

 his profession as a whole. 



There was never a time in the history of gardening in 

 this country, if I am correctlx informed on conditions as 

 they have been in the past, and based on my observation 

 of developments of the last few years and on an imagi- 

 nary perspective of what the future holds out for horti- 

 culture and floriculture in this land of ours, when the 

 prospects for the man who has selected as his life work 

 the cultivation of the soil's ])roduction, have been so 

 bright. But whether this rosy view of mine will ma- 

 terialize rests almost entirely with the gardener. It is 

 clearly up to him and to his jn-ofession. 



It is possible to interest people who have the resources 

 to maintain fine estates to invest in them, but this, we 

 know, is hardly within the province of the gardener : it 

 rests with the man with the real estate for sale, the com- 

 merecial horticulturist and landscape architect, but their 

 combined efiforts could not maintain this interest in the 

 ow-ner of an estate long if he cannot find a man efficient 

 to manage his estates after it has been created for him. 



Many instances have been brought to my notice 

 where opportunities for the right sort of men have been 

 shattered by some unscrupulous fellows accepting posi- 

 tions as superintendents or supervisors of private 

 ])laces when they were realh- not qualified to pass as 

 first-class gardeners. It is often the case that an owner 

 of an estate meets with such an experience in the first 

 selection of his gardener and then he is just human 

 enough to judge the entire profession by his first choice 

 of what he believed to be a gardener. Of course, the 

 estate owner, I may say, invariably, has only himself 

 to blame when he meets with such an experience. He 

 is not careful enough in his investigations of the man 

 whom he selects to manage his establishment: con- 

 sequently he is very often deceived in the capabilities 

 of a man, as compared to what he professes his ability 

 to be. This is due very fre<picntly to the fact that the 

 estate owner himself is not familiar with what the high 

 calling of the profession of gardening really is. Some 

 never learn to look upon the gardener as a professional 

 man, but rather as a working man. 



Then take the layman, who estimates a gardener to 

 be just a little above the ordinary laborer, he is not 

 entirely to blame for his misconception of a real gar- 

 dener. He has only come in contact with the class of 

 the many so-called gardeners, whom one of our 

 wealthiest estate owners, here in the East, described 

 as a man who having once hoed the ground, planted a 

 few onions, raked a few potatoes, acquired a pair of 

 boots, and a spade, and then went forth into the world 

 as a gardener. 



If the real gardeners desire to alter this o])inion of 

 our deceived public, and they certainly should, they 

 must interest themselves to eliminate from their pro- 

 fession those who pass as gardeners on practically no 

 other qualification than having been engaged as 

 laborers for a time. They labor for a few seasons on 

 garden patches, while the Winter months are spent 

 following most any other vocation, to give them a roof 

 over their heads — they have a very limited practical 

 experience, absolutely no training and arc entirely void 



(jf any theoretical knowledge pertaining to the work 

 which they claim to l)e their calling and many of them 

 in all likelihood have never regarded what they choose 

 as their calling in the light of a profession. 



Of course, we know that such men are not entrusted 

 with an extensi\e ])lace for an}' length of time, al- 

 though occasionally one secures an appointment to a 

 first-class position to stop long enough to do sufficient 

 mischief to make things unpleasant for his successor, 

 and so for a wdiile manages to get better compensation 

 for work badly done than some of our gardeners wdio 

 establish show places on an area of a very few acres. 



There are today small places in nearly every com- 

 munity which would offer excellent opportunities to 

 the younger men in the profession, if the owners of 

 these places could he enlightened, so as to distinguish 

 between what we will term so-called gardeners and 

 real gardeners. 



With manv owners of country homes, even with a 

 limited area oi ground, if they knew that they could 

 have flowers, plants and vegetables in their gardens 

 such as the}- see on large places, cost would become a 

 secondary factor, and they would be ambitious to have 

 equally as good on their small places as is found on 

 their neighbors' more pretentious estates. They ha\'e 

 not been educated to the fact that all depends on culti- 

 vation, and man}- still believe that the finest plants are 

 only for the really rich. If the fact may be brought to 

 the attention of these owners of small country places 

 that it all rests with the gardener as to whether they 

 shall have choice flowers and fine fruits and vegetables 

 — and that a man is not a gardener simply because he 

 professes to be one — what a boon this should prove to 

 the gardening profession and it should expand the op- 

 portunities for those engaged in it. 



Xow we are confronted with the problem "How is 

 this to be accomplished?" If you should ask me I 

 should have to assume the attitude of a political re- 

 former always agitating reforms who, when asked how 

 t<i institute his reforms, usually replies, 'T do my part 

 in advocating, 'tis for you to work it out." 



It is no doubt a perplexing problem, but one which 

 can be solved if conscientious thought is given it by 

 some of the men associated with the profession who 

 have demonstrated their ability in many ways to cope 

 with big problems. These men w^ould hardly derive 

 anv direct benefit from the efforts they may put forth 

 to educate those outside of their profession that there 

 is a decided distinction between the real and so-called 

 gardener, but they will help the younger element of 

 the profession bv opening up the positions to them 

 which are now being filled by those who are not en- 

 titled to the calling of gardener. 



.\ word to the young gardeners who are securing 

 their training entirely through practice and not throu.gh 

 theoretical knowledge. We are in an age where col- 

 lege training is accepted as of great advantage to a 

 man and it is no longer questioned that college men 

 are sought to fill some of the best positions on private 

 estates. This, of course, will become an increasing 

 detriment to those who are disposed to be content with 

 practice alone and do not endeavor to combine some 

 theoretical knowledge with their practical experience. 



It is best, however, to face the situation, though we 

 mav dislike to admit that it exists at all, and if it is 

 witiiin the power of those confronted with it to do so, 



