734 



HOETICULTUEE 



November 29. 1918 



ORIGINAL GARDENERS. 



HoBTicuLTUBE has furnished us 

 lately with serveral articles on "The 

 Gardener and His Field." They are 

 like almost everything else that is 

 written, argued from the standpoint of 

 ideal conditions. I suppose it is best 

 for us to have an ideal set before us, 

 or we might fall asleep by the way. 

 Some gardeners I have known to be 

 fond of sleep, did not climb very high 

 In their profession, neither have some 

 of us who are conceited enough to be- 

 lieve we are very much awake. I 

 should like to read a well written book 

 entitled, "The Success of the Gardener 

 Who Has Failed, and the Failure of 

 the Gardener Who Has Succeeded." 



Carlyle wrote a book I believe on 

 clothes, but I never remember seeing 

 clothes advocated as making harmony 

 between the gardener and his employer 

 before. I like good clothes, but I have 

 been taught — in fact I have read In a 

 popular and very ancient volume, that 

 these coverings were the result of any- 

 thing but what we ought to be proud 

 of. 1 have been a gardener since 1883. 

 and during the Intervening time I 

 have worked under gardeners that 

 were employed by royalty and other 

 titled nobility in Great Britain, also 

 under gardeners for American million- 

 Blres. Some of these men stood high 

 in their profession, and held the po- 

 sition of friend as well as gardener 

 to their employer, but the enviable po- 

 sition of friend was not attained by 

 attire, for these men were always at 

 the dirtiest end of the Job on hand, 

 thereby gaining the confidence and 

 goodwill of their assistants, which is 

 the aim of every true leader of men. 

 It was their originality that gained the 

 good will of their employer, and if I 

 observe human beings correctly, it will 

 do so not only in horticulture but in 

 every department of life. In all walks 

 of life the majority of us are anything 

 but original, and I venture to assert 

 that this great failure is the cause of 

 lack of harmony between the gardener 

 and the owners of estates. These 

 gentlemen do not want what every- 

 body else has; they are tired of same- 

 ness and that is one reason why the 

 rich are making homes in the wilds, 

 especially in summer. But after all is 

 said and done, there are some mighty 

 bad and unreasonable employers, and 

 some very poor gardeners who are as 

 unreasonable as they are, and how to 

 get the two hitched would require 

 more originality than I know of. 

 Nothing perfect "under the sun" — not 

 even originality. 



George P. Stewart. 

 Medtord, Mass. 



CHRYSANTHEMUM WM. TURNER IN OKLAHOMA. 



LOCKJAW. 



Editor Hobticui.tuke: 



In last week's issue of your paper 

 Mr. Jenkins had an interesting article. 

 Interesting in many -ways, and many 

 of your readers, and especially rose 

 growers after reading would be liable 

 to get the shakes. The letter is so 



The following letter which came to the office of Horticultdre a tew days 

 ago tells the story of the picture here shown. Oklahoma seems to be all 

 right: 



HORTICULTURE, Boston. Mass. 



In your issue of HORTICrLTIJKK, November l.'ith. I noticed in the account 

 of the Ccmnecticut Hortioultur.nl Soclet.v (Chr.vsnnthemuni Night) where a vnse of 

 William Turner, shown by Mr. Cphelins, created (|Ulte n .sons.ition on account of some 

 of the blooms measuriniir 2.'!M; inches in <'ircumferencc. I emlose photoiirnph of three 

 William Turner blooms ineasurine lift'i inclies In circumference. I only hjid 2.5 plants 

 and the blooms all measured from 2."! indies to 2(!'/i inches in circumference. They 

 were grown in a bench, the soil being three Inches deep. 



J.\me.s Rust, Gardener to Charles Page, 



Sand Springs, Olka. 



peculiarly shaded that in reading it 

 one gets the impression that the late 

 James Brydon died from the effects of 

 a scratch from a rose thorn. Nothing 

 could be more misleading. Mr. Bry- 

 don, as I have always understood, got 

 his hand scratched on a brass door 

 knob when entering one of the green 

 houses at South Lancaster, which later 

 developed into blood poisoning. 



We have a lot of stuff thrown at us 

 each week by correspondents and 

 others, and we have to wade through 

 it. to get the real meaning of the arti- 

 cle. There are some private garden- 

 ers who, getting hold of a Latin name, 

 can weave a story round it that would 

 almost make us believe that Noah w;is 

 born in 1913. The rose grower has 

 his own troubles without having any 

 more added. It takes years some- 

 times to build up a trade in a com- 

 modity; then along comes some dis- 

 turber and sets up a needless hue and 

 cry which reaches the public. Money 

 invested, experience, labor, everything 

 is at a loss. X have had my arms 

 scratched, and the red blood flowed 

 and cow manure in contact at that 



and never have had ill effects. The 

 most of the rose growers have gone 

 through the same experience and do 

 it every day. We don't know what 

 may be in store for us in the future, 

 hut looking back many years, as far 

 as my vision carries me, I never knew 

 of a case where lockjaw was caused 

 by a scratch from a rose thorn. When 

 a boy I remember a gentleman who 

 cut his thumb in cutting a piece of 

 laurel, and died in a few hours. A 

 few weeks ago a titled lady in London 

 was stung by a wasp, and died before 

 help could be had. and, lastly, in 

 Natick Hospital there is a young man 

 dying from lockjaw, the result of hav- 

 ing stepped on a rusty nail. If Mr. 

 Jenkins had known of those cases 

 would he have blamed the rose thorn? 

 R. T. McGoBUM. 



William Sim, Cliftondale, Mass., has 

 a house of hybrid gerberas, some Just 

 showing buds. They are seedlings and 

 planted on benches. Mr. Sim is not 

 sure of their success as the gerberas 

 carry a long tap root and solid beds 

 might be more to their liking but, like 

 all true investigators, he is trying 

 them out and if they are a success 

 there will be plenty of imitators. 



