For May, 1920 



187 



The Point of View of the Professional Gardener 



WILLIAM N. CRAIG 



MAUAAI President and JMenibers of the Garden 

 Club of America : I feel very much honored in 

 being asked to speak before your club, which has 

 done and is doing so much to advance horticulture in 

 America. I would that one more eloquent than I, and 

 one who could better voice the aims, aspirations and 

 activities of the professional gardener, were addressing 

 you, but in our profession we lack the sophistries of the 

 politician and the platitudes of the Office seeker. In our 

 association we labor without remuneration, hoping that 

 in the not distant future our humble efforts may lead to 

 the placing of our organization and craft on a loftier 

 plane. 



I may fairly lay claim to being a representative pro- 

 fessional gardener as were my father, grandfather and 

 great-grandfather before me. I was born, brought up, 

 and started my horticultural career in a beautiful garden, 

 not perhaps unknown to some of you, Levens Hall, with 

 its matchless topiary gardens located in Westmoreland, 

 England, near the Scottish border, a land of mountain, 

 moor, lake and forest, with enchanting scenery on every 

 hand, enough to make anyone a lover of Xature, and 

 particularly when he or she was born with a love of 

 flowers in their veins. 



My parents were sturdy Scotch people and greatly de- 

 sired that I should follow the legal profession, but the 

 love of gardening was too deep in my veins, and while 

 today I may be poorer financially than if I had become 

 a legal luminary, I have at least the satisfaction of know- 

 ing that the calling I am following gives more real pleas- 

 ure to the lover of the great outdoors than any other I 

 can name, and it is because I desire to see the profession 

 of gardening more looked up to by all patrons of hor- 

 ticulture that I have for some years, in a very humble 

 way, 'tis true, supported the excellent work being done 

 by the National Association of Gardeners, of which my 

 friend, Mr. Ebel, is the efficient secretary. 



The professional gardener of today in America is very 

 variable in type. I prefer today to speak of those who 

 are well-trained gardeners, and not the large floating 

 class of men who claim to be such, but whose limited 

 gardening experience unfits them for filling any respon- 

 sible position, however competent they may be in carry- 

 ing out such duties as lawn mowing, pruning such de- 

 ciduous shrubs as loniceras, spiraeas and forsytliias into 

 topiary forms, planting ^.nd caring for some of the more 

 common flowers and vegetables and doing the miscel- 

 laneous work customarily performed by men we class 

 as choremen in New England. 



The real gardener is one who has made gardening his 

 life study here or abroad. The bulk of professional gar- 

 deners have at least some luiropeaii training. This is 

 advantageous as he is more likely to receive a thorough 

 grounding in the rudimentary parts of the profession than 

 here. American boys are singularly relucant to follow 

 a calling which may be beautiful and enjoyable, but can- 

 not he learned in a year or two, no matter how bright 

 and receptive the workers are. For this reason, com- 

 mercial floriculture with its greater financial possibilities, 

 landscape gardening and the mechanical trades are now 

 taking practically all of our young men. a portion at 

 least of whom we had hoped would have been training 

 to fill the positions we older men must ere long vacate, 

 and we must admit that in almost any other calling the 

 learner secures a more adequate remuneration than in 

 gardening. 



I have had assistants in some cases purely unskilled 

 laborers, who during the war made $40 to $75 per week 

 in government work, ^■ery few of these are returning 

 to their old calling, now that more nearly normal condi- 

 tions prevail, and in common with every man who has 

 charge of a private estate I find it increasingly difficult 

 to secure not only competent assistants, but laborers to 

 perform the necessary work. Thousands of young gar- 

 deners joined the colors in the late European war and 

 a large proportion were killed or maimed, and a decreas- 

 ing number both here and abroad are taking up garden- 

 ing as a profession. The "call of the wild" seems to be 

 in the blood of many young men, and having helped to 

 "save the world for democracy" they have greater visions 

 and ambitions and seem unable to content themselves 

 with so humble and humdrum a calling as gardening. 



How: can we change these things? How can we in- 

 duce some of our growing youths to follow a calling 

 which is at once ancient and honorable? All honest 

 labor is honorable, we must admit, and can any work be 

 more so than the tilling of the brown soil? What are 

 some of the reasons that hold men back from following 

 the profession of gardening? 



1. It takes too long to acquire a knowledge of it 

 which will bring the man (or woman) following it a 

 moderate income. 



2. The fact that the gardener's life is in ma!iy re- 

 spects a quiet, not to say a lonely one, for a large part 

 of the year must be considered. He is in many places 

 situated long distances from towns, villages, churches, 

 schools, railroads and places of amusement, and employ- 

 ers in many places are not very considerate in providing 

 necessary locomotion to those thus situated. 



•3. The gardener of whatever degree he may be is 

 classed as a domestic servant and oftimes treated with 

 but scant courtesy. He is expected to be on hand three 

 hundred sixty-five days in the year, to labor long hours 

 and uncomplainingly. He is criticised for small omis- 

 sions often infinitesimal in character, blamed for crop 

 failures and starved for want of a little encouragement 

 for work well done. 



4. The competent professional gardener does not as 

 a rule receive compensation equivalent to services ren- 

 dered. Since 1914 how few gardeners have been volun- 

 tarily offered a fair advance in salary ! and are there not 

 many penurious employers who have advanced salaries 

 grudgingly and others who have threatened to close their 

 establishments if any advance in gardeners' salaries was 

 suggested ? 



5. There does not exist, unfortunately, that good fel- 

 lowship which should exist between employers and em- 



, ployees. I presume you will admit that a competent 

 gardener who takes pride in his work and studies his 

 employer's wishes and interests should be treated with 

 courtesy, consideration and kindliness. A man who aims 

 in every possible way to please his employers by intro- 

 ducing new plants and new features to add interest to 

 the gardens under his care should, I consider, be treated 

 with deference and respect. 



Abroad such noted patrons of horticulture as the Duke 

 of Portland, the Hon. Vicary Gibbs, Sir Jeremiah Col- 

 man, Sir Geo. Holford, Mr. Leopold de Rothschild, and 

 others I could name are proud to call their gardeners 

 friends and to refer to them as such at public horticul- 

 tural functions. I feel that in this great republic where 

 democracy is supposed to rule, we should not lag behind 



