April 12. 191!) 



IlollTlCULTUliE 



341 



THE GARDENER AND HIS WIDE FIELD OF ENDEAVOR 



By William Falconer 



Don't think I am uol a gardener for I am. I 

 was born in it. apprenticed to it, it has been my lifelong 

 TOcatiorj ami I love it. Ami don't think that because I 

 am now buried in a cemetery my interest in gardening 

 i ised or lessened, far from it. I am as vitally con- 

 cerned in flowers, fruits ami vegetables, in landscape 

 work ami decorative gardening today as 1 ever was, but 

 necessarily in a more limited field than formerly. At 

 the -line time my mind ami sou] are with yon in your 

 calling. 



Aiming the many occupations of men, gardening has 



an interest and charm exceeded I \ □ .■; there is a spirit 



of Fraternal fellowship among practical gardeners never 

 approached in any other calling. There is a growing 

 and permanent fondness and fascination about it no 

 other work approaches. This being so we naturally ex- 

 ml find among gardeners a superior, congenial and 

 kindly-hearted people. Adam, the world's first gar- 

 dener, was put "into The Garden of Eden to dress it 

 and to keep it,'* and ever since this has been the work 

 allotted to us. Pretentious gardens, however, are too 

 few to provide lucrative enough employment for all of 

 us. hence many have branched into other lines of horti- 

 culture, but all akin, as landscape, seed, experiment, 

 nursery, truck, florist and forestry, and these again are 

 subdivided into specialties, according to the fitness, taste, 

 sagacity and opportunity of the man himself, and in 

 most eases very successfully. 



Gardeners should visit each other professionally and 

 socially, it will make them happier with themselves and 

 more contented with their surroundings. No matter 

 how good a gardener a man may be if he never goes away 

 from home or out among his fellow craftsmen he is apt 

 to get stilt' ami self-satisfied. There is nothing that will 

 display to ourselves our professional shortcomings so 

 vividly as mingling with other gardeners, home or dis- 

 tant, and seeing and knowing what they are doing. We 

 then realize that Ave don't know everything, our neigh- 

 bors know something, too. 



Gardeners' clubs and kindred associations have done 

 and are doing much to brighten our lives, they are happy 

 gatherings, there we meet our brothers in trade, extend 

 our acquaintanceship, form friendships, see and know 

 what each other is doing and "enter into that noble con- 

 tention or rather emulation of who best can work and 

 best agree." Every gardener should join the home 

 club and attend its meetings, give and ask for informa- 

 tion, and show in (lowers, fruits and vegetables, what he 

 is growing at home and tell bow he does it. 



So far as we consistently can we should also attend 

 the state or national convention or association meetings 

 of gardeners. Of course this costs money. But our em- 

 ployers should send us there paying our expenses. From 

 what one would see and hear at these meetings and glean 

 from observation at the several gardens visited at the 

 city where the convention is held or at stop-over places 

 to OJ from that destination, he is a blind man, indeed, 

 who cannot absorb enough useful information to profit- 

 ably apply to bis own charge at home to more than com- 

 ite Ei r what the trip may cost. 



A gardener is naturally a reader. Our vocation is 

 so varied in detail it behooves every progressive, ambi- 

 tious man to keep posted in the subject of his work. We 

 have many good books on gardening — general, special 

 and reference, and it is a pleasure to delve into them; 



we also have excellent periodical literature on garden. 

 florist ami other horticultural matters. We peruse these 

 papers for opportune subjects and to keep posted as 

 regards news, timely practical matter, varieties of plants 

 and flowers, etc., in fact, we eagerly awail their coming 

 and at once plunge into their pages. This is one of the 

 reasons why gardeners are so well posted, so versatile 

 and critical. Now, if we profit so much from the in- 

 formation contained in these papers, are we not for- 

 bidden to "light a candle and put it under a bushel?" 

 If so. then jot down any little thought that may comi 

 to you which would be of benefit to an;, other gardener 

 and send it to the editor. Don't growl at the short- 

 comings of the paper, get out your own pencil and tell 

 w hat you yourself know and be happy in helping another 

 For "it is more blessed to give than to receive" even as to 

 information about plants or flowers. 



When it comes to professional gardeners who have 

 launched into commercial life, making a success of it, 

 their names are many. We have John N. May, the rose 

 grower, and Charles II. Totty. the new plant specialist 

 of Xew Jersey; William Nicholson, the carnation grow- 

 er, and Thomas Roland, of Massachusetts, whose splen- 

 did acacias and heather are a special feature of our Met- 

 ropolitan flower shows; W. A. Manda, of New Jersey; 

 the Parquhar brothers, of Massachusetts; our own Sam 

 McClements, of Pennsylvania; Adam Graham, of Ohio; 

 Walter W. Coles, of Indiana; Fred L. Atkins ami Wil- 

 liam II. Duckham, Xew Jersey, and many more. Among 

 those who have taken to practical botanical work are 

 James Gurney, of St. Louis; Peter Bisset, of Wash- 

 ington; Robert Cameron, of Harvard; the illustrious E. 

 II. Wilson, of Chinese renown, now of the Arnold Ar- 

 boretum; G. H. Pring, of the Missouri Botanical Oar- 

 den-, and M. Free, of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. 

 And although gone, but never to be forgotten 1 cannot 

 omit my dear old friend and crony, the late William R. 

 Smith, of Washington, than whom, among those who 

 have passed away, next to the late Peter Henderson, he 

 was the most widely known and beloved gardener in 

 America. 



Michael Barker, of Chicago, graces the editorial chair, 

 and in this line surely no man in the country shone more 

 brightly than the late J. Harrison Dick, of Xew York. 



Prominent park superintendents who in earlier life 

 were trained practical gardeners are not numerous, but 

 standing head and shoulders over most of them rank 

 Theodore Wirth, of Minneapolis, and John Dunbar, of 

 Rochester, both trained gardeners. 



Among the great cemeteries of the country several of 

 the superintendents are trained practical gardeners, to 

 wit: John Reid, of Detroit; Robert Campbell, of Louis- 

 ville; James Currie, of Milwaukee, and William Salvay, 

 of Sprmg Grove, Cincinnati. The superintendents of 

 four of the largest cemeteries in Pittsburgh are appren- 

 ticed-trained practical gardeners! They are Hopton, of 

 West View: Youden, of Uniondale : Allen, of Home- 

 wood, and myself, of Allegheny, and each man of us has 

 a mighty good job. 



The above w ill show that there is a wide field for gar- 

 deners in this country both in plain gardening and its 

 many ramifications. What we want is brains, executive 

 Force, strict application to work and business, economy 

 and steadiness. And I would like to add both for utility 

 ami as an accomplishment, a wide knowledge of plants. 

 hardy and tender, wild and cultivated. 



