THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



179 



interests there, and more especially in my line of lloriculture. 

 We are trying to give our gardeners as well as florists there an 

 all-ronnd education. We lay out our course so that we can 

 include a course in professional floriculture. We also aim to give 

 a good training in garden flowers and general plant work. We 

 need the lielp of not only the New York men, but of all tlie men 

 interested in the gardening profession, so that we can li\iild up as 

 we plan to do there at Cornell the strongest course in floriculture 

 and gardening given anywhere in the country. 



I said that I had not expected to say anything; but I am very 

 glad to extend the greetings of Xew York State, and especially 

 of Cornell University, to the National Association of Gardeners. 

 MR. JOHN YOUNG. Secretary of the S. A. F. & 0. H., next read 

 an essay by Mr. Arthur E. Thatdier on the subject of "What 

 Should the Society of American Florists Oo for tlie Private Gar- 

 dener ?" 



Keverting directly to the gardener, Jlr. Thatcher writes: 

 Altliough we are at the moment chiefly concerned with what the 

 S. A. F. can do for the private gardener, we might also for a 

 moment see what the society has done for him. There can be 

 no doubt that tlie exhibitions held by the S. A. F. in various parts 

 of the country during the last few years have been the finest the 

 country has ever seen; and these have been produced by the co- 

 operation of the commercial and private growers. How much 

 finer they could have been had the private gardeners been more 

 enthusiastic can only be imagined. Certain it is that they have 

 been of great educational value, and are yearly growing more so. 

 Cannot the private gardener learn much from them? . . . 



Our president, though he may be the foremost park superin- 

 tendent in the country, will not be ofl'cndcd if I class him as a 

 private gardener. What shall we say of the rose garden he has 

 constructed at Hartford ? Is it not tlie finest example of its kind 

 in the world? And what of the out-door ganlen he made at ilinne- 

 apolis? Are such things not of the highest educational value, 

 and calculated to be of the greatest a.ssistance to the private gar- 

 dener, if he will only profit by them ? ... It may seem 

 strange to some, but it is nevertheless true, that some of the 

 men who have been most prominent in tlie society's ali'airs are, 

 or have been, private gardeners. I have only to mention such 

 names as Farfpiliar. Roland. Fisher or Totty, who are well able to 

 tell us what advantages have accrued to them by their associa- 

 tion with this society. No one will imagine for a minute that the 

 society has made them what they are today. This has been 

 accomplished entirely by their own efforts: and I believe this is 

 the crux of the whole question regarding the private gardener. 

 For the society to be of use to him lie must endeavor to become 

 an important factor in the society. . . . 



I cannot help thinking that the question of helping the private 

 gardener very largely depends upi^n the private gardener himself; 

 and to be of any assistance to hini, any small feeling which m.ay 

 exist must be forgotten so that we may all. commercial and pri- 

 vate gardeners alike, pull together for the common good. It 

 seems to me this powerful organization is fully equipped and 

 fully capable of looking after all classes of the profession if we 

 all work harmoniously together. Can we not do this and help 

 forward the good work of this society and the grand old profes- 

 sion of horticulture? 



I'KKSIDKNT WAITF:: (ieiitleiiieii. we will now throw the meet- 

 ing o|)en to general di-^cussioii. 



The |i;ipers by -\Ii'. Smith and Mr. Tliatilic)- were now thrown 

 o))en for discussion. 



MR. .JOHN BURNS. New Canaan, Conn.: In my opinion the 

 future gardener is the one that starts at the stoke-hole and 

 climbs up for eight or nine years in a first-class place under a 

 first-class man. and then takes a course in college. 



JIK. WIRTH: I think that is a very good point. That brings 

 out something that I am very glad to liave you bring out. because 

 it involves the question of what benefit colleges are to us, how 

 do they help us? I believe that the good they are doing is under- 

 estinnited. Jly personal belief is that if a man could serve an 

 apprentieeshi]! the way one has to serve in the old country, when 

 he arrives at the age of 20 or 21 he will begin to realize that edn- 

 catiini will help him; and if then he goes to college he will get 

 practice and theory properly combined. I have three boys, and they 

 all hate to go to school. They like to be out in the open. I let 

 them go now. but when they get to be 20 or 21 they will realize 

 that they have to have education, and they will be glad to go to 

 school and get the advantage of school training. 



MR. RURNS: The reason that T jdaced practical experieiiro 

 before the college is that if they go to college first when they 

 get through going to college they do not feel like settling down 

 to ^hoviding coal. They do not feel like going out and taking 

 care of frames; they do not feel like shoveling coav manure, if 

 you please; but let them get the hard work first, and then take 

 a litde course in college. Tluui tliey will have both experience 

 and theory. In fifteen years from now there will be a lot of 

 colle._:e fellows coming out. and thii~e fellows will be stcpiiing 

 intn our shoec. 



MR. WILLIAM DOWNS, Chestnut Hill, Mass.: I believe that 

 that is quite true and that the speaker's point is well taken; 

 but I do not think that that is the American spirit as I lun e 

 seen it in the last twenty years. We shall not always get our 

 gardeners from across the water, and I think there is no question 

 but college men will enter into the profession. My employer 

 is a college man. and he invariably brings that up. But we have 

 had more than one sad experience with college men. He says 

 that we want a college man ]irovided he is a good man, but if 

 he is not a good man the college man is all the worse for being a 

 college man. Now, you will find it very diflicult to find a man 

 that has gone through the stoke-hole and the rest of it making 

 up his mind to spending two or three years in college. That is 

 not the American spirit. The American spirit is to "get there" 

 without any apprenticeship, and we must give them credit that 

 they do "get there," not only in our profession but among all 

 workmen. They do not make the finished workmen that the old 

 country apprenticeship system does, but they "get there" just 

 the same. And it is that s|iirit that we have to look to. We 

 are living under the Stars and Stripes, and no matter where we 

 were born we have got to "get there." 



The average young man after he has been in the stoke-hole 

 for 7 or 8 years wants to be superintendent. The average green- 

 house man that we get today from the other side who takes an 

 interest in the green-house stays right there; he will not go 

 across the lawn to see what is going on. I had a job two or 

 three years ago where a very difficult piece of work was being 

 accomplished not more than 200 or 300 feet from my green-house. 

 I said to my men, "Have you seen what they are doing there?" 

 They said they had not. N'ow, that is the kind of men that are 

 going out to fill positions. We have had to put up a lot of build- 

 ings since I have been on the place, and my men knew nothing 

 more about building after the building was done than they did 

 before it started, that is the trouble with the average gardener. 

 He does not lends cuit for himself. He takes no interest in what 

 is going on armind him. If you want to advance you must get 

 knowledge; \du must get information. There are lots of things 

 that I did not know \\]u't\ I went into the work, and there are 

 lots of things that 1 .In nid know today; but a general man on 

 an estate must know a little bit about electricity. He must 

 know when a painting job is done thoroughly. My employer 

 came to me not long ago and said, "Go into my house and do 

 what ycui think is necessary." If he thought that I did not make 

 myself familiar with the general run of work, he would not have 

 trusted me to do that. He would have brought in someone else. 

 JIake yourselves familiar, gentlemen, with what is going on 

 about you; make yonr.^elves worth just a little bit more than 

 your employer is paying you. There are too many crooked men 

 in this business, and too much crooked work going on. When I 

 got my present employment I went to my employer and said, "I 

 want so much a month, and when we make a bargain if I get 

 tired of the job I will come right to you and say so." lie said, 

 "That is fair." WIumi I got to the jioint where I thought I was 

 worth a little more money I said, "I think now your ]ilace is 

 worth a little more to take care of." He said, "How mncdi?" 

 I told him, and he said. "That is all right; I will date that back 

 two months." Give your em])loyer a scpiare deal every time. 1 

 want to tell you gardeners that that is the point I make, that 

 you should be perfectly straight with your employer. Put con- 

 fidence in your employer and he will do what is right by you. 

 The man who does tlie straight and right thing has nothing to 

 fear. Do not be afraid to ask for wdiat you want. As Presi- 

 dent Wirth said, they will give yini what you want if they get 

 a square deal. Too many men try to see how little they can do. 

 Two or three vears ago 1 was in Florida, and I found that the 

 first idea of the negro is how little he can do and get away with 

 it. Do not be in that class; make yourself worth something. I 

 have never had any thoruble in getting anything that I wanted 

 in reason. If you make yourselves worth it. the average em- 

 ployer will ajqueciate you. (Applause^ 



PUKSIDKXT W.MTK: This is a very prolifalile discussion, 

 gentlenien. and I hope yon will continue it. 



MR. N. Y. PAYNK, I'hiladelphia, Pa.: T bidicve that honesty 

 should count above everything else. The next thing is to keep 

 on tlie job. The next thing is to make all the inquiries yon can 

 ]iossibly make and learn all you can. Good college men with 

 practical expeiience are like good seed, in that you cannot keeji 

 them down. 



JIR. P. W. POPP, ;Mamaroncck, N. Y'.: Gentlemen. I am also 

 a believer in the [rardencr giving his employer a square deal. 

 T believe, as Mr. Downs said, that if you make yourself worth 

 the money the employer will recognize it. Of course, there are 

 isolated cases where it is the r.tlier way: but a man that can 

 make good '.icuerally lias the tqition of going elsewhere. I have 

 liad my eni|iloyer come to me and say, "Your work is vei;v sati.s- 

 fact(u-y." That is a whole lot f<u- an employer to say. That is 

 mv own experience. I believe that a man must know something 

 about the stoke-hole, for if you delegate all of your work to some 



