492 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



THINGS AND THOUGHTS OF THE GARDEN. 



( Continued from- page 484.) 



valuable books should, in a civilized country, be within 

 the reach of everyone." Do not for a moment imagine 

 that reading is intended to take the place of practical 

 training. In gardening it can never do that. The 

 young gardener must be trained in the garden, the pot- 

 ting shed, the greenhouse and in the vegetable and 

 fruit quarters. Gardeners in the Old Countries are 

 so taught. Of all gardeners, perhaps the Scotch are 

 the most completely equipped, although I also think 

 the English and German men are very broadly trained. 

 The young Scotsman is first of all thoroughly 

 grounded in outdoor routine work, from trenching, 

 pruning, planting and levelling of ground, to the fullest 

 control of all the vegetalile garden and the outdoor pleas- 

 ure grounds and flower gardens. .Many a man goes right 

 through all this before he goes under glass. All the 

 while, however, he is observing the indoor operations, 

 and on rainy and wintery days he is called in to assist 

 in plant house or grapery, while all the while he must 

 take his turn "at the wheel." He learns stoking. On 

 Sundays he has charge of the watering and ventilating 

 of the glass ranges or part of the range, if the place 

 is a large one. Naturally, the indoor foreman or gen- 

 eral foreman supervises, at least if the young man 

 is a raw hand. By and by he is put more fully "on 

 his own." That is the Scotch method of training gar- 

 deners, unless it has altered in the last few years, 

 which I doubt. 



•,\i :i: ^; 



It might seem a "come-down" for an outside fore- 

 man to take a journeyman's place under glass. It is 

 not so regarded. The young man gets charge of a 

 range of fruit houses, or these and some of the plant 

 pits. Under able guidance, and with the splendid ele- 

 mentary training already received, it is a simple, 

 straightforward job to take in hand crop after croj) 

 and make a success of it. Orchids, Roses, Carnations 

 and certain warm-house stibjects require special at- 

 tention and they receive it. A man may specialize. 

 Many do, either at this stage or before, but the great 

 aim of the true gardener is to make himself an "all- 

 round man. Eventually the post of indoor foreman i-; 

 attained, just as the outdoor foremanship was, and 

 now begins the search for a headship or superinten- 

 dent's place. This often necessitates several years of 

 waiting, Init it will scarcely be doubted that the man 



so trained is a finished and trustworthy gardener. 

 * * * 



This is away from the subject of books, however, 

 and we may at once ask what course of reading would 

 be best to be ptirsued in connection with one's prac- 

 tical experience. Perhaps no one outside a school of 

 horticulture ever carried through a steady course of 

 book reading. Most of us dip here and there as we 

 go along. If we have a good reference work we are 

 content. That is because of our utter lack of any 

 system, and the time has come, it seems to me, when 

 the National Gardeners' Association should draw up 

 a course of reading for the guidance of its younger 

 members, whether they care to follow it or don't. 

 I would like to insist on a knowledge of the history 

 of gardening, and the reading of such a work as this 

 of Miss Tabor's would be one of the books to be 

 recommended. Without a knowledge of the successive 

 stages by which gardening has developed to its present 

 stages we cannot call ourselves intelligent craftsmen. 

 Moreover, such knowledge might save us from at- 

 tempting things that long ago were either verified 



or disproved. Foliovv'ing that v.'ould C(.ime the his- 

 tories of given plants, the meaning of plant names^ 

 some of the uses of plants — I mean from the economic 

 and medicinal ]5oint of view. Some of our grand- 

 parents knew a whole lot more about this than we 

 do, and it adds so much to the interest of our work 

 among the plants to have this knowledge. What is. 

 called geographical botany, or the study of the dis- 

 tribution of plants over the globe, is also highly enter- 

 taining and has a direct practical bearing on the day 

 to day work of the garden. What gives the note of 

 piquancy and delight to the writings of Lord Redes- 

 dale', who is elsewhere mentioned in this number of 

 the Chronicle, or to those of William Robinson, but 

 the intimacy with which they speak of plants in their 

 native habitats? Of course, these men have travelled 

 and seen for themselves, a privilege all of us cannot 

 have, but we can learn from them and have our 

 imagination quickened. Thirdly,- there is the scien- 

 tific side of the subject, and a big side it is. Ento- 

 mology, with systematic, morphological and histo- 

 logical botany enters inti5 the reckoning, and believe 

 me, these names are not so terrifying after six months' 

 close reading of the right kind of books. W'ith these 

 subjects entered upon, and some knowledge of agri- 

 cultural chemistry, the gardener is then well able to 

 take care of himself in any crowd, or in conversation 

 with those who emjj'.oy h'm and who have a right to- 

 look to him for the highest instruction and advice. 

 Just at this ijoint rises the eternal question of de- 

 meanor and the value of tact and other factors of the 

 make-up of the complete (professional) gardener. 

 Equally it raises the discussion of the relationship of 

 the employer to the gardener. Shall we enter the 

 discussion? Not this time! 



"BYSTANDER" AFTER THE "ONLOOKER." 



The ver)' able article bv the pen of "The Onlooker" 

 in your last issue was written by one jjossessing a 

 far larger knowledge of the whole horticultural field 

 than the average onlooker possesses, and one would 

 be led to believe that he is a very keen "onlooker" 

 indeed, as his article covers a very wide field, dealing 

 with some experiments and some proved results. 



I would like to answer the question regarding the 

 wintering of aiuiuals. I have noticed that seeds of 

 Celosia plumosa have wintered in the open ground, 

 germinating late in the following spring and making 

 Ijig jilants before the fall. This "Onlooker" will agree 

 is quite a tender annual. I believe it is quite common 

 to see annuals come up the following year after having 

 had a season in the ground. 



I believe the idea for autumn sowing is that the 

 seeds remain dormant all winter as the germinating 

 power of some seeds is improved after being subjected 

 to frost in the ground: his remarks on sweet peas and 

 fall sowing I fail to understand. Does he suggest 

 that through the frost-bound winter months that with 

 the dry growth of the sweet peas checked, the roots 

 continue to elongate and thus are strengthened for 

 the coming flowering season? This is certainly news, 

 as it is generally admitted that the growth of plants 

 takes place in a higher temperature than germination 

 does. Each seed has its maximum and minimum tem- 

 perature for germinating. If the sweet pea had any 

 characters of an herbaceous perennial then it would 

 still be hard to understand and as a reader I would 

 be glad to know what he means when he says that "If 

 there is sufficient frost to check top growth, all may 



