32 



CHRISTMAS NUMBER AND ALMANAC OF THE JOTTRNAL OF HORTICULTURE. 



Let me try to siiiijily food for tliougUt at such an hour. 

 But I am thinking of tliose into whose hands this Christmas 

 number will fall — a number which will, perhaps, be more 

 generally and thoroughly read than any otlier issue of "the 

 Journal " during the whole ])ast year. Masters in their busi- 

 ness rooms, clergymen in their studies, will (is it too fond 

 flattery ?) read it quite tlirougli, and then carry it, with a 

 pleasant smile of gratification on tlieir faces, to their wives 

 and daughters for them to read. I fancy I see elder sisters 

 reading jjarts of it to " tlie children." Happy elder ones, 

 who arc thoughtful and good, and who are sharing with their 

 ])arents the care of bringing up in the way they should go 

 their younger brothers and sisters. Oh ! Idessed large families; 

 and, l)y-the-way, how much I dislike to see the word " in- 

 cumbrance " applied to a wife and children. Did our Creator 

 give Eve to Adam, telling him she was to be an incumbrance ? 

 No, He said, " I will make a lielp meet for thee." Then, in 

 thinking of those who will read this number, 1 remember our 

 oldest friends and our firmest friends — the gardeners — for 

 docs not "our Journal" liear upon its title-page "for gar- 

 dening and gardeners ? " True, we have outgrown our ori- 

 ginal ijrojiortions ; ^^■c arc no longer the thin Cottage Gar- 

 dener, but more bulky Journal of Horticulture. I hear, too, 

 of broad-acre 1 squires looking forward to Wednesday's post, 

 and, after their field sports, loving to read our i)ages ; and I 

 hear of ladies studying "the Journal " week after week; and 

 as to the parsons, why hundreds u]ion hundreds are among 

 our readers. Still, we look first to our gardening supijorters, 

 gentlemen who love their garders and those who live by old 

 Adam's trade. 



Now a little word both to masters and gardeners — to both 

 of you, if you please. Metaphorically I uncover my head 

 from respect while I address you. There is, first of all, the 

 labour question — man's skill given for the mutual benefit of 

 em))loyer and employed. Is this question on a satisfactory 

 basis ? I fear not always. I would say, let the position of 

 each gardener and his duties be clearly defined upon his 

 entering a new situation ; this wonld ease much after sorrow 

 and many a little annoj-ancc. Then there should be a true 

 and loyal feeling on the side of both man and master, each to 

 the other. " He is my nnister, I will st.and by him faith- 

 fully ;" and " He is my gardener, I will support him." There 

 is a nasty disrcpectful feeling now-a-days in many men, 

 young men especially, towards their superiors ; a feeling 

 quite opposed to the teachings of that old Book in their bed- 

 rooms ; a feeling which has come out tliis last year in all its 

 vileness in many an election riot, and which reduces one 

 indulging it to a mere hireling, taking the bread, but with no 

 feeling of kindliness or respect to the one who supplies the 

 bread. This i.s wholly wrong ; this is ruinous to right prin- 

 ciple, and, I may add, to happiness also. A man that feels 

 no resjiect for others is far on the road to losing his own self- 

 respect, while right self-respect (I do not mean self-conceit) 

 will lead to respecting those above you. Duty to self done, 

 duty to others will be done. As saith that great master of 

 all human feelings, Shakespeare : — 



" This above all, — to thine own self be true; 

 Aiul it must follow, as the night the da.v. 

 Thou can'st not then be false to any man." 



I grieve to read even one question about the necessity of 

 " Gardeners' Unions." The gardener should be the friend of 

 the gentleman, the gentleman the friend of the gardener ; 

 both arc in the same boat. Perhaps there is in some masters 

 a want of genuine sympathy with their givrdeners' trhals (they 

 are many), and their feelings, which are very keen. This 

 should not be : the interest of the two orders do not clash, 

 rather they arc identical ; there should, therefore, be a kind 

 feeling on both sides. 



Next I would say a word about gardeners' cott.ages. I 

 venture to think — jiardon me, masters — there needs in many 

 gardens some imjirovement in this respect. The gardener is 

 a man of education, and with education come higher tastes 

 and more refined feelings; these t.istcs and feelings should be 

 considered. It is of course well, in the first ijlace, th.at a 

 gardener's cottage should lie near the garden ; tliis is a good 

 thing for both employers and employed. But such cottages 

 should not be cold thin buildings, run up in a north aspect, 

 under some high wall or higher trees. They should not be 

 cheerless and cold with few comforts. Indeed, gentlemen of 



fortune might always make at least their head gardener's 

 house, as many do, a pretty feature of the place. Let it be 

 well situated ; let it be a substantial dwelling, comfortable 

 and convenient, so that it may be felt to be what we all long 

 for, or enjoy — a home. A porch jiut on this house, a back 

 kitchen added to that, &c., &c., might make many a cottage 

 doubly comfortable, and the good wife ])roud of her home. 

 Make people comfortable and they will work the better; the 

 light heart and the quick hand go together. 



Then if yoimg and unmarried men he also employed, as 

 most probably tliey will lie, let them, if possible, lodge with 

 some tidy conjile. The Scotch " bothies," in which not 

 unfrequently well educated young gardeners live together, 

 shifting for themselves, cannot be defended. The"bothie" 

 system is a bad system. What .an inducement there is for 

 young men living in them to go where there is a cheerful 

 fire ready lighted, and where the drop of whiskey-punch will 

 cheer, one drop at first, many dro]J3 after a time. I have 

 been in gardeners' bothies in Scotland, where the contents of 

 the bookshelves and the general aspect of the room were 

 painful contrasts. Let us try to make men comfortable, not 

 let them feel ashamed — as young men well clad and well 

 read do feel ashamed — to be found living in such " puir 

 places." Comfortable homes or lodgings go far towards 

 making comfortable and contented minds. Now I am well 

 aware that there are hundreds of employers who know and do 

 all this, yet there are others who do not think .about it, and 

 so those under them have little comfort because of their 

 forgetfulness. 



" liut evil is wron::ht, by waul of thought, 

 A3 well as by want of heart." 



Bear, then, a reminding word from one who is becoming 

 almost an old friend (so he is told) to many a reader of the 

 Journal vf Horticulture. 



Next a word to gardeners on a higher subject : 

 Neglect not public ^\'orship. Keeping the Sunday is the 

 key to a man's character. All is, in most cases, going on 

 well if he be ]ircscnt at church regidarly ; but if he begins to 

 fail in this duty, if he be but an occasional worshipper, then 

 if lie goes at all, goes, or says he goes, to some other church — 

 ah ! he has done wliat is wrong, and does not like to meet 

 the eyes of those who know him ; he feels nncomfortable 

 among his neighbours, conscience is at work.~ Satan, bent 

 on leading him further astray, makes it whisper, " The 

 church is no place for you." His sin may not lie known as 

 yet, but presently it will" lie. As a clergyman of experience, 

 I would say that among those in the humbler classes so 

 acting, I have never known one but concerning whom at 

 length the sad truth has come out,— immorality, or pilfering, 

 or sly drinking, or some other sin. 



A gardener's eott.age, inside and out, ^vllat ought it to be 

 like ? Let me endeavour to sketch it as it should be and often 

 is. Outside the sun shining on a snbst.antial dwelling, with 

 an air about it that few passing would fail to stop and ask, 

 " Who lives there? " Inside tidy and clean, and by woman's 

 hand made thoroughly a home. Books— scientific, botanical, 

 horticultural books— bought by the husband in his single days, 

 with monev that others s))end upon drink or tobacco; the 

 better rooin this Christmas time decorated with the bright 

 holly berrv, and the brighter holly leaf; chihU-en with a 

 look of intelligence, and I like people to keep themselves 

 quite up to their station ; there is no wrong pride in all this, 

 it is only rightly feeling the place Providence has jiliiced you 

 in. Oh! how I wish every gardener's cottage could be bright 

 without and bright within. No jiiiiching poverty, but the 

 thrift which half douliles the wages ; no discontent against any 

 one, least of all against the employer ; but that " peace and 

 good will," preached on the first Christmas d.ay, felt towards all 

 men. Finally, a merry Christmas to .all of you, writers and 

 readers. You, good editors, in Johnsonian Fleet Street, and 

 you brother scribblers, wherever ye dwell, .and you readers, 

 young and old, dwelling in mansion or cottage, in rectory or 

 vicarao-e, or curates' lodgings, a merry Christmas to you, each 

 and afu'aud rememlier the motto on the ring— the word 



" Think." 



WlT.TSHlRE EeCTOE. 



