418 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



t May 28, 1874. 



but as yet I havo not had tbe true variety from seed. It 

 should be ^rown everywhere by everybody. Amongst single 

 dark kinds I have never found anything so fixed and constant 

 in character as the Tom Thumb Yellow, although I have tried 

 seed from various sources. The best dowa to the present 

 time are from seed specially secured from Dresden by favour 

 of Mr. W. Thompson. A really good strain of dark single 

 Wallflower is still a desideratum. We can get them dark 

 enough, but the individaal flowers are poor, and the habit of 

 plant not safliciently sturdy and dwarf ; moreover, there are 

 dark and dark, one bright and the other dingy, one dazzUng 

 and the other dead. When planted, a dwarf Wallflower should 

 not be more than 4 inches high, a foot across the top, and as 

 3at as a pancake. Such a plant will throw up from twelve to 

 twenty spikes all of uniform height, and if the colour is dark 

 yet bright, the petals broad and stiff, and expand freely — the 

 flimsy ones curl — then, in juxtaposition with bright yellow, 

 there is an effect for richness that nothing else at the season 

 can approach. And then the perfume ! it is, too, equally un- 

 approachable. Doubles, be they never so good, are no match 

 for singles in masses. 



And then the workiug-up a stock is simplicity itself. Spend 

 sixpease or a shlUing in seed, sow now at once. Mine are up 

 and doing. Sow thinly in any open place. After awhile trans- 

 plant to a very airy place a foot or more distant on any piece 

 of ground that happens to be vacant. It need neither be freshly 

 dug nor manured, and after the plants are once estabUshed they 

 need never be watered. Early sowing (April) and growing on 

 in rather poor firm ground produces plants of a stubby growth 

 and hardy nature which hardly ever get hurt by frost. It is 

 very different when sown late and pushed on to make up for 

 lost time by high culture in rich soils. It is, however, not 

 too late to sow in May, only April is better. 



Now, just look at the little outlay in money, time, and skill ; 

 it is homceopathic altogether. And what else will give, at the 

 same outlay, an equal return of sweetness and colour, and 

 contribute such a decided element in making a garden so 

 cheerful and enjoyable? I think we must " pause for a reply." 

 These plants, too, will force and make their presence felt in 

 greenhouse or conservatory in March. I have seen amid a 

 floral retinue of Camellias, Azaleas, Hyacinths, and Roses rich 

 masses of single Wallflower claim more attention than either. 

 Whether it is that their odour is so grateful, or that the simple 

 novelty of the bold intrusion is attractive, I cannot tell. A 

 sweep at a fashionable wedding would no doubt be the " ob- 

 served of all observers," but would run some risk of being 

 kicked out ; however, it was not on this principle that these 

 sweet and simple flowers attracted notice, for the order to the 

 grower was — "They have been so much enjoyed; mind and 

 have more." — J. Weight. 



METHOD. 



Method seems to come naturally to some people ; aU their 

 movements seem to be regulated by some inscrutable control 

 which prevents any waste of power, but which always suppUes 

 sufficient to attain the oliject wished for in a leisurely graceful 

 manner. A keen eye can detect the man of method in an instant, 

 oven if he is following the very humblest occupation. Notice 

 a gang of ten or a dozen labourers excavating, and you will see 

 one amongst them who seems to move much more slowly than 

 the rest, and an unpractised eye might think he was not doing 

 his share of the work ; but watch him a minute, an hour, or a 

 day, and yoir will see the same machine-like movement going 

 on perpetually to the end — no straining nor jerking, and con- 

 sequent waste of power ; every movement of the spade seems 

 to have just the effect it was intended to have; the spade 

 itself almost seems to know what it is about, and to appreciate 

 a good master. It wears brighter and sharper than other 

 spades, and to a certain extent partakes of the good quaUties 

 of the man who uses it. Notice the sama man, too, with a 

 scythe ; he can be distinguished by the same easy, graceful, 

 telling movements. It is indeed a pleasure to watch a good 

 mower ; he seems to be merely amusing himself, while the 

 others are all excitement and h^rry, and at the end of the 

 day's toil he is fresh and cheerful, while others, who possess 

 greater bodily strength but do not know how to use it economi- 

 cally, are quite exhausted. Again, notice three or four young 

 men potting, watering, thinning Grapes, or putting-in cuttings. 

 You will see that only one of them does the work, or ever will 

 do it, in a proper manner ; and also that the one who does 

 one kind of work the right way will in the end learn to do all 



of them right. In fact, he is the man of method ; he works 

 with his head, and saves his hands and his back. He is never 

 in a hurry, and yet he is always in time ; others are always in 

 a hurry, and yet never do anything. The late Dr. Nelaton 

 said, " There is always time for evetything provided you are 

 not in a hurry," and it would seem that he not only promulgated 

 this doctrine in his leisure moments, but that he acted on the 

 same principle at the most critical times. For instance, when, 

 in performing a surgical operation in company with a young 

 student, an artery w.as cut, and the young man became excited, 

 the doctor rebuked him by calmly saying, " You are going too 

 fast, my young man, we have no time to lose." 



Nothing is ever well done that is done in a hurry. The man 

 who would use his strength, time, and money economically 

 must do all his work by method, coolly and calmly; no hap- 

 hazard or guesswork, for that will only end in muddle and 

 disorder ; he should see his work completed in perspective 

 before it is actually begun. The man of method actually gets 

 through his original experiments with a greater precision and 

 regularity than the man of no method does the commonest 

 routine ; while the experiments of the latter, even if they are 

 chronicled, are of no practical value, and can only be mis- 

 leading. 



The man who shows that he uses his own hands with method 

 will exhibit that quality in a greater degree when directing 

 others, and men properly directed will get through their work 

 with a better grace than those who are not ; for although there 

 are a few men who care about nothing but the time of day, 

 these are much more rare than is often supposed, and the 

 blame is sometimes laid to the men which ought to be borne 

 by other shoulders. No good workman ever likes to be forced 

 to do his work in the wrong way, and he always works the 

 better when he believes that those who are directing him 

 know as much about the work as he does himself. Y'oung 

 men who would aspire to be foremen should bear this in mind, 

 and give early attention to all the details of what is too often 

 supposed to be mere labourers' work. 



There is a right and a wrong way to do the commonest 

 operations, and it would seem that the wrong way comes the 

 most natural to an unpractised hand. Also one should learn 

 to be particular about doing things at the proper time, and 

 learn by heart the time of year that is most suitable for the 

 principal kinds of work. The memorandum book is a great 

 help to this ; the mere act of noting a thing down often im- 

 presses it indelibly on one's memory. All failures should be 

 especially chronicled, and, when possible, the cause of such 

 failures. Very often the man of method gains more by 

 failures than by successes ; he never forgets a failure, and 

 seldom falls into the same error twice. The methodless man 

 is always failing, always in a muddle, always forgetting some- 

 thing, the apparition of which every now and then appears in 

 an almost tangible form, and throws him into worse confusion, 

 and makes him forget something else. 



When a man has grown old and has not learned to work by 

 method, I do not think there is any help for him, for unlearn- 

 ing a thing is so much harder than learning it. But young 

 men, and young men's teachers, believe me, method is not so 

 much a natural gift as it seems to be; it may be acquired by 

 any young man of ordinary intelligence if he begins by being 

 very particular about little things — all the minor details of his 

 work — asking himself why it is aU done, and making notes from 

 time to time of his own ideas about it, and especially correct- 

 ing himself when he finds that his own notions have proved 

 fallacious ; he thus secures practical knowledge for future use. 

 And even when one gets to be foreman or head gardener the 

 note-book should never be neglected — in fact, one who has an 

 extensive charge wants two note-books ; one a very temporary 

 affair to last a week or a month, in which to mark down aa ha 

 walks round any work that should be done, crossing it out 

 when finished. This will save many a thing from being for- 

 gotten, many a journey, and many a sleepless night. The 

 labour, too, can be used more economically ; for instance, on 

 a change of weather the notes can be looked over and the men 

 sent in a few seconds to the most suitable work, instead of 

 keeping them waiting doing little or nothing, and afterwards 

 finding out that a good opportunity has been lost. 



Some men pride themselves on having a good memory — they 

 need no note-book. Possibly their memory may be sufficient 

 for the ordinary routine, but a gardener is nothing if he is not 

 progressive ; }iis head ought not to be crowded with ordinary 

 routine, but should be clear, that he may devise improvements 

 and give new delights, surprizes, and encouragements to those 



