302 
horticulture by parties professing to have a plan for do- 
ing various operations with the most unqualified success 
and will sell the receipts for a consideration. In the old 
country many years ago it was customary to keep the 
doors of the propagating houses in all the large nurseries 
locked at all times, and fortunate indeed was the em- 
ploye, who, by favor might gain admittance to -this 
secret chamber, as it may well be called, and see the dif- 
ferent plants in their various stages of propagation and 
the numerous methods adopted for rooting different 
classes of plants. The propagator was looked upon as 
an autocrat and would associate but little with any of . 
the other employes on the place. They have, however, 
got over all this many years since. Perhaps the greatest 
reason for this apparently narrow minded system is 
that all apprentices to the business could only start on 
payment of a good bonus to the proprietors, and in jus- 
tice to the young beginners it was deemed fair not to 
let the regular employes into all the systems of the busi- 
ness that their apprentices had to pay a bonus for the 
privelede of seeing. This, however, was carried too far 
in most places as we must not hide our light under a 
bushel. Yet we find cases where some of this old coun- | 
try fogyism has been brought across the Atlantic. Not 
more than a dozen years ago, before this place changed — 
hands to its present owner, the late proprietor, who was 
considered a good vegetable gardener, always gave strict 
injunctions to all his hands as soon as any visitor of any 
kind appeared on the place to quit work, and not to re- 
sume operations until they had again departed, so fear- 
ful was he that others might learn from his work the 
secret of his success in raising both the succulent Cab- 
bage, and the classic Yam. There are no secrets in hor- 
ticulture. The laws that govern the germination of a _ 
