34 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



as the DeSoto, which after a few years bear- 

 ing shows lack of vigor and tendency to die 

 out. There is another kind of pruning 

 which is of marked benefit, not only in pro- 

 moting the vigor and in prolonging the life 

 of the tree, but also in improving the quality 

 and size of the fruit. I refer to fruit prun- 

 ing as thinning, but by all means let it be 

 done by removing the fruit and not the fruit 

 spurs. 



The curculio and gouger will try to do 



the thinning for you. but they make such a 

 mess of it their work should be prevented 

 as much as possible. Sometimes the injury 

 from aphis is in such shape that it is well to 

 trim off and burn the infected branches. 

 Black knot and blights should be treated 

 with the knife and fire, but I have not been 

 troubled with these diseases, so can say but 

 little about them. In conclusion, would 

 say, keep your knife sharp. — American 

 A ^riculturist. 



APPRENTICESHIP OF A GERMAN GARDENER 



FIRST of all, it is required of an aspi- 

 rant to have a fair school education; 

 if possible, language (Latin especially) and 

 geography, which help him considerably and 

 save a lot of study in after days. If the 

 young man has found a place to enter as an 

 apprentice, the majority 'of establishments 

 charge a certain sum per annum, Germany 

 generally from lOO to 150 marks ($25 to 

 $37-5o) ; France and Belgium about the 

 same. Then he must enter a contract to 

 serve a time, generally three years. In rare 

 cases he will be allowed a small compensa- 

 tion at the last year of his time. 



There are some places which take appren- 

 tices without pay, but then he must gener- 

 ally serve a time of four years. 



This time will never be forgotten by any 

 young man who passed through it. It is a 

 time of hard work — in many places it is com- 

 pulsory to pass through evening school to 

 collect knowledge in landscape drawing, 

 geometry and surveying. This goes through 

 to sometimes three years during winter. 

 Then besides at home it is not only practi- 

 cal work, which occupies the young man, 

 but also theoretical. There are the names 

 of all the plants to be learned, their nature, 

 native country, under what conditions they 

 grow best, what soil is best for them ; books 



have to be bought and studied ; many em - 

 ployers require their apprentices to keep a 

 day book in which all work done during the 

 day has to be entered. Not only super- 

 ficial, but to the minutest details. After 

 twenty-six years the writer recalls many in- 

 stances of apparent negligence and the 

 rather strong reprimands he received. In 

 this way the time passes for the apprentice 

 under constant work with few and long be- 

 tween pleasures. After the expiration of 

 his time he is called an assistant and re- 

 ceives his certificate, of which every young 

 gardener is as proud of as any young girl of 

 a new Easter hat. 



Then his time comes to travel. Of every 

 young gardener it is expected that he sees 

 other establishments, if possible, other 

 countries, and widen his knowledge. We 

 all, who passed through the mill, know how 

 proud we felt and thought we knew it all : 

 but no matter how hard we worked and 

 studied, after getting to a new place he finds 

 out how little he really does know. Wher- 

 ever he goes there are dififerent methods, 

 other plants, always something new ; so it 

 keeps him hustling to keep up to date. 



It is a constant learning as long as he is 

 in the profession. But this is a gardener. 

 — R. W. Unger, in Union Gardener. 



