236 GARDEN AND FARM TOPICS. 



that he made a rapid movement toward the door. Yet, 

 notwithstanding the impudence and absurdity of such a 

 claim, the scamp was enabled to prowl around the vicinity 

 of New York for weeks, and, undoubtedly, sold to hun- 

 dreds. If he had said he had a cannon from which, 

 when grape shot was fired into a crowd, it killed only 

 enemies never friends the one claim would have been 

 as reasonable as the other. 



There is another species of humbugging, which, though 

 it can hardly be called swindling, is somewhat akin to it. 

 I refer to the men who claim to have secrets by which 

 they can accomplish extraordinary results in the propa- 

 gation and culture of plants. I can well remember, in 

 my early days, that the nursery propagator was looked 

 upon as a sort of demi-god, possessing secrets known 

 only to himself and a favored few, whose interest it 

 was to continue to throw dust in the eyes of every young 

 aspirant after knowledge. The door of the propagating 

 house was locked and bolted, as if it were a Bastile, and 

 even the proprietor (if he were unfortunate enough not 

 to have practical knowledge) was allowed entrance only 

 as a special favor; for his propagator was an autocrat, 

 of whom he stood in awe and reverence. But since the 

 advent of horticultural publications in America, particu- 

 larly during the past fifteen or twenty years, the " secrets " 

 of these pretentious fellows have had such ventilation, 

 that now nearly every operation of the green-house is as 

 well understood by the tens of thousands engaged in the 

 business, as the operation of the farm is by the farmer. 



The most of these pretenders to this secret knowledge 

 of horticulture are foreigners, though occasionally a native 

 tries it on. Some fifteen years ago, when the grape-vine 

 mania was at its height, an old Connecticut Yankee pre- 

 tended he had discovered a new method of propagating 



