EXPERT GARDEN WORKMEN. 49 



mental decision, and if such a mind is well-balanced, its 

 possessor is more likely to distinguish himself than he 

 who moves more sluggishly. Now, two-thirds of all gar- 

 den operations particularly those of flower-gardening 

 are as light as either writing or type-setting, and for 

 many years I have taken great pains to stimulate my 

 workmen to rapidity of movement in all our light work, 

 and it is astonishing what the gain -in labor has been in 

 this particular. For example, the average work of a man 

 planting cabbage or lettuce plants, when we began mar- 

 ket-gardening, did not exceed 2,000 a day; now, and for 

 many years past, a man, with a boy to drop the plants, 

 will set 6,000 a day, and one of my old foremen, John 

 Scarry, now gardener to Dr. Thos. Vail, of Troy, N. Y., 

 has repeatedly planted 10,000 in a day. In the lighter 

 work of our green-houses rapid movement is even of 

 more importance, and the rivalry among our workmen for 

 distinction in this matter is of great benefit to themselves 

 as well as to us. The acknowledged champion, at pres- 

 ent, of our whole force of forty men is a young Irishman 

 named James Markey. Jim, though not yet 25, has been 

 with me a dozen years or more, and from the first has 

 distinguished himself for doing all light operations 

 quicker and better than any boy of his years, and pro- 

 bably to-day can make more cuttings, or pot more plants, 

 in the same space of time, than any other man in Amer- 

 ica. It is very good average work for one man to pot 

 off in 2 1 | 2 -inch pots 2,000 cuttings in ten hours. Jim 

 potted off one day of ten hours, this spring, 10,000, while 

 his average work of this kind is 5,000 a day. Of course, 

 such ability commands its price, and Jim is paid quite 

 twice that of most of his fellows, and is much valued by 

 me as an example well worthy of imitation. 



