THE GARDENER 



that is, an ignorant man willing to take laborer's 

 wages, is hired, then the estate will suffer not 

 only in that, but in many other ways. So that 

 it is the employing class that the campaign of 

 education should be aimed at. It will do no 

 good to scold the seedsman or other allied inter- 

 ests; nor to split the ceiling in gardeners' meetings 

 about the villainy of those fifty-dollar fellows call- 

 ing themselves gardeners. One hundred dollars 

 should be the minimum, and two hundred, three 

 hundred, five hundred, or even more should not be 

 considered anything out of the way if the train- 

 ing, experience, and native ability be present. But 

 the employers have to be educated up to that." 



I would not go so far as to say with the writer 

 just quoted that four and five hundred a month 

 should be given even to a fine superintendent. 

 Proportions should be maintained, salaries of the 

 learned professions kept in mind. Still, I person- 

 ally believe that one hundred dollars a month is 

 the least that should be offered by those whose 

 fortune fits them to employ an excellent profes- 

 sional gardener. 



In all these words, the subject of the gardener, 

 his salary or wages, and his position, has been only 

 begun. It is a matter which with the ever-in- 

 217 



