Drainage of Flower-Pots. 75 



make " specimen plants." Let them be offered in competition at a regular 

 meeting of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, the judges to decide 

 upon their respective merits. And at starting let each of us place in the 

 hands of the proprietors of this Journal from one hundred to five hundred 

 dollars (as Mr. Veitch may approve), empowering them to hand over the 

 money of the loser for the benefit of the society. This proposition is per- 

 fectly practicable, and gives Mr. Veitch every chance to win ; for I have 

 never claimed that injury results from his mode of practice, while he says 

 it does by mine. 



I well knew, Mr. Editor, when I gave out my views on this and analo- 

 gous subjects in floriculture, that I should tread on the conservative toes 

 of thousands such as Mr. Veitch ; but am content to abide the issue, and 

 complacently point to the results from this teaching, not only in my own 

 establishment, but to that of all others who are the most extensive and 

 have been most successful in the trade. 



But it is common with the mass of men in all operations of labor to 

 cling tenaciously to old customs, no matter how palpable may be the evi- 

 dence of their absurdity. A story is told, that in one of the Dutch settle- 

 ments of Pennsylvania, where they adopted the primitive custom of carry- 

 ing the corn to the mill across the back of a horse, one family from 

 time immemorial had been in the habit of placing the corn in one end of 

 the bag and a stone in the other to balance it. One day, the son, in ad- 

 justing the bag, found that it might be balanced without the stone, and, 

 overjoyed at the discovery, brought his father to see ; but old Hans solemnly 

 and wrathfully decided against such new-fangled ways : he had always 

 carried the stone to the mill, his father had always carried the stone to 

 the mill, his grandfather had always carried the stone to the mill; and 

 why should he set himself up to know more than they ? From such argu- 

 ment there could be no appeal ; old bare-bones was saddled with the 

 rock as before, and the world moved on. 



June 21, 1869. 



