Gardeners out of Place, and Nurserymen. 2(59 



have found him so fully stocked with hands, that they have 

 had the disappointment of finding him unable to employ 

 them. And any person of common sense may readily per- 

 ceive that a given quantity of land will only require a certain 

 number of hands to cultivate it, and that supernumerary 

 hands would only add to the expense of the cultivator, without 

 any adequate advantage. Sometimes, however, nurserymen will 

 employ, for a short time, a small numberof hands more than they 

 actually stand in need of, rather than disappoint gardeners out 

 of place, and in the expectation that some of them may soon 

 get places ; but this cannot be done to any great extent. 

 This may explain the reluctance with which gardeners some- 

 times receive employment from nurserymen ; but it is absurd 

 to suppose that it has any thing to do with a cover for offering 

 them low wages. The wages given in different nurseries are 

 generally so well known by gardeners before they apply for 

 work in them, that any attempt to reconcile them in this way 

 would be ridiculous. When the smallness of the returns of 

 a nurseryman are considered in comparison with his expenses 

 in wages, interest on capital, rent, tithe, rates, taxes, &c. it 

 will be seen that his profits are not often equal to the payment 

 of great wages. And as gardeners coming into a nursery to 

 wait a week, a month, or a year, just as it may happen, till 

 they can meet with regular places again, are considered only 

 as doing so for their own accommodation ; and as, however 

 busy the nurseryman may be at the time of a situation offering 

 for them, his interest gives way to theirs ; and, in addition to 

 these circumstances, as the kind of work to which gardeners 

 are accustomed, when in place, is of so different a character 

 to that of a nursery, that, in a general way, they are some 

 time before their labour is of equal worth to the nurseryman 

 with that of a regular labourer, they receive during the time 

 of their uncertain stay in the nursery only a small wage. 

 And surely, under such circumstances, a gardener ought not 

 to grudge a regular labourer his 2s. or 5s. per week more than 

 himself receives. The labourer is in his settled allotment, 

 and has neither intention nor expectation of leaving his em- 

 ployer for a better situation. 



It appears to me highly probable, that what Sensitivus 

 looks upon as disrespectful treatment, and imposition upon 

 him, may have been, on the part of the nurseryman, real 

 acts of kindness. And I would query of him, whether or 

 not he can say, upon deliberate reflection, that he thinks he 

 acted quite honestly in abridging his employer of a part of 

 his labour, which he had agreed with him for by the day, 



