June C, 18C5. ] 



JOTTKNAIi OF HOKTIGULTTTEE AND COXTAaE aAEDENEK. 



427 



would become a pleasant instead of an irksome part of a gar- 

 dener's duties. 



Where it is proposed to make the most of liquid manure, 

 a boiler should be set sufficiently high, and conveniently 

 near to allow of the liquid being pumped from the tank 

 into it, and when heated to boiling point the liquid should 

 run into the water barrel without further pumping or hand 

 carriage, or into an elevated tank, to be distributed by hose, 

 sufficient water being added to make it of the right strength. 

 To do this it is essential to have the contents of all accu- 

 rately gaiaged, and a proof-stick made that wUl show, by 

 notches cut in it, the quantity of water or liquid in each. 

 It should show the contents in six parts, which will be 

 sufficient for all practical purposes except one, and that is 

 the syringing of trees with liquid manure. The proof-stick 

 should for the latter purpose be divided into twelve parts, 

 each part showing an equal volume of the contents. All 

 the tanks, baiTels, and their contents being known, it is 

 easy to dilute liquid manm-e by taking some out of this and 

 adding to that, and so on. For syringing it is essential to 

 have an engine fixed on the water-bai'rel, in addition to a tap 

 to let off the water ; but there will be little necessity for carry- 

 ing the watei- .it all if hose be provided, and then the work 

 is done much more expeditiously. The engine on the barrel 

 ■wiU be found suitable for syringing trees, the bai'rel being 

 situated on the walk. Messrs. "Warner's engines, such as 

 are ordinarily placed in buckets, are easUy fixed in a water 

 barrel, and they are excellent for freeing trees of insects, 

 and refreshing theu- foliage, the water being thrown easily 

 against the trees over a 20-feet border, by employing a 

 longer lever or handle than is ixsuaUy affixed to them. 



In whatever way the water is conveyed, by hose, carts, or 

 water barrels, it is desu-able to lessen as much as possible 

 hand laboux-, and never to carry water in a watering-pot 

 where a quantity is required, and it can be distributed over 

 the ground by its own gi'avitation. Carrying it in watering- 

 pots is a great waste of time, and prevents many things, 

 that would be aU the better of water, receiving any. A few 

 yards of hose wUl be of much assistance in watering a gar- 

 den. — G. Abbey. 



(To be coniinued.) 



GARDENERS CLAIMljSrG PLANTS GROWN ON 

 THEIR EMPLOYEES' PREMISES. 



My gardener is leaving me. Contrary to my expressed 

 ■wish, he has purchased plants and placed them in my green- 

 house. It has been a point of disagreement with us for two 

 or three years. He has lost many plants which I have pur- 

 chased, and said it was because they were not good ones, 

 and what he has bought he says have prospered. I cannot 

 say in a very large stock what he has purchased, or what 

 he has paid for them, or what he had given to him. He claims 

 a very large number, or I am to pay him for them. Many 

 of them so claimed I should have said were mine. I have 

 no wish to be hard upon him, and should give him a present ; 

 but I cannot but think that he is at my mercy, and that he 

 has no legal right whatever to them, even if he could bring 

 witnesses to prove that they were his. I shall feel greatly 

 obliged by a correct opinion on this. — NoETHTjaiEEKLAND. 



[Tour letter contains matter of very great importance. 

 A good deal of looseness and misapprehension exists on the 

 subject. As a gardener of some experience now, I got into 

 disgrace with an old gardener lately, because in a friendly 

 way I told him he spoke rudely if not very imprudently to 

 his employer. That employer admired some plants and 

 beds, and in his generosity wished the gardener to collect 

 cuttings and slips of them to send to his friends ; when the 

 gardener stated he might have flowers if he wished, but 

 that he considered the plants and slips were his, as he had 

 either bought or begged them himself. Being a kindly 

 man the gentleman said, "Well! well!" and there the 

 matter ended. The gardener insisted that as he brought 

 the plants to the place and they cost his employer nothing, 

 the employer had a right to the flowers for the cost of soil 

 and attention, but had no right whatever to the plants. 

 This, in fact, would be pretty much the same as asserting 

 that a servant might carry on a sort of business on his 

 employer's premises without ever asking that employer's 



consent — a system which even with his consent "seldom 

 answers long, just on the simple principle of the next to 

 impossibility of serving two masters equally faithfully. 



Now, as one who has had a fair share in getting up large 

 quantities of plants in the easiest way, I would wish to 

 impress it clearly and deeply on my brother gardeners that 

 all plants or cuttings they may procure and carry home in 

 the crown of their hats, specimen-boxes, or by whatever 

 conveyance, are their private property until, and no longer, 

 they have taken their place on the employer's premises, and 

 ai'e gi-owing in his pots and soil. Prom that moment I 

 have always believed that in right and in law they were as 

 much his property as the horse in his stable or the paintings 

 in his mansion. 



This may moderate the zeal of those who wish something 

 of everything they see when visiting a place, though that 

 enthusiasm has often been the means of making the em- 

 ployer as enthusiastic as the gardener, and thus eventually 

 helped the interests of our commercial establishments. 

 Going direct to the market is generally the best in the end, 

 though merely as a matter of neighbourly feeling I would 

 not wish to see the custom abolished of reciprocally giving 

 and receiving a few cuttings. It would be well, however, 

 for gentlemen's gardeners to discard at once and for ever 

 all idea of their having any property in such things after 

 they are grown. In many instances where a gardener was 

 leaving his place, I have been consulted whether some nice 

 plants that he had reared fi-om begged cuttings were not 

 equitably his, and if he could not send them away before he 

 left. In every instance I have said that legally he had no 

 claim whatever, but that there could be no harm in stating 

 the matter to the employer. In a few cases where our 

 advice was neglected there was much unpleasantness. Even 

 such matters as begging and lending should be done after a 

 clear understanding ; it will not do to depend on use and 

 custom if you wish to maintain your honour untarnished. 

 Such looseness of ideas may have partly arisen from the 

 fact that some gardeners, and especially exhibitors, were at 

 one time privileged to purchase for themselves novelties, 

 and to treat the proceeds. as their own property. There are 

 many reasons why gentlemen in general should not permit 

 such a course ; but when it does exist, being a private ar- 

 rangement, no one else has a right to interfere. Wherever 

 such a custom prevails it would be most satisfactory for aU 

 parties that the agreement was not only clearly understood, 

 but reduced to writing and duly signed ; otherwise dissatis- 

 faction, if not something worse, might take place at the 

 termination of the connection of master and servant by 

 death or otherwise. 



A servant, however great his zeal, has no right to pur- 

 chase goods for his master without his consent ; and a 

 gardener in thus purchasing should not go beyond the sum 

 agreed upon, unless he has a commission to obtain what is 

 wanted or what he deems necessary. He may purchase as 

 many plants as he likes for himself and pay for them, but he 

 has no right to bring them on his employer's premises with- 

 out his consent and direct agreement to that effect, and with- 

 out that agreement the plants become the property of the 

 employer. 



That employer, we presume, would be bound by the act 

 of his servant in purchasing, if the act was not 'repudiated 

 and the things purchased retiu-ned. I applaud the kindly 

 spirit of " NoKTHUi-iBEKLAND " in wishing to deal equitably 

 with his gardener, but if the gardener piu'chased contrary 

 even to his expressed wish in the open market from a 

 nurseryman, &'o., I suspect he must pay for these plants. 

 To escape all responsibility the practice should have been 

 stopped and the plants returned. I say this because, from 

 our correspondent's statement, there seems to me to have 

 been a looseness of business on both sides. The servant 

 hrfd no right to buy without the employer's orders. He had 

 no right to purchase with his own money, and bring the 

 plants on his master's premises. He was anything but wise 

 if he did so, for these plants became then his master's. But 

 if the servant had purchased plants from a nurseryman, and 

 the master ratified the act of the servant by paying for them, 

 I believe that for a future purchase the master would be 

 bound by the act of the servant ; but in such purchases 

 the bill should be j)resented at the first settlement. It 

 would never do to keep these things in abeyance and make 



