JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 13, 1870. 



andria, but as for more you must wait till you have Tines under 

 your own care, and then you may have a little opportunity of 

 comparison. You may get over being caught taking a Plum or 

 an Apple, but to take and nip a berry out of a bunch of Grapes, 

 oh, dear ! that would be enough to send your bos to the nearest 

 station, or at least to insure a lecture a yard long, and to have 

 the vinery door locked. 



Of course, where fruit is very scarce, it must be husbanded, 

 and cannot be allowed to go for young gardeners to taste and 

 compare, whether they are ignorant or not ; but then so very 

 little is needed with the help of Dr. Hogg's " Fruit Manual, "- 

 that I cannot but think the lamentable ignorance of which I 

 complain might be in a great measure remedied. 



Then, again, in regard to new vegetables, it is the same. 

 Toung men in the bothy must not expect to taste new Peas and 

 Potatoes. The difference between good and bad is of no moment 

 to them now ; when they are in a place of their own is time 

 enough for them to begin to know. For the first year or two 

 let them accept seedsmen's and nurserymen's opinions, and 

 then after making some mistake or mistakes which nearly cost 

 them their places, they will learn. — A Young Gardener. 



P.S. — I hope you will excuse my growl, but it eases one's 

 mind. 



[There is, no doubt, Eome truth in what you say, but we 

 have found that it is the easiest matter in the world to find or 

 make a grievance. Some young gardeners, like young men in 

 other trades and professions, find that there is no royal road to 

 knowledge of any kind. Where young men enter on gardening 

 as regular apprentices or improvers, and directly or indirectly 

 pay so much for instruction, it is only fair that that instruction 

 should be given according to the capabilities of the place. 

 Where a labourer picks up knowledge as he can, and where all 

 the gardener can receive from him is merely a regular and ap- 

 pointed amount of labour, he can hardly be expected to get 

 regular instruction on all points from the gardener. Partly 

 from getting labour better done, and partly from a large-hearted 

 generosity, gardeners have been the most liberal of men in im- 

 parting whatever knowledge they may have possessed. In fact, 

 there is no trade or profession where the peculiar knowledge of 

 the trade is so much and so frequently made a matter of public 

 property as in gardening. 



Young men in gardens, in general, form no exception. It is 

 seldom that a man anxious to get on, active, attentive, per- 

 severing, and obliging, would be debarred from any knowledge 

 he solicited in a proper way. It is by such means that some of 

 our best gardeners have risen to the top of the tree. Their 

 good, upright, obliging conduct has made many friends for 

 them wherever they went. But those who have had most to 

 do with young gardeners will be the first to own that all of 

 them do not possess these attractive qualities. Many pro- 

 fessedly going to a garden for improvement, seem to care about 

 little except to get over as easily as possible the day's labour ; 

 and if they feel so little interest themselves, it is not likely 

 that the head gardener will repeatedly trouble himself to give 

 the explanations and information that are received so carelessly. 

 In general, then, where there is a great amount of ignorance, 

 after a long period of probation, we would be more inclined 

 to refer that ignorance to the carelessness of the man than 

 to the proud indifference of the master. Of course, to every 

 rule there are exceptions. Gardeners, and the best of them, 

 are but men. On the whole, we think that many young gar- 

 deners hold unsound notions of what head gardeners are bound 

 to do for them ; and dwelling on this they remain ignorant of 

 what they might know but for their proud indifference and 

 carelessness. 



Again, it would be well if young gardeners, and many of the 

 public, too, would recollect that a head gardener is merely a 

 servant, having charge of a certain amount of property, for 

 which he is responsible to his employer. In most places there 

 is a little latitude as to giving and receiving, but it is dan- 

 gerous to act upon it without a clear understanding. Mere use 

 is not sufficient if a man wishes to be above suspicion and all 

 underhand gossipings. Many a gardener, to our knowledge, 

 has gained the character of being hard, near, and close-fisted, 

 when he was merely and simply honest and faithful to his 

 trust. Gardeners are not unfrequently annoyed by employers 

 being suspicious now as to what becomes of the effects of the 

 garden. They thought they should have had a greater abund- 

 ance of this, and a better supply of that. We hardly know how 

 it would be if assistants were allowed to pick and taste at 

 their will. Such suspicious proprietors might then think it 

 best to get rid of their suspicions, and their garden too. 



Under such circumstances gardeners have often a sad time. 

 They know that things lessen and lessen, and cannot find out 

 how. We fear it is not always the assistants that are to blame. 

 Many think it no harm to pick when they have a chance, 

 though having no right whatever. Visitors should use no more 

 freedom in a garden than they would dare to do in a grocer's 

 or haberdasher's shop. In many places a bad practice prevails 

 of allowing visitors at the mansion to make themselves free of 

 the garden. Under such circumstances the gardener is often 

 at a loss how to get a good dessert, and if there are many 

 assistants, a great temptation is presented to them to do as 

 their betters do. We have seen a gentleman finger-and-thumb 

 a score of Noblesse Peaches before he found one to his mind, 

 and every one of those Peaches would retain the mark. In a 

 few instances the employers may be anything but straight- 

 forward. We knew a gardener who was thus treated. The 

 lady found fault day after day, that the fine wall fruit were dis- 

 appearing. He was obliged to own it, but could not tell how. 

 He had the borders fresh raked every morning, so that a single 

 footstep should be seen ; but still every day, without a single 

 mark, few or more fruit were taken, and all his watching seemed 

 useless. Having got half through his dinner one day he thought 

 he would go out and look at the wall, and there wa3 the pro- 

 prietor using a long hooked stick to take the fruit off the wall, 

 and trundling them across the border without leaving a mark. 

 We have often fancied the looks exchanged. We have some- 

 times felt what a wrong it was that the character and the 

 position of a gardener should be so much in the power of such 

 an employer. What would some employers with just a spark 

 of suspicion about them think, when they found out that the 

 garden assistants were not merely workmen but tasters and 

 consumers of their best fruit fruit and vegetables ? 



The abuse in such matters has often led to the disuse of good 

 customs, and thus the innocent have suffered for the guilty. Not 

 so long ago a gardener was keeping carefully a fine lot of Cauli- 

 flower for a ten-days company, and had the half of them taken 

 in one night. Another time the first gathering of a new Pea- 

 that the employer had heard about disappeared in the same 

 way, and later still some kinds of new Potatoes, planted care- 

 fully for trial, had been all grubbed over with the fingers and a 

 pointed stick, so that the objects in planting, in comparing 

 samples and qualities, were completely frustrated. It would 

 have been easy to have known where they went to. Even our 

 correspondent would be inclined to own that this was bothy- 

 tasting with a vengeance. Can anything of this kind be the 

 reason why in many places now the young gardener assistants 

 must live out in lodgings ? 



The picking and tasting and pocketing of fruit, is often more 

 trying than even the loss of a few of the best vegetables. Often 

 the best fruit intended to crown a dish are missing, and Mr. 

 Nobody does all the mischief. A most liberal-hearted pro- 

 prietor, on seeing a number of men gathering a nice quantity of 

 small Strawberries from a quarter after all the best had been 

 obtained for table and preserving, said he liked the principle, 

 but if after such indulgence a man should be found helping 

 himself except where allowed, he must be discharged there and 

 at once. We know, too, many cases where kind indulgences 

 have been altogether withdrawn because they were made the 

 cloak to carry matters to an excess. Young gardeners and 

 garden labourers may retort that old head gardeners might be 

 equally guilty when young. That may be true, and yet not 

 mend the matter. We should say, however, that gardens since 

 then are doubled, or rather trebled in number, and proprietors 

 now look more carefully for returns for the money expended. 



We have been thus diffuse in going beyond our corre- 

 spondent's complaints, because we wish to note the importance 

 of these matters to all concerned. 



1st, That the proprietors of gardens should not to any great 

 extent exercise their undoubted right in picking and gathering 

 fruit and other produce without the knowledge of the gardener. 



2nd, That the same rule should apply to their visitors, and 

 on similar conditions. This is especially necessary where a 

 number of assistants are employed, as the frequent infraction 

 of it would present to them great temptations, and we consider 

 it wrong unnecessarily to put temptations in the way of any 

 one. What would be thought of ladies and gentlemen going to 

 a dairy, helping themselves to cream and butter, and pocketing 

 eggs, and taking notice of nobody ? Would it work well if 

 pantry and larder were invaded and the contents freely ab- 

 stracted, and yet a housekeeper, and cook, and butler be con- 

 sidered responsible ? The same principle applies in a garden, 

 when visitors take just what they like aid disfigure what they 



