52 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 19, 1864. 



again, a gardener can seldom visit a garden at a little 

 distance from his own without seeing something worthy of 

 note. Every horticultural establishment managed by a 

 thinking man (no matter how small it may be), is sure to 

 present to the notice of the visitor some feature which is 

 worth being remembered — something to think upon and 

 carry into practice whenever the chance comes. The further 

 he travels from his own locality the more numerous these 

 examples will become. Travelling, combined with a certain 

 amount of observation, which is easily attained, will enable 

 a gardener in a very few years to obtain an immense supply 

 of the raw material, which, being properly worked-up, will 

 place him in the front rank as a practical gardener. Our 

 young men, generally speaking, are in too great a hurry to 

 get into good places. They would get far better situations, 

 and be very much better fitted to fill them, if they would 

 only quietly work on for a few years longer, working as 

 assistants, and travelling as far from home as they can 

 manage. 



But it may be said that this is all quite visionary. I may 

 be, and often have been asked, " How is a young gardener, 

 earning only some 10s. or 12s. per week, to afford to visit 

 the distant parts of his own country, much less foreign 

 lands?" My answer is that "where there's a will there's a 

 way." I could bring forward more than one example to 

 prove this. I know one young gardener who, having 

 finished his apprenticeship, worked in several gardens at 

 12s. per week, sometimes with, sometimes without the ad- 

 vantage of a bothy. I knew Mm more than once give up 

 15s., to which his pay had been raised, and go to work at 

 another place, where he could learn more, at the old wage 

 of 12s. Once, for a short time, he got as far as 18s., but 

 this he gave up for a situation at a considerable distance, 

 where he only earned the old pay. While working in these 

 places he saved enough money to carry him across to the 

 continent. He got a situation and worked there for some 

 time. He visited Holstein, Hamburgh, Prussia, Austria, 

 Saxony, Hanover, and Belgium, as well as a number of 

 the smaller States. He learned the language sufficiently to 

 be able to converse in it with considerable fluency. He 

 did not travel through these countries as one does who runs 

 over to the continent for a month's holiday, but did much of 

 it on foot, visiting the gardens most worthy of note ; or, 

 when the railway was resorted to, the journey was done in 

 short stages. All this cost, in excess of what little he 

 earned there, not a shilling more than £9. He has ever 

 since declared that it was money well expended. He did 

 not extend his travels so far as he intended, some domestic 

 circumstance bringing him back to this country just at the 

 time when he had got another situation at Prankfort-on- 

 the-Maine, intending to make that the centre of a more 

 southern series of journeyings, and hoping to visit Italy, 

 and return by way of Switzerland and France. I take this 

 simply as an instance of what may be done upon very small 

 means. I know that the person spoken of had not a penny 

 more than he had saved while working upon the rates of 

 wages mentioned above. He did not get help from home, 

 as many young gardeners do, to their great injury, nor did 

 he while saving that sum deny himself any of the neces- 

 saries, and some few of the luxuries of life. 



The money expended upon travelling is like a sum placed 

 at your bankers, and bringing in a good rate of interest all 

 through life. Tou can always discover whether or not a 

 man has seen much of the world, even if you only have ten 

 minutes conversation with him upon any subject, no matter 

 what. You find that he is not so full of prejudices ; he 

 gives credit where credit is due ; he does not think his own 

 country is the best spot upon the face of the earth in all 

 respects ; he is willing to believe that other systems of 

 gardening are as good or better than that he practises, and 

 he is ready to adopt and incorporate with his own every 

 good and practical idea. Let me illustrate what I have 

 advanced by one or two practical instances. Kitchen gar- 

 dening may be very well carried out in many private 

 gardens in our country ; but very few of them would bear 

 being measured by a debtor and creditor account if the 

 matter of rent were also taken into account. Will the value 

 of the vegetables and fruit produced balance the expenditure 

 in labour, manure, &c. ? It is not, perhaps, expected that 

 it should do so. So much the better for the gardener. 



There is not a young gardener in the country who would 

 not be the better for a twelvemonth spent in a market 

 garden near London. High rent and heavy rates have to 

 be paid there, and yet market gardening is far from being a 

 profitless business. He would there learn how to economise 

 to the utmost ; how to insure the greatest possible supply 

 from the smallest space ; how to get three or four crops 

 a-year from the same ground ; and the way in which net 

 even a rod of ground is allowed to be idle for more than a 

 day. The young gardener, in order to see how this was 

 managed, would have to work very hard upon very small 

 pay ; but he would in that year learn what would be invalu- 

 able to him through life. He might, perhaps, attain ths 

 same end by getting a situation in the neighbourhood, and 

 carefully watching the proceedings at some market garden 

 near him ; but this, of course, would not be equal to working 

 upon the spot. Then, again, to take another and widely- 

 different instance, we may say that if half the precautions 

 taken in Germany to secure plants, which we consider hardy, 

 from the effects of frost were practised in this country, our 

 gardens would present a much more interesting appearance. 

 What would a British gardener think of a Deodar with all 

 its branches carefully packed together, and then thatched 

 over with reeds or straws for four months in the year? 

 And yet that and many other expedients are there regularly 

 carried into practice. If the same trouble were taken with 

 plants which are half-hardy here, how many more species 

 might we not cultivate ? All the beautiful South Australian 

 plants, those of Chili, Japan, California, and many other 

 parts, might then be freely introduced, and would have a 

 glorious effect. I am trying this now with a Dasylirion, a 

 species of Eucalyptus, and some others. Two winters have 

 been safely got through. Then, again, a season would not 

 be lost in watching the care taken in the growth of bulbs 

 in Holland and Germany. But I might go on multiplying 

 instances of the things worthy of observation to an almost 

 unlimited extent. Forcing as practised in various parts, 

 the different modes of ventilating houses, the management 

 of timber on forest lands, and a score of examples might be 

 quoted. 



The means for getting about from place to place are now 

 very much greater than at any former time ; cheap excur- 

 sion trains are plentiful, and steamboats will, for a few 

 shillings, take one a long distance. Indeed, if one only has 

 the wish, he can now readily travel very cheaply from one 

 end of the country to the other. No young gardener who 

 seriously intends to educate and fit himself for taking a 

 high stand in his profession should neglect the opportuni- 

 ties with which these furnish him. He should take advan- 

 tage of them to visit and observe as much as he possibly 

 can, and in so doing he will surely find his reward. Travel- 

 ling is one of the luxuries which were formerly confined to 

 the rich, but it is now within the means of everybody ; it 

 is no longer a means of education which the wealthy alone 

 enjoy. 



To prove that I practise what I preach, I may mention 

 that this paper was commenced at a spot six hundred and 

 fifty miles away from that where it is now completed, and 

 it has to be sent three hundred miles by post to the place 

 where it will be printed — glorious Auld Reekie. — (Scottish 

 Gardener.) 



WORE FOR THE WEEK. 



KITCHEN GAUDEST. 



Ply the fork incessantly amongst the growing crops of 

 Cauliflower, Broccoli, and Winter Greens, and continue to 

 manure and trench up every piece of ground as it becomes 

 vacant, and plant if with such as the above for late crops. 

 Celery, prepare trenches for the late crop, water the growing 

 crops of the same, and stir the soil about them. Cabbages, 

 reserve and get ready a patch of ground for the sowings of 

 Cabbages to stand the winter. The soil should be of a light, 

 sandy nature, and not too rich, as such encourages a luxuriant 

 growth, which is apt to make them tender. Endive, plant 

 out the strongest from the early sowings, and sow also more 

 for late crops, the Small Green-curled is the best. Garlic and 

 Shallots to be taken up and dried for storing. Onions, pull 

 up the crops of winter Onions, lay them in rows with the 

 roots turned to the sun, and frequently turn them until the 



