August 23, 1864. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



155 



we rarely know anything about the effects of steam. All we 

 want is the heat, and we have no difficulty in regulating 

 it when obtained. 



"We have no doubt the plan adopted by your neighbour, 

 the farmer, answers well, and if others try it we feel con- 

 fident they will succeed as they ought to do. But with 

 those six or eight loads of dung we think we could grow fine 

 early Radishes without any trouble ; and when they were 

 done, we would take out the soil, turn out the dung, now 

 pretty well sweetened, place as much more a little wrought 

 at the bottom, and the materials of the first bed on the top 

 of it, cover all with soil well secured at the sides, and as 

 soon as that became warm turn out the Cucumber plants. 

 Mind, we have no objection to the plan, but that it seems to 

 require a great deal of doing, and we must confess we have 

 little faith in such a steam chimney in a house as a sub- 

 stitute for fresh air. But, perhaps, we do not clearly under- 

 stand the system. We see through all about the banking- 

 up to keep any bad steam from rising, but we do not see so 

 well the efficacy of the hollow chimney-month, &c. All 

 danger from over-heating can be equally well prevented by 

 making the bed much more shallow in the middle than at 

 the sides, or what would come to the same thing, forming 

 the bed there chiefly of faggots and primings, or having a 

 chamber underneath or flue to be heated by outside linings. 

 "We do not agree with you as to never having linings higher 

 than the soil inside. Provided we have enough bottom 

 heat, we prefer that the top heat should come chiefly from 

 heating the sides of the pit and frame, instead of much 

 through the soil. "When we could not do this, we have run 

 pipes through the bed into the atmosphere of the house, 

 with the ends open, and by this means obtain heat without 

 any steam. We have no doubt but that the system answers 

 admirably with you when you obtain such results, and we 

 and others feel indebted for your giving us this information 

 respecting your practice. We also a,pprove of the greater 

 depth of earth for Melons than is generally given ; but that 

 will not do without sufficient heat. Of course, from July to 

 October, in a warm season, Melons require little more heat 

 than what the sun gives them. Could we make sure of 

 sunny days we might pretty well dispense with dung heat 

 and hot water too. The variable character of the climate 

 renders either desirable when thoroughly under command. 

 — R. P.] 



A GAEDEjSTEE'S GEIEVANCE. 



I hope you will give me a word of advice as to what I 

 ought to do under the following circumstances. 



I was till lately gardener to the rector of the parish I 

 reside in. I had had my situation for more than two years, 

 and had no particular fault to find with it, except that my 

 master was occasionally in the habit of using language to 

 me and employing epithets which were most painful to my- 

 self to listen to. I grant I was occasionally careless, but 

 that was no reason why he should call me, as he sometimes 

 did, " a donkey," or as he did on one occasion, " a conceited 

 muff." 



But, sir, I want to make you acquainted with the circum- 

 stances under which I left my situation, and to ask you 

 whether I am not a very ill-used man. I will lay the entire 

 case before you. My late master's garden, I must premise, 

 opens into a field in which are kept three cows, and I was 

 charged always to keep the gate, which stands between the 

 garden and the field, carefully closed. I was generally very 

 careful in this matter, but on one occasion, about three 

 months ago, I left it open, and one of the cows found her 

 way into the garden. My master was not pleased, as you 

 may suppose ; but as I told him I was very sorry for my 

 carelessness he did not say much; but he reminded me, 

 as I thought most unnecessarily, that I had once before 

 neglected to close the gate, and he told me, as he had a 

 right to do, that I must not do any such thing again. Well, 

 sir, I said I'd be careful. But, unfortunately, about six 

 weeks ago I neglected to close the gate as I came out of the 

 field the last thing at night, and in the morning my master 

 saw the three cows feeding on the lawn, and I am sorry to 

 say that they had trampled down the flowers, and made 

 sad work. My master called me to him, and showed a most 

 unnecessary degree of temper in the matter, and spoke in 



a way that I considered quite degrading to his character as 

 a clergyman. He blew me up before the servant maids, 

 and called me in their presence " disgracefully careless " 

 and " unfit for my place ;" and when I asked him what I 

 was to do, the words he used were, " Why, you helpless dog, 

 go and turn the cows into the field." We went together for 

 this purpose, and when the job was finished, " Sir," said I, 

 " it was hardly fair for you to expose me before the young 

 ladies in the kitchen." "What young ladies do you mean, 

 Jack?" he said, as I could see, very crossly. "Sir," I said 

 most respectfully, "you just now spoke to me before the 

 maidservants ; and though I can bear to be rebuked by your- 

 self, sir, when no one is present, it is very hurtful to my 

 feelings to be called names when young ladies are standing 

 by and listen i ng. How, sir, can I keep up my character in 

 the kitchen if you are the one to let it down ? " Whereupon 

 my master laughed at me, and said, " Go and look at the 

 garden, Jack, and judge whether I said a word more than 

 you deserved." " I shouldn't have minded," I said, " sir, if 

 it hadn't been before the ladies." 



In an hour or two's time he was in the garden with his 

 wife and two daughters, and, sir, the remarks I heard them 

 make about me were more than human nature could well 

 endure. As ill-luck would have it, in my confusion I had 

 neglected again to close the gate, and one of the cows was just 

 coming into the garden, and my master called out in a loud 

 voice and said, "Look there, Jack;" and when I had closed 

 the gate, he said in a sneering sort of way, " I suppose, Jack, 

 I had better say nothing to you before the ladies ! " And 

 then the ladies laughed at something, I could not make out 

 what. I could not speak, but I felt most indignant. 



Well, sir, after I had tidied up the place, my friend, the 

 under gardener at the hall, came on an errand from the 

 Squire, and before he left I saw him, and asked his advice. 

 I told him that my master had let me down before the maid- 

 servants, and that he sometimes applied unseemly epithets 

 tome; and he fully coincided with my remarks, and said 

 he did not wonder I felt hurt ; and* when I went on to say 

 I contemplated giving up my situation, he said that though 

 he did not like men to give up places when they were in the 

 main well off, yet that sometimes it couldn't be avoided; 

 but he advised me to think well of it. However, on con- 

 sideration, I determined to give my master a month's warn- 

 ing. When I had so done my master said to me (and mark, 

 sir, how, even when in a good temper, he would not forbear 

 cal lin g names), " You are a silly fellow, Jack, and I hope 

 as you grow older you'll grow wiser. But go to bed and 

 sleep over it, and if you are tired of the place give me notice 

 again to-morrow morning. If, however, you say nothing, 

 I '11 say nothing, if you are intending to be more careful for 

 the future ;" and then he said some more things, and I can- 

 not say but that he spoke very kindly. However, on the 

 following morning I repeated my notice, and my master 

 said, " Very well, the greater donkey you ; but mind, when 

 you repent it, that it is your own doing, and not mine." 

 When I told my friend, the under gardener at the hall, he 

 said it was not pleasant to be called a donkey, and that a 

 clergyman should know better. In a few days' time, sir,. I 

 heard, to my intense disgust, that this under gardener had 

 applied for my situation, and was coming in my place ! 



Now, sir, was not this most unhandsome, and a violation 

 of all professional etiquette ? And, sir, my master told a 

 gentleman who wrote for my character that I was a good 

 servant ; but he spoiled it by saying that I was sometimes 

 careless ; and, sir, I am not yet engaged. But, sir, my con- 

 science assures me that I have acted right, and I hope that 

 you will agree with me in thinking that if masters would 

 keep their servants they should forbear from all such re- 

 marks as are calculated to wound their feelings, especially 

 before female servants, who are commonly sufficiently imper- 

 tinent without the opportunity being given them of hearing 

 one blown up for any trifling act of negligence which any 

 one is liable to. Nor was this the first time of my master's 

 having done so ; he did it last January, when the fire was 

 out one morning in the greenhouse, and he said some 

 plants were killed by frost. However, I was very sorry, 

 and said nothing ; but one cannot bear to be put upon toe- 

 often. 



I hope, sir, you will pardon my intrusion, but I am sure 

 that as your publication is " for gardeners," you will not 



