COMMONPLACE NOTES. 



Nurseryman. — A man who makes his living chiefly by growing and 

 selling plants and seeds. 



Amateur. — A man who either (a) himself grows, or (b) employs 

 another to grow for him, plants, fruits, and vegetables chiefly and in- 

 tentionally for home use, though the surplus may possibly be sold. 



Gardener. — A man who earns his living mainly, if not entirely, by 

 growing, or helping to grow, plants, &c. for an amateur. 



Cottager. — This seems impossible of accurate, or, at least, satisfactory 

 definition. We know of nothing better than : A man whose house and 

 garden are rated at less than £10 a year (but see below) and who employs 

 no help beyond his own home family in the cultivation of his garden. 



Market-Gardener, — The only practical difference between the defini- 

 tion of a nurseryman and a market-gardener is that the former sells to 

 private customers, the latter in the open market ; the former mostly in 

 small quantities, the latter mostly in large consignments. 



We know of no better definitions than the above, though admittedly 

 they are by no means perfect, and many exceptions to them will arise. 

 It is often contended, for instance, that an " amateur " is "a man cultivat- 

 ing for home consumption only, and employing no paid assistance what- 

 soever." But this gives rise to endless heartburnings and squabblings. 

 Someone has got a man to wheel in some manure for him and paid him 

 a shilling or two to do it ; is he disqualified ? Someone has a stableman 

 who occasionally fills up his spare time by helping his employer in the 

 garden ; does that disqualify ? Some local societies endeavour to define 

 an "amateur" as "a man who employs no regular assistance in the 

 cultivation of his garden." And then endless questions rise as to the 

 meaning of the word "regular." Of course, if you employ a man half a 

 day once a week, that is "regular assistance," and it amounts to twenty- 

 six days a year. Another employs a man one clay a week from April to 

 October, and not at all in the winter months. This is " regular " if the 

 summer only is counted, but decidedly not " regular " if the whole year is 

 the basis of measurement, as it should be. So that this latter gentleman, 

 although he employs a man about thirty days in the year, passes as an 

 amateur, whilst his neighbour, whose assistant only works for him twenty- 

 six days in the year, is refused the title. The occasional help from the 

 stableman or knife and boot boy also creates difficulties ; and numberless 

 others, far too numerous to recount, are always being brought to our 

 notice. 



Difficult as it is, therefore, to define "amateur" and "cottager," we 

 think the definitions we have given above create the smallest friction, and 

 though the £10 rating for cottagers may have to be changed for some other 

 figure in different parts of the country, the principle remains the same. 



Wounds in Trees. 



A Fellow writes : — " I am lopping a good many Park trees. The 

 branches cut off are from 2 to 5 inches across. Do you advise any tar. 

 paint, or composition to put on the stumps to prevent bleeding ? " We 

 are strongly of opinion that all tree wounds should be tarred, not to pre- 

 vent bleeding, for if the trees are cut in the winter there will be no 



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