GARDENERS AND THEIR EMPLOYERS. 



91 



reflection they feel deeply ashamed ; but, unfortunately, they 

 lack the manly courage and common sense to acknowledge it. 

 The usual outcome is a divergency of opinions, accompanied by 

 an irritable feeling, prone to take offence and apt to go more 

 than half-way to meet it. As the natural result of such a state 

 of things, great dissatisfaction or an open quarrel ensues, and in 

 the end the gardener and his employer part company, with any- 

 thing but feelings of mutual respect towards each other. 



This type of failure to agree is perhaps the one most frequently 

 met with ; but with the advance of education and fair ideas 

 of the relations which ought to prevail between all employers 

 and employed, and the cultivation of a spirit of self-restraint and 

 forbearance by all parties, we may hope to see the number of 

 such cases considerably reduced. A decidedly more objectionable 

 class are those who fail through evil disposition and bad conduct? 

 for whom, be they masters or men, no right-minded person feels 

 much sympathy. Of the numerous minor causes of differences 

 between gardeners and their employers, those arising from 

 infirmities of body or mind are most to be pitied and sympathised 

 with, however difficult it may be in their case to effect a cure. In 

 too many instances among the gardeners of this class they really 

 ought not to have entered the profession, in which, from lack of 

 natural capacity or physical strength, they were never likely to 

 prove a success ; and their lot in life is made the harder to bear 

 when they learn from sad experience how heavily they are 

 weighted in the race for a living. 



Among the several classes of more or less unhappy — or shall 

 we call them unlucky ? —gardeners and their employers there 

 are to be found many estimable people, and the pity is the greater 

 that they should follow such devious courses, with so many 

 excellent examples around them of mutual confidence and good 

 feeling existing between master and man. We are fairly entitled 

 to appeal to them, both employers and employed, in the strongest 

 possible terms, to bethink themselves and mend. The employers 

 have it in their power to secure the post of honour in taking the 

 first step towards this desirable consummation by holding out 

 the olive branch of reasonableness, and giving fair consideration 

 to the efforts of the gardener, be they successful or otherwise, to 

 meet their views and give them a fair share of satisfaction from 

 the results of his labour. This will encourage the gardener 



