94 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



competing hosts which are already in the field, the same parties 

 in numerous instances are seen year after year adding as many 

 as they can, for some inscrutable reason, to the number ; taking 

 on as apprentices, improvers, and so forth as many raw lads as 

 they can employ, paying little or no regard to the mental power 

 and physical capacity possessed by the youths — things which are 

 absolutely necessary to qualify them for becoming in due time 

 competent gardeners. After two or three years' service, such as 

 it is — learning in its true sense is too often sadly neglected — these 

 lads are passed on for others to teach them what they ought to 

 have learned while serving a real and not a sham apprenticeship. 

 The intelligent and persevering among the young men try their 

 best to learn when they get an opportunity, and eventually prove 

 a success in whatever line of life they follow ; but far too many, 

 passing as " gardeners," turn out idle or incapable, and go to 

 swell the ranks of the unsuccessful, who grumble and shout 

 " There are far too many gardeners ! " I am inclined to agree 

 that there are far too many of that indifferent class of gardeners ; 

 but when all the badly trained and incompetent are weeded out, 

 I have yet to learn the existence of more than a sufficiency of 

 thoroughly trained and capable men. It rests entirely with 

 gardeners themselves, when recruiting their ranks, to see that 

 none are chosen but those youths who are likely to prove a 

 success from their education, intelligence, and capacity to bear 

 the strain of continuous hard work and study. It may not 

 always be possible to accurately gauge the future ability of a lad 

 in his teens, but there is much room for improvement on the 

 somewhat haphazard methods in vogue. A careful selection of 

 the youths available, and a rigid exclusion of all those who are 

 indifferently equipped by nature or education, would prove a 

 decided advantage to both gardeners and their employers, and 

 would greatly enhance the credit of the gardening profession. 



The demand for thoroughly trained men of good parts is, 

 generally speaking, equal to the supply, although, for reasons 

 which they cannot control, they have no monopoly of the situa- 

 tions under good employers. For any surplus of young gar- 

 deners of average ability and good conduct there is a ready 

 outlet in many other branches of rural industry. I may safely 

 affirm that few, if any other, classes in the community have so 

 many advantageous berths open to them outside their own 



