140 THE FLOEIST AND 
WHAT GARDENERS MAY DO FOR THEIR JOURNEYMEN. 
Assuming tliat the gardeners who read these pages are sincerely anxious 
to promote the happiness and welfare of those under their control, I pro- 
pose to venture a few remarks upon the means by which they may most 
effectually do so. The influence which the head gardener of a large estab- 
lishment must have on the comfort, and I may add on everything that affects 
those in his employ, can hardly be overstated, and will fully justify the tone 
of earnestness which may be adopted in speaking of the subject. To him 
they have committed their professional education, and it must very much 
depend on him whether they make respectable progress or turn out a set of 
mere dolts and pretenders. Whether he receives a premium from the young 
men under him or not, he should feel himself bound to do all in his power 
for their advancement. Every journeyman gardener, following the business 
with a view to improvement, is virtually an apprentice ; he accepts wages 
far below what his position and educational acquirements legitimately enti- 
tle him to expect, in the hope of ultimately rising to the post of master 
himself, as the reward of his diligence. For this reason his master is fairly 
expected to give him every reasonable facility for acquiring the knowledge 
without which his hopes must be disappointed. 
This will not be done unless it be made part of a settled plan of proce- 
dure. Knowing that a man can never thoroughly enter into every branch 
of his profession unless actually engaged in every branch, he should lay it 
down as a maxim, never to be lost sight of, that every man in his employ 
should have an opportunity of assisting in all the different departments of 
the garden. Perhaps it cannot be safely determined that every fresh hand 
shall begin in the kitchen garden, proceed next to the framing ground, after 
that to the forcing houses, and so on. It may, in some cases, be desirable 
to follow a different order, but the point insisted on is, that each man should 
have a turn in each department ; we should not then have so many gar- 
deners whose skill in their profession, though undoubted, is entirely limited 
to one or two branches ; they can grow Pine-apples well, but they are quite 
at sea in making an Asparagus bed ; they are regular adepts in the man- 
agement of Cape Heaths, but almost as unacquainted with Cape Broccoli as 
the natives of the Cape themselves : and all because during the time they 
worked as journeymen they were found to be so handy about one particular 
kind of work that they could not be spared for anything else. Now, if the 
master would make it a settled rule that no one should be kept to one kind 
