The Point of View of the Professional Gardener 
William L. Craig 
Superintendent, Faulkner Farm, Brookline, Massachusetts 
Madam President and Members of the Garden Club of America : 
I feel very much honored in being asked to speak before your Club, 
which has done and is doing so much to advance horticulture in 
America. I would that one more eloquent than I, and one who could 
better voice the aims, aspirations and activities of the professional 
gardener, were addressing you, but in our profession we lack the 
sophistries of the poHtician and the platitudes of the office seeker. In 
our Association we labor without remuneration hoping that in the 
not distant future our humble efforts may lead to the placing of our 
organization and craft on a loftier plane. 
I may fair lay claim to being a representative professional gardener 
as were my father, grandfather and great-grandfather before me. I 
was born, brought up and started my horticultural career in a beauti- 
ful garden not, perhaps, unknown to some of you, Levens Hall with its 
matchless topiary gardens located in Westmoorland, England, near 
the Scottish border, a land of mountain, moor, lake and forest, with 
enchanting scenery on every hand, enough to make anyone a lover of 
Nature and particularly — :when he or she was born with a love of 
flowers in their veins. 
My parents were sturdy Scotch people and greatly desired that I 
should follow the legal profession, but the love of gardening was too 
deep in my veins and while today I may be poorer financially than if 
I had become a legal luminary, I have at least the satisfaction of 
knowing that the caUing I am following gives more real pleasure to the 
lover of the great outdoors than any other I can name, and it is be- 
cause I desire to see the profession of gardening more looked up to by 
all patrons of horticulture that I have for some years, in a very humble 
way, 'tis true, supported the excellent work being done by the National 
Association of Gardeners, of which my friend, Mr. Ebel, is the efficient 
Secretary. 
The professional gardener of today in America is very variable in 
t3^e. I prefer today to speak of those who are well-trained gardeners, 
and not the large floating class of men who claim to be such but whose 
limited gardening experience unfits them for filHng any responsible 
position, however competent they may be in carrying out such duties 
as lawn mowing, pruning such deciduous shrubs as Loniceras, Spiraeas 
and Forsythias into topiary forms, planting and caring for some of the 
more common flowers and vegetables and doing the miscellaneous 
work customarily performed by men we class as chore-men in New 
England. 
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