March 19, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
235 
•was that fr jm Mr. Walter G. Gaiger, gardener to S. Taylor Whitehead, Esq., 
Burton Closes, Bakewell, which was shown at the recent meeting of the 
Koyal Horticultural Society, March 10th. This plant, which was grown 
in an 8-inch pot and had three growths, with nineteen flowers, were of a 
very delicate rosy colour, one of the prettiest varieties that have been 
exhibited. The Floral Committee unhesitatingly awarded acultural com¬ 
mendation for the specimen, an honour that was well merited, as it 
aff trded most satisfactory evidence of the grower’s skill. From a photo¬ 
graph of the plant, kindly forwarded by Mr. Gaiger, we have had the 
arc mpanying woodcut (fig. 42) prepare!, anl it gives a faithful repre¬ 
sentation of the specimen as it was shown at Kensington. No doubt 
many gardeners would be glad to know the method of treatment which 
“ Many men,” “ T. C. D.” says, “ do not utilise their spare time to the 
best advantage ” in studying, drawing, reading, &c., and he enforces my 
charge of superficial reading in these words : “I do not mean scanning, 
but studying and taking note of what we read.” To which I say, Very 
good indeed, “ T. C. D.” 4, A warning against profitless amusements. 
5, An exhortation to the excellent resolution to always resolve to do 
better. A very wise and sensible letter, and to me very satisfactory, as 
may be judged. There have been others in much the same strain running 
through the year’s correspondence. 
Much of the censure so freely dispensed towards those who have ex¬ 
posed the young gardeners’ weaknesses (and yet who are, perhaps, thereby 
oetter friends than those who are always saying smooth things about 
them) has been given because the writers could not or would not recognise 
the logical law that the whole contains the particular, but the particular 
Fig. 42.—A Specimen Lycaste Skinneri. 
has yielded such pleasing results, and probably Mr. Gaiger will be equally 
as ready to furnish the information. 
THE YOUNG GARDENER QUESTION. 
I have been very greatly amused by the correspondence on this sub¬ 
ject, which I did something to stimulate at the end of 1883. If I wanted 
anything to justify the position I took up as to the professional degeneracy 
of the young gardeners of the present day it would be the letter of my 
brother of Herts, “ T. C. D.,” on page 208. He, though ostensibly de¬ 
fending the young gardeners, yet practically admits the truth of all the 
weaknesses that they are charged with. Take the charges which he says 
may be laid to them. 1, Impertinent answers when corrected for wrong 
or imperfect work. This was a weakness that I did not bring against 
young gardeners in my charges. There’s truth in it, for all that. 2, The 
necessity to do things thoroughly. 3, The economic use of spare time. 
does not contain the whole. I have as many and as close friends amongst 
young gardeners as any head gardener of fifty years of age can have. It was 
because of the interest I had in these, and a wide and intimate observation 
of the class, which made me write as I did at the end of 1883. I can only 
say that if this discussion has served to open the eyes of only a few youDg 
gardeners, it will not have been in vain. As to the hard words that have 
been directly or indirectly said about motives and judgments, they are 
nothing—I am used to them, and, as a Lancashire man said on being 
commiserated with on his severe asthmatical cough, “ Oh, it’s nowt when 
you’re used to it! ”—H., Notts. 
MR. BARDNEY’S INSECTICIDE. 
In the “ Gardener’s Year Book ” you give Mr. Bardney's recipe for 
softsoap solution as follows :—About 2 lbs. of soap in a saucepan with a, 
little water, boiled for about twenty minutes. This is mixed with 5 or G 
