274 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. f September 22, 1881. 
for gardening be begotten in them in early life it will be hard 
work for them ever to advance on the high road to mediocrity. 
It is quite otherwise with young men of energy who love gar¬ 
dening, and who are bent on their own advancement and eleva¬ 
tion. All that such men need is a little encouragement and 
guidance. In our time we have known many young men of this 
kind who succeeded in raising themselves to positions of distinc¬ 
tion, and some of them still rank among the aristocracy of their 
profession. With a view to encourage and assist the young 
readers of this Journal I ask the Editor to let me now call some 
of them to my side, so that I can talk to them in a semi-conversa¬ 
tional style. 
Young men, you have now commenced the battle of life, and you 
well know that you are surrounded by a world of busy activities 
—a world of buyers and sellers—a world of vice and virtue—a 
world in which the race is to the swift and the battle to the strong. 
In gardening, as in most occupations, it holds that “ whatsoever a 
man soweth, that shall he also reap.” This is a lesson of prime im¬ 
portance, and has a wide and general application. Young men 
like you have it in your power now to shape your own future to 
a very great extent—in other words, to act so that you can look 
hopefully forward to a happy and successful life. In all your 
efforts to advance remember that first-class men are scarce, second- 
rate men are plentiful, and that third and fourth-grade men are 
more plentiful still. There is now, and there has been for forty 
years, greater difficulty in finding first-class gardeners than there 
is in finding first-rate situations for such. Capable and accom¬ 
plished gardeners, like good fruit, are in demand and seldom 
remain long in the market. Now look for a moment at the com¬ 
forts of a gardener in a good situation. His wages are constant 
and certain ; he has a free house, coals, milk, fruit, vegetables. 
In one of the situations I held I was allowed butter and game. 
At the age of twenty-seven I entered on my first head place, 
wages £70 a year; in my second place I had £80, third £84, and 
last one £90, and of course the usual perquisites ; and though the 
places I filled were not the highest, their material comforts were 
great and satisfactory. And since I left service twenty-two years 
ago the wages of gardeners, both masters and journeymen, have 
risen considerably. These thing.? are now mentioned for your 
encouragement and to stimulate you in aiming at excellence and 
success. 
In coming to the question of education let roe say that young 
gardeners cannot be too well educated, for education proper is 
uplifting in every sense—tending to make them more intelligent 
and better servants, fitting them for higher positions, giving them 
more self-respect with a distinct power to command the respect 
of both rich and poor around them. Gardeners have to meet and 
converse with the highest classes of society. Even the Queen 
herself has said that she prefers gardeners who cau talk to her in 
a’becoming manner. Those who have commenced a career of 
gardening with defective education should begin at once to im¬ 
prove themselves in this respect. To all such I would say, Do not 
delay, and never despair. A strong resolve followed by effort will 
overcome every difficulty and do the work. 
“An egg before an eagle, a thought before a thing.” 
During the winter months gardeners have much time for reading 
and improvement, and if this time is not properly spent it will be 
worse than lost—worse than wasted. If the soil of our gardens 
be not properly cultivated and cropped we are certain to have a 
splendid crop of weeds. 
As bread is the first consideration of man, the means by which 
it is to be earned should never be forgotten. A man's own 
business or profession should be his chief study. Young men, let 
nothing else go before gardening science and practice. But as all 
streets and byways of a city are in some way connected to the 
main or central thoroughfare, so all branches of science and 
scientific pursuits run into one another, and therefore you can 
never gain too much scientific knowledge, which expands the 
mind and gives to man a firmer grasp of his own business—a 
deeper penetration into and a greater power to explain the works 
of Nature around. 
Perhaps you are aware that some people say there is a difference 
between “ a thinking man ” and “ a man thinking,” and they hold 
up “ the man thinking ” as the better of the two. You will likely 
enough do the same by-and-by. Two apprentice gardeners with¬ 
out instructions or experience were told to tie up some beds of 
Pinks. They obtained sticks and matting, and they had knives. 
The elder of them began finishing every plant as he went on. The 
other apprentice looked at his companion for a moment, using first 
a stick, then the matting, then the knife. He would not be fet¬ 
tered and embarrassed by a bundle of sticks ; he stuck them all 
in the beds before he tied a plant, then obtained a piece of mattiag 
and finished his work before the other had done one-half of his. 
On finding himself so far behind he said, “I see your way is the 
best.” This simple story is representative of a thousand instances 
of men working without thinking. A yoimg gardener “ thinking ” 
seeks and finds the easiest and speediest way of doing work ; 
notices all that is being done around him, even from the erection 
of a pigstye to the erection of a mansion ; and he desires to know 
the reason for everything done and the way of doing it. Young 
men of this stamp acting to the best of their ability speedily rise 
into distinction, commanding the respect of masters, overseers, 
and companions in toil. Men thinking and acting are men that 
can be safely entrusted with work and the superintendence of 
other men. Men thinking and energetic soon become men of 
independent thought, who stamp their own individuality on all 
they undertake, able to meet difficulties and pass through emer¬ 
gencies without fear ; whereas men of slow thought and action 
are somewhat like sheep, which follow one another in tracks up 
the mountain side. 
On going to a new place let your motto be “ Full and Faithful 
Service.” In serving your master well you serve yourself better : 
merits and meritorious conduct never remain secrets, and seldom 
go unrewarded. On visiting Chats worth Gardens two years ago 
I took leave to ask Mr. Speed how he obtained his present 
situation. Mr. Speed replied by stating that his first head place 
was a small one in Nottinghamshire where he had twelve men 
under him, affording ample help to keep the place well. “I 
resolved to do everything well, and thus rear a mound of ex¬ 
cellent gardening on which I could stand and be seen. The 
family here beard about me and engaged me to manage Chats- 
worth Gardens.” I commend to your notice the example of Mr. 
Speed as one worth being imitated by all young gardeners. 
Gentlemen and ladies want their gardens well kept; they freely 
and ungrudgingly spend money to have tkern well kept and 
managed ; if they are not well kept who is to be blamed ? If 
gardens are not well managed they are a source of disappoint¬ 
ment and annoyance to the employers. We all know this, and 
therefore nothing more need be said about it. For your own 
comfort and satisfaction, as well as for the pleasure and grati¬ 
fication of your employers, do your very best to have everything 
under your care in the highest state of health and best possible 
keeping. If you have not assistance enough to do everything 
well, respectfully tell your employer, and tell him at the best 
time and in a manner to make him see that you are intensely 
anxious to meet his wishes and have the gardens in good con¬ 
dition. All through life I have been often applied to for 
gardeners, and consulted by gentlemen about their gardeners, 
and almost always found them very reasonable, willing to encou¬ 
rage their servants, and very unwilling to part with good men. 
Finding I have much to say yet I must make my remarks brief 
and pointed. While young men are journeymen they should 
guard themselves against the dangers of courting, for when young 
men begin to keep company with the opposite sex their books 
become less attractive, they come to a standstill in gardening and 
make no progress. In our time we have known very many young 
men who have made a good beginning and who had good pro¬ 
spects completely blighted for life by early courtship. How 
foolish it is for anybody to seek a bird before he has a cage 
ready for it ! Head gardeners should never be on intimate terms 
with house servants, male or female, should know no secrets, and 
hear no whispering from anybody. The great business of life is 
to do right, to deal with everybody and everything honestly— 
never to battle against conscience. The man that goes wrong 
and wittingly does wrong lives in a wood full of shadows. In a 
verse of poetry which will close this letter young men will find a 
condensed encyclopedia of precautions against the mistakes and 
dangers of life. 
“ 0 mortal man, in every act beware, 
For one false step may cause an age of care ; 
Ever tby credit keep, ’tis q.-.ickly gone ; 
Though gained by many actions, lost by one.” 
—A. Pettigrew, Bowdon. 
WORKjwhe WEEK,. £ 
fjp 
iamns*! 
1 -) 
l 
HARDY FRUIT GARDEX. 
Where it is contemplated to plant new trees against walls or 
renew worn-out trees the borders should be made soon, to allow of 
their getting settled and the soil ameliorated before the time for 
