AprU 18, 1895. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
329 
happier if the employer would only try to do what is just and 
right. In some instances no doubt it occurs more from want of 
giving the case attention than from any desire to act unfairly, but 
it should be a very important matter to an employer whether his 
servants are happy or not. Some employers have a rather queer 
conception of what a gardener should be; even in what we call 
good places this peculiarity is often evident. For instance, a 
glance through the columns of our papers will reveal the fact that 
a gardener should never exceed forty years of age ; he should 
always be married, but seldom is he allowed the privilege of having 
a family. Now, it has been my good fortune to meet some excellent 
gardeners over forty, and also married men with families, whom 
the most particular person might venture to live within a few 
hundred yards of. Then, again, there are those who want men 
thoroughly well up in their calling to make themselves generally 
useful—not object to a cow. I have no objection to gentlemen 
trying to secure the services of such men ; it is no doubt necessary 
that they should have all this work done by one pair of hands, but 
I do object to all sorts and conditions of general men servants 
being called the gardener. The term gardener in this case covers 
a very wide area, and at the same time I know there are many good 
gardeners who are through no fault of their own compelled to fill 
these kind of places. Yet in many instances the title is altogether 
misleading, for amongst their many duties the garden is often the 
very last to gain their attention. Did you ever hear of a butler 
being wanted who could milk, a gamekeeper who could drive a 
pair, a coachman to do his own shoeing, or a farm bailiff who could 
wait at table ? I have not, and it seems to me rather hard lines on 
the avocation, to give men (excellent men they are no doubt, and 
I have nothing but good to say of them in the manner which they 
manage to get through their difficult tasks), whenever at a loss for a 
name, the title of gardener. 
Perhaps gardeners are, to some extent, answerable for this state 
of things, for I know of no class of men so willing to give away to 
.the first applicant what has cost them years of study to obtain. 
They are anxious to circulate their knowledge, and no one hesitates 
to ask a gardener how he grows such a plant, feeling aggrieved if 
not told. It is not so in other walks of life. Who would be brave 
enough to ask his doctor to tell him, after an illness, what medicine 
he used, so that in future he could doctor himself ? No doubt in 
many cases this freedom of giving information has done good 
to gardeners, but still I think it has also been the means of 
overstocking the market with a certain class of men who pass as 
gardeners. 
Another duty of an employer is to provide his gardener with 
the necessary convenience for producing what is required. It may 
be said, Surely he will have the common sense to see for himself 
that unless he does so he cannot expect it ? Yet I am afraid there 
are but few gardeners who are quite satisfied on this point. The 
employer sees exposed for sale, at all seasons, and in the greatest 
profusion, fruit, flowers, and vegetables, and often goes home dis¬ 
satisfied with his own gardener. But if he would visit the places 
where this produce comes from, in most cases each particular kind 
being grown by a specialist, and who has the very best appliances 
for producing the same, he would probably consider his own man 
cleverer than he had any idea of. 
A garden is looked on by many persons as a luxury, and 
must be endured if they are to be considered fashionable. No 
doubt it is a luxury ; in fact, there are few things that are not. 
Gardeners are expected to produce these luxuries, and so long as 
they do so to the satisfaction of their employers, the cost of so 
doing ought to be credited to them as in any other business. The 
plants grown for decorating the house and grounds, all requiring 
special care, the demands of the household down to the cook, mean 
an amount of time and trouble that would astonish many an 
employer, could the gardener charge for it at the same rate as the 
general furnisher. 
In these advanced times the question of shorter hours of labour 
has had the consideration of many of our leading men, and even of 
our law makers, but although most trades have to some extent 
benefited by it, gardeners have had few concessions. Why it 
should never have been thought necessary for them to have a few 
hours in the week to indulge in recreation as well as the trades¬ 
man I do not know, for I think of the two the gardener is more 
deserving. If a tradesman works overtime he is paid for it, and 
surely the gardener, as some set-off against the extra time he puts 
in—Sunday duly and fires, for instance—might be allowed a half¬ 
holiday once a week. For want of combination gardeners are not 
in the same condition to press their wants as other classes, and 
employers would in most cases be amply rewarded if they were to 
grant some small concessions on this point without being asked for 
them. 
An employer should also satisfy himself that the dwelling 
places on his estate are whac they ought to be. I am well aware 
great improvements have been made in this respect, but much 
yet remains to be done. There are many cottages and bothiee 
which to live in may mean to the occupant anything but comfort, 
and which, if not owned by influential persons, would soon be 
condemned by the authorities as an abomination. 
The employer should also pay his gardener a wage he is satisfied 
will keep him and his family in comfort and respectability, foe he 
is expected to have a respectable appearance, which is often a very 
difficult task. The supply will, no doubt, always regulate to a 
great extent the wage question. But I would ask. Is it just to pay 
a man the very lowest wage he can be had for ? Before a man can 
expect to secure a fairly good situation he is expected to know & 
great deal. He should be blessed with a good education, be well 
conversant with all the latest ideas connected with his calling—a. 
calling so deep and complicated, that although the oldest on record, 
not the most clever and scientific man who has ever lived has been 
thoroughly able to bottom—and what is his recompense ? Why in 
many instances he is offered a wage at which many a bricklayer’? 
labourer would turn up his nose. 
In conclusion, I would remark that employers should also 
remember that servants are, like themselves, human beings, not 
mere machines. I am afraid in some instances the machine k 
taken the most care of, for of course the man’s place can be filled 
at a less cost than a new machine, the greatest care being taken 
that the machine is not taxed beyond its power. The human being, 
on the other hand, has no dial whereby to see the amount o£ 
pressure going on in its workings, except his appearance, which 
unless very closely observed is not noticed. The pressure is kept 
increasing as necessity demands, until it is suddenly discovered that 
there is a limit to even man’s enduranca, often too late. Then 
comes, “Poor fellow! I had no idea he was so bad.” Why I* 
Because they had not taken the trouble to watch the indicator. 
It would have been much better had the employer taken £ 
kindly interest in the welfare of his servant. To thaw, as it 
were, some of those icy appearances which cause a sort of keep- 
your-distance feeling to creep over the servant, to make him look 
forward with pleasure to your approach, and not with dread, ax 
though something was going to happen to him. ^ 
I may perhaps have said a few hard things in this paper, but I 
can assure you that to those to whom they may apply had I the 
power I would hit still harder. To those who are not offenders 
under any one of my indictments I feel confident that my humble 
efforts to bring others to their way of thinking cannot help being 
appreciated. 
To the well doing of both classes I would say, All hoooKr to 
them, and may their good example be copied by the remainder, to 
the mutual benefit of all, and to remember that the world, and 
the good and beautiful it contains, was made for all.— George 
Wilson, S’^anland Manor^ Brough.—(^Read at the Hesslc Gardeners 
Mutual Improvement Society, March 12th.) 
SOWING AND HOEING. 
Days of bright sunshine have come at last ; the trees art. 
bursting quickly into leaf, lawns have again assumed the rich greeE 
verdure of the spring, and the upturned soil once more dries and 
crumbles ready for the sower’s work. During the last week or ten 
days I fancy more seeds have been sown in the kitchen gardens and 
allotments of Britain than the same class of cultivators have sown 
during a corresponding period for at least a quarter of a century. 
Since the great frost broke up there has been so few opportuniti^ 
for seed-sowing in the open air, that in some districts nothing tti 
that way has been attempted. Our experience this ;^ar will 
perhaps give us some idea of the “ rush ” of work during a Canadian 
spring, where the ground has to be prepared and the bulk of seeds 
sown within the compass of a few weeks. 
Next in importance to the work of seed-sowing during tne 
spring months is that of doing all in our power to forward 
advancing crops by frequently stirring the soil. After the foag 
winter and cold early spring the ground is still wet aud eoM 
beneath the surface, and every advantage ought lo be taken ot 
sunny days to improve matters in this direction, and at the same 
time to impart more abundantly to the soil that active agent of 
fertility—the nitrogen of the atmosphere. , ,, 
The immense benefit which growing crops derive from the 
practice of frequently stirring the soil has been amply dei^n- 
strated by both practical and scientific horticulturists. Ihe 
’prentice hand of an extensive garden, or the town worker who for 
the first time has taken up the task of allotment culture, each 
quickly find out how rapidly plant life grows where this continual 
stirring of the soil is persistently followed up ; but all of them d® 
not perhaps know the reason why this is so. , , . , • 
Here the scientist steps in, and tells them that this deeircac 
