476 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
June 14,1894. 
THE POSITION AND PROSPECTS of GARDENERS. 
Such is the abridged title of a paper that was read by Mr. 
H. Elliott, F.R.H.S.,at a meeting of the Bournemoath and District 
Gardeners’ Association on March 6th of the present year, and now 
published in pamphlet form.* We propose making a sufficient 
citation from the paper to enable our gardening friends to appre¬ 
ciate its character, and it will no doubt induce some of them to 
read the whole pamphlet. Most of these, too, we suspect, will be 
satisfied with their small investment. 
“I am pretty well acquainted with the troubles and trials of a 
gardener’s every-day practice, and I know something of its pleasures 
and advantages ; for there can be no denying that the surroundings 
of a gardener’s life are often very pleasant. Nature in her most charm¬ 
ing aspect—assisted by Art—is ever open to his full and free enjoy¬ 
ment ; and the wealthiest nobleman in the land, spending thousands a 
year on his garden, can enjoy no more of the pleasures of it than the 
man who daily tends and waters it for a weekly wage, 
“ These pleasant surroundings of a gardener are probably the chief 
cause of the over-crowded state of our ranks. All sorts and conditions 
of men covet the pleasures of a gardener’s life, and try to obtain them, 
without taking the trouble to learn the important duties, or of preparing 
themselves for the responsibilities belonging thereto, and finding the 
profession an open one, guarded by no educational test, requiring no 
outlay or certificate (except a mere introductory letter of respectability), 
the ‘ halt, the lame, and the blind,’ so to say—the outcast, the refuse 
of every trade and profession, swoop down upon it, and not only defraud 
those who may be unfortunate enough to engage them, but injure the 
reputation of the whole profession by their failures. Moreover, they 
crowd oui-, by their unjust competition, the best, most competent, and 
promising men from our ranks, many of whom throw up their profession 
in disgust, having discovered that if they possess education and science 
enough to make a competent gardener, it will pay them better to 
employ these in some other line. 
“ I could give many examples from my own experience of most 
competent and promising young men thus leaving the business, and 
of others, who having failed in everything else they attempted, at last 
became gardeners, and equally failing as such, still remained like 
parasites in the profession. 
“ The great problem we have to consider is how to reverse this state 
of things, how to keep the good men, and keep out the bad, how to 
protect ourselves and employers of gardeners as well against these 
incompetent interlopers who have done and are doing so much to 
disgrace the profession. 
“ Let us here consider for a moment how vast and important is the 
interest at stake. First, the importance to the community at large of 
the work carried on by gardeners in the production of fruit and 
vegetables as food for the people. In comparison with the farmer the 
area of land cultiva'ei may be small, but the produce of the land per 
acre, in quantity and value, is enormously in favour of the gardener. 
The importance of gardening, as I have said, is very great to the whole 
community. It is specially important to the owners of the land, as the 
gardener is found to pay a much higher rent than the farmer can do. 
The operations of the gardener are also of great importance to all who 
dwell in thickly populated districts, where the land is very valuable, 
and the gardens are consequently small, and it is only by the exercise 
of great forethought, skill, and industry that a supply of fruit and 
vegetables can be produced sufficient for the needs of the family. 
“Nevertheless I would not have you think that I underrate the 
importance of the ornamental department; yet I should like to particu¬ 
larly impress on the minds of young gardeners the paramount importance 
of the study of fruit and vegetable culture. Young men are often far 
too anxious to go into the plant houses, the ornamental department, 
where after they have learnt the names of a few exotics, which they 
cannot remember, they consider themselves full-blown ornamental 
gardeners. This is a great mistake. Of course a man who wishes to 
make himself a proficient all-round gardener has much to learn. If I 
were to mention all the subjects I have at one time or another seen 
recommended as necessary for a gardener to learn to complete his 
education, it would be found that life was not long enough to acquire 
them. 
“We may take it as a general rule that be must understand fruit 
and vegetable culture, and the culture of stove and greenhouse plants, 
hardy plants and Orchids, early and late forcing, and all other modes 
of cultivation ever invented or heard of. He must understand the 
* Messrs. Pardy & Son, The Triangle, Bournemouth, price 3d., post free. 
elements of chemistry, botany, geology, geometrical and freehand draw¬ 
ing, book-keeping, and mensuration. He must be sober, industrious, 
obedient, regular in his habits, humble and meek, have a good temper, 
and be very polite at all times, especially to the cook, and withal be 
without incumbrance. 
“Let the perfect man be found embodying all these accomplish¬ 
ments, what is his social position as a head gardener 1 A domestic 
servant, so says the law, and, like a domestic, if summarily discharged 
from his employment without cause he is entitled to a month’s wages 1 
And there is scarcely one menial duty he may not be called upon to 
perform, except—well—to milk a cowl A County Court Judge has 
quite recently decided that a head gardener cannot be reasonably 
called upon to milk a cow, unless he had specially engaged to do so ; 
and having been dismissed without notice for refusing to milk the said 
cow, the judge awarded him a month’s wages. Now, it is something to 
be thankful for to know that a head gardener, who understands horti¬ 
culture in all its branches, botany, and chemistry, cannot be reasonably 
expected to milk a cow. 
“ Now, is it not absurd—is it not to our eternal disgrace—that the 
oldest profession in the world, numbering in its ranks hundreds of 
thousands, carrying on a work of the utmost importance to the 
community, a class of men, taking them as a whole—even when we 
include the worthless—of very high respectability, and though they may 
not all command an unlimited acquaintance with the arts and sciences, 
possesss some amount of natural and acquired intelligence, that its 
members should be ranked, in the eyes of the law, amongst the ‘ hewers 
of wood and drawers of water;’ that many of them work far more hours 
and receive less pay than an unskilled labourer in the building trade? 
Is it not, I say, absurd that gardeners have no society or bond of union 
amongst themselves—no organisation worthy of the name to watch over 
them and protect their interests ? 
“ Trade unionism and strikes are unworthy of our adoption ; these 
are but clumsy and unsatisfactory methods for the mechanic or the 
unskilled workman, and altogether beneath our consideration. But 
there are not wanting better examples of societies for us to follow ; in 
fact, all trades and professions have their special societies. A few years 
since the plumbers established an organisation by which they formed 
local boards or committees, to hold examinations in certain districts, 
and they granted certificates to such members of their trade who proved 
themselves practically efficient in their work. The Eoyal College of 
Veterinary Surgeons have inaugurated a system throughout the country 
of granting certificates of farriery to what are commonly called ‘ shoe¬ 
ing smiths,’ who could prove themselves entitled to them. This is a 
proper attempt to organise and make the trade more efficient, and I 
have no doubt but that it will become, in course of a few years, an 
offence punishable by law for a man to lame your horse, unless he held 
a certificate of competency to do so. I believe not very many years ago 
anyone could set up as a chemist and druggist, sell poisons, and mix 
potions without any special qualifications ! But this state of things was 
unsatisfactory and dangerous to the public, so the Eoyal Pharmaceutical 
Society took the matter up, obtained the necessary powers from 
Parliament to regulate the profession, which it did, to its manifest 
advantage and the safety of the public. 
“ I might go on enumerating societies without end. All trades and 
professions have them, and whenever and wherever they have been 
properly worked they have proved of great advantage, alike to their 
members and to the public. The most successful of these organisations 
have chiefly concerned themselves in guarding their professions against 
unqualified and dishonourable members, and in raising the standard of 
education and professional qualifications of those admitted. 
“ Of many of these societies we know little and hear less, except of 
their respective members dining together. Having done their work so 
well in the past, they have not much to do now but dine together* 
Even this is a very important matter. I wish gardeners would oftener 
dine together. A man generally feels very generous and kind towards 
himself and his neighbours after a good dinner, and if we could only 
get gardeners to dine together pretty often there would be great hopes 
for improvement. 
“ Now 1 know you want to hear what remedy I have to offer for the 
ills I have mentioned in relation to our profession. 
“ The first is union. The second an improved education. 
“ Gardeners throughout the country must form themselves into one 
Society, having its headquarters in London, and Local Committees all 
over the country, wherever sufficient numbers can be found to form them. 
“ The Central Council would be elected by the members from the 
Local Committees. The Council would make and publish rules for the 
