582 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 81, 1886. 
utilises such spice for his Mushroom beds, simply covering them with a 
little hay, and he gets a large quantity through the winter from these 
beds, and finds, what would alarm so many, that the light admitted 
through the glass roofs is a decided advantage to the Mushroom in size 
and quality. A few days since I met with another example of highly 
successful Mushroom culture in a cool greenhouse underneath a plant 
stage. The space was boarded off into divisions about 3 feet square, 
and about 18 inches of ordinary stable manure, the straw being taken out, 
was placed, after being prepared in a shed. As soon as ready the manure 
was spawned, and 2 inches of ordinary soil placed upon it, and a wood 
shutter placed in front. Mr. J. Crook, who is gardener to W. Mill- 
ward, Esq., Edgbaston, Birmingham, has adopted this plan yearly for a 
supply throughout the season, and obtains a wonderful lot of fine Mush¬ 
rooms, and is rarely without them by spawning and working the beds in 
succession, and begins cutting from six weeks to two months after spawn¬ 
ing. He uses Barter’s Mushroom spawn, a very excellent stock, which 
appears to rival in quality the well-known milltrack spawn. Really the 
cultivation of the Mushroom is so very easy that it is to be regretted that 
so many more do not try it, as it cau be done in cellars, outhouses, and so 
many odd places not really wanted for other purposes. 
Mr. Crook is unquestionably one of the best amateur Chrysanthemum 
cultivators in the Midlands, and has made his mark at the Birmingham 
Chrysanthemum exhibitions. I was much pleased with his pyramidal 
Pompon plants, which were well grown and flowered. For such plants he 
cuts down his half-standards after blooming, and takes away all the 
suckers, leaving only the young shoots on the main stem. The plants 
will shortly be turned out of pots, shaken out, repotted, and tying 
and stopping will be attended to. I shall be very glad to see at our 
Chrysanthemum exhibitions a much larger number of naturally grown 
plants, but to get exhibitors out of the old groove of growth special 
classes must be made for them. I have seen many beautifully grown 
plants this year which were stopped in May and made comparatively 
dwarf well-grown plants with well-developed foliage to the pots and 
exceedingly well flowered.— Guillaume. 
THE DIFFICULTIES OF LIFE 
The obstacles to be surmounted while we journey through life are 
many, and gardeners have their share of them. Wbat is the gardeners’ 
position ? Have they been exempt from the almost universal distress ? 
Ho, certainly not. Have not many of our finest establishments been re¬ 
duced, while others are now sending part of their produce to market ? a 
course that has considerably affected the price of garden produce to the 
disadvantage of many a struggling hard-working man who is depending 
entirely on this industry. 
Many of the youths who enter gardens in country places find in their 
limited education their first difficulty. They find botanical names and 
other technical terms strange, and without assistance are a long time 
before they become familiar with their pronunciation and meaning. The 
next may probably be the difficulty of books, for out of a very small wage 
there is generally not much to spend in standard works the first year or 
two. Thanks to our many horticultural papers, there is no want of useful 
reading within the reach of all. This is one advantage our young men of 
the present have that was not enjoyed fifty years ago. When several 
young men are together there is always to be found amongst them a few 
books, and in some bothies the employer kindly provides a stock of books 
and also of the periodicals, which is a very commendable practice. A 
young man who finds himself favourably situated, and is inclined to study, 
may soon improve his defective education, and at the same time pick up 
a knowledge of many things necessary in connection with gardening. A 
great number of our young men are not thus favourably placed. It is a 
great disadvantage to be housed in a miserable hovel and without a com¬ 
panion, as many are, and still worse to be so placed with a bad companion. 
If one is alone and has access to books he can study at peace, though at a 
disadvantage, as there is no one to assist or exchange ideas ; but when a 
lad is placed with one who has no interest in his work he is apt to be led 
away or otherwise deterred from study by noisy amusements and 
frivolity. 
Many young men think that when they get a “ head place ” their 
difficulties will come to an end ; but they soon find their mistake. Their 
masters are not prepared to give them all the hands they may think 
necessary to keep everything in order, while the lady of the establishment 
may be very particular about this or that being done just so, and at once, 
regardless of what her gardener may have on hands or its importance. 
Again, his master may not be disposed to build new houses and spend large 
sums of money for plants to fill them to suit the demands for cut flowers 
and plants for room decoration, &c., though the one may be altogether out 
of proportion to the other. 
Some ladies are very particular about having their conservatory, which 
may be in connection with the house, always full of flowering plants; 
but they do not consider whether the accommodation for keeping up a 
supply is sufficient, and are often so inconsiderate as to cut flowers from 
them, thus 'giving endless extra labour for the gardener in continually 
bringing fresh plants to take the place of those cut from. This is often a 
gardener’s grievance, but if the matter was better considered by ladies it 
would not be of such frequent occurrence. If they are fond of having their 
conservatory gay, they should look about other houses first for blooms, 
and they will generally find them, and right willingly will most gardeners 
see them cut and assist in getting any that may be out of reach, so that 
it saves cutting from plants specially grown for conservatory or house 
decoration. It is a delicate point for a servant to protest against even in 
the most polite manner, as it may lead to the conclusion that the 
gardener is averse to cutting anything. Quite the opposite is generally 
the case. I, for one, like to see ladies cut and arrange their own flowers 
if they would do so judiciously, so as not to disfigure or injure the plants 
cut from, nor from groups specially arranged for effect. A good under¬ 
standing between a gardener and those who like to gather their own 
flowers would remove one of the gardener’s difficulties. 
Gardeners sometimes have a difficulty in supplying vegetables in suffi¬ 
cient quantity to satisfy the demands of a large family or an extravagant 
cook. His garden may be too small crop it how he may, or the soil may 
not be very favourable for certain things standing the winter, and often 
those are just what is most wanted. Some cooks have a craze for Spinach 
all through the winter months, and nearly all want an endless supply of 
Parsley, two vegetables not very plentiful at certain seasons, but as sure as 
the supply is short the demand is certain to increase. Another difficulty 
is in knowing what to grow in quantity. A cook may want an extra 
supply of some vegetable, but before you get it grown she may be gone 
and another in her place, who may not use it, but wants a lot of something 
else for which the puzzled gardener is not specially prepared to supply. 
When a man has plenty of ground and hands to work it, no difficulty need 
be experienced ; simply grow plenty of everything. But when a garden 
and other means are limited, and he wishes to grow only what will be 
used, it is no easy matter to do so without running the risk of coming 
sadly short of something else when brought face to face with a new cook. 
Again, some cooks will be satisfied with a very few herbs for flavouring 
her soups, while another will have a bit of everything in the garden in 
that line, and regrets that you have not got so and so. “ Soup is nothing 
without it, you know,” they will tell you. 
There is also the difficulty of growing too much, which some have to 
contend with —by no means an agreeable side of the question—which has 
grown more so and of more frequent occurrence of late years. Give a 
good-sized garden, which will produce more than a small family will or 
care to consume. We are probably told that times are bad, and that we 
must make the most of fruit and vegetables that is to spare by sending 
them to market. You have very likely never been called upon to do this 
before. The first difficulty wiil be to find anyone to take your small 
quantities sent at indefinite periods. Such perishable fruits as Peaches, 
for instance, may all be used up one week, but not the next. You disap¬ 
point the man you sent them to a few times in this way, he looks elsewhere 
for a more certain supply, and probably when you send a larger lot than 
usual he will write to say he is “ overstocked ” and can only give so and 
so—half the value of fruit very likely. Your master sees the list of prices 
in Covent Garden, or may have occasion to be in a first-class fruiterer’s 
shop, and have the curiosity to inquire the price. He compares that with 
the prices he has been getting and cannot understand it. He comes home 
convinced that he is being cheated in some way. If he is a straight¬ 
forward gentleman he will speak about it at once, have it talked over with 
his gardener, and come to a proper understanding. But some gentlemen 
will not do this, but keep brooding over it, generally putting all the blame 
on the gardener, and sometimes even going as far as to question whether he 
is altogether honest. This marketing business is generally unsatisfactory 
to both employer and gardener. The former thinks he should have more 
for his produce. The latter thinks so too, but with a limited quantity, 
and that at the best irregular, he fails to see how he can do better. He 
also feels that fruit, &c., thrown thus into the market is a serious injury 
to market growers. . _ : 
Amongst many difficulties, the weather is often unpropitious, and 
presents obstacles to overcome. When we begin to think “ Gloomy 
winter’s now awa,” &c., she suddenly returns, carrying in her wake 
devastation amongst the tender fruit blossom. In the summer he has the 
drought to contend with—water, mulch, shade; and next thing will be a 
downpour of rain, battering his flower beds, splitting his choice Plums 
and Gooseberries, &c., and making weeds spring up in thousands in every 
direction. 
“ \Vaen biting Boreas fell and doure 
Sharp shivers thro’ the leafless bower,” 
he has to think of many thing*. Shutters for various plants, flowers, and 
vegetables, not very plentiful sometimes, and fuel sometimes not very 
cheerfully given. There is the difficulty of enemies innumerable, sma.ll 
and great, and at all seasons. Bullfinches eat his fruit bnds in 
winter; sparrows devastate his seed beds, his rows of Peas, &e., in 
spring and summer ; and the thrushes and blackbirds devour his fruits. 
Amongst the creeping things there are slugs and snails, there are weevils 
and wireworms, and centipedes and caterpillars, grubs, green fly, scale, and 
bugs. In the face of such a host of enemies his policy must not be 
one of “ peace at any price,” but one of war. 
But with all his difficulties has not the gardener many pleasures in the 
pursuit of his profession ? Has he not one of the healthiest occupa¬ 
tions, pursued in pleasant places, surrounded by Nature’s choicest 
treasures from various parts of the globe ? Does not the gardener have 
an equal pleasure and pride in seeing his master’s table adorned with the 
choicest of fruits and flowers? Is it not a pleasure to have the confidence 
and respect of a good master, as thousands of gardeners have, enjoying a 
comfortable home away from the influence, the turmoil, and ups and 
downs of trade and commerce ? And it is encouraging to know that 
many a worthy man is well provided for by a liberal master when he is 
bowed down with toil and age, and who enjoys a well-earned repose in the 
autumn years of his life, with but few difficulties to mar his meditations. 
Let us hope there are but few masters who would part with a good and 
faithful servant because of his years. But, at the same time, let each and 
all do something f >r themselves in their early manhood, and by doing so 
