January 6,1887. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
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COMING EVENTS 
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Royal Botanic Society at 3.45 P.M. 
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SUN 
1st Sunday after Epiphany. 
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Royal Hort. Society, Frnit and Floral Committees at 11 A.M. 
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National Chrysanthemum Society’s Winter Show at Westminster. 
THE NEW YEAR. 
HE Old Year has gone for ever, and has been 
in many respects eventful. Some of the horti¬ 
cultural events and products will be recorded 
as time rolls on, for a good deal that is worthy 
of recapitulation has been accomplished in 
1886. The year on which we have now entered 
will be memorable above all others of which 
we have record — the Jubilee of the vene¬ 
rated Sovereign of this realm and its world-wide depen¬ 
dencies. The first Victoria of Great Britain is the only 
Queen who has reigned so long in this, if in any other 
country. It will be a year of public and private rejoicing, 
hut many there will be who cannot share in the joyousness 
that will flow in commemoration of the great and grati¬ 
fying historical event. The past year has not been a bright 
and prosperous one to all, and many a dark shadow will 
he cast over the future; but better times we shall hope 
will come with brighter days, and it will be a gladsome 
circumstance if the past year shall have been the last of 
a series in which trade and commerce have been abnor¬ 
mally inactive, and if the year of rejoicing shall inaugurate 
an epoch of national prosperity. 
Whatever the contributing causes, and there are many, 
there have been ebbs and flows in national as in individual 
lite through all past times. Every stroke has its rebound. 
Periods of brisk trade and great commercial activity lead 
to inflation and over-production; and this in turn to slack¬ 
ness that culminates in stagnation for the time being, 
entailing loss to capitalists, and privations to many who 
live by their labour. There would appear to be a disposi¬ 
tion on the part of many persons, if not the majority, 
to regard the last cloud that passes over as the darkest 
that has overshadowed a nation. Admitting the difficul¬ 
ties of the day in regard to trade, commerce, and especi¬ 
ally the great agricultural industry, it must be also 
admitted that they do not exist in this country alone, but 
they are as acute in other lands as in our own. The 
overstocking of the markets of the world has been general, 
and overstocking always did and always will lead to 
a depreciation in the value of produce of whatever kind 
it may be; and necessarily also in the value of the labour 
employed in that production. If the supply of anything 
is in excess of the demand there is an inevitable decrease 
in value. No legislative enactment can supersede that 
great natural law. No matter whether the produce of 
the soil is in question, manufactured articles, or the com¬ 
modity of labour, all are influenced. If there are two 
masters competing for one man, the man’s services are 
enhanced in value, and the wage rate increases; but if, on 
the contrary, there are two or more men competing for 
No. 341. —Vol. XIV., Third Series. 
the employment of one master, the value of their labour 
decreases and wages must come down. No combination 
can avert this. “ Nothing ” once observed a great states¬ 
man, “is so certain to occur as the unexpected.” It 
was a trite remark; for nothing is more certain than 
the inevitable, and that has often been the reverse of what 
was contemplated by well-intentioned but ill-informed 
and misguided people. 
We are, if ever we were, face to face with the fact 
that, however unpalatable to a large and most respectable 
class of the community, cannot be ignored—namely, that 
there are not now two masters competing for the services 
of one gardener. No matter the reason of this ; we record 
the fact m the best interests of both employers and em¬ 
ployed. To those gardeners we will say, what we have 
intimated before, Do not hunger after a change because 
you see some of your brethren are more fortunate than 
you. Many of the best of them to our knowledge were 
once in positions the reverse of enviable, but by doing 
the be^t in those positions, striving honestly and earnestly 
to develope the utmost of the moderate resources, and 
“holding on,” the time came when a vacancy occurred, 
and they had won in the meantime a character for 
ability, industry, and steady resolve in the path of duty 
that gave them a commanding advantage over their less 
patient and non-fickle rivals for the coveted position. 
We know many gardeners at this moment qualified 
both by experience in the vocation and educational attain¬ 
ments to fill with certain credit to themselves and the 
craft to which they belong positions better than they now 
occupy ; but what avails all this if there are no vacancies 
representing the ideal of their aspirations ? Let all such 
men stand firm where on anything like solid ground at 
present, even if it be more or less rugged ; and until they 
can see their way clearly to step on a still firmer founda¬ 
tion with certainty we counsel them to pause before 
throwing themselves on the great world of chance, which 
has proved the ruin of many reputations. We would 
impress this truth on all gardeners at present established 
in large or small responsibilities that are not exactly what 
are desired, that for every vacancy afforded, no matter of 
what nature it may be, we can point to men, thoroughly 
good, trustworthy, experienced, and respectable men, 
ready and even anxious to fill it ; and we are painfully 
conscious of the inability of some of the most thorough 
and industrious of gardeners to find opportunities for the 
exercise of their qualifications. They are longing for a 
field for their labours, and would rejoice in stepping into 
a breach created by a fellow worker who is not, and 
perhaps not without reason, quite satisfied with his 
present engagement. In any contemplated changes 
during the early spring of 1887 we desire that the real 
facts of the situation be comprehended by all who live by 
their labour in the career of gardening. 
We have something to say, too, to employers of 
gardeners, and conceive there can be no more appropriate 
time for saying it than at the commencement of a new 
year. It is this. Do not over-estimate the quality of 
“ cheapness,” nor hastily part with a man of proved com¬ 
petency with the object of saving £5 or illO a year. 
Mistakes have been made in this respect, and we know of 
some that are serious. We know of valuable plants 
spoiled, Vines ruined, and fruit trees jeopardised through 
a change that was hoped to be economical, but which has 
proved mos costly. We could tell of men rejected a 
year or two ago—men of wide experience and proved 
No. 1997. —Vol. LXXVL, Old Series. . 
