November 15,1884. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
441 
MEN AND METHODS. 
^ V 
A MAN must to some extent impress his individuality upon his 
works, and the more marked that character appears in the 
workman so much the more in evidence is it in the subject under 
his hand. Taking a broad view of the matter, we find from the 
earlier examples of gardening down to our own time varying phases 
of the art on which different generations have set the seal of character 
now passed or passing into history. The ingenuity displayed by 
the Dutch school in reproducing in the vegetable kingdom forms 
of animal life or other quaint conceits bore witness to human skill 
and patience. It was a method by which Nature was debased to 
glorify the cunning hand of the workman. In criticising former 
workers and their work, allowance must be made for imperious 
fashion, which, ruling in the more restricted area of bygone dayS) 
probably entailed a closer bondage than obtains in our time. Apart 
from the curiosity of looking back, it is necessary to do so in order 
to mark progress. Generations to come will be privileged to do the 
same by us. What will be their criticism of present-day men and 
their methods ? Presumably that is not a matter of immediate 
concern, but in helping ourselves we are doing much for future 
workers. 
Past, present, or future. Nature must ever be an old hand for 
the young beginner to cope with, and he needs all the practical 
experience of older heads, coupled with the energy of youth, to fit 
him for the contest. Given these, his reasoning powers will show 
how, under varying circumstances, empiric rules must become 
elastic in his aim to do the best and be amongst the best men of 
his day. On one occasion, when the writer was at that age in which 
young gardeners know so much, to find after they have so much to 
learn, having charge of a plant house, the watering operation was 
just concluding as the chief put his head in the doorway. Un¬ 
guardedly the surplus water was poured into the nearest pot. 
“ Was that plant dry ? ” was the stern remark. “ If so, water it 
properly; if not, let it alone.” Thus the right method was 
instilled into the youthful mind. Years after, on a visit to one of 
those huge plant emporiums in the vicinity of London, the modus 
operandi was noted to consist of one small boy with a long hose 
pipe, who went from house to house drenching the occupants in 
a style worthy of the fire brigade. Certainly in this case circum¬ 
stances altered cases, yet whilst the results in one case had to 
undergo the fierce light which beats upon the exhibition table, the 
rough-and-ready method had to pass the ordeal of keen competition 
in the market. So it must ever be : this apparent inconsistency of 
different methods. If our system, whatever it may be, yields the 
best, we should, I suppose, rest content ; but we do not, there is a 
spirit of inquiry abroad prompting us to ask the reason why. This 
wholesome form of inquisitiveness is characteristic of modern 
gardeners. Work and thought go on contemporaneously. The 
man whose first thought is for his charge, his last for himself, does 
not fail to read the dumb alphabet of plant life. He enjoys the 
health and vigour responsive to his treatment, or becomes equally 
despondent over the reverse. 
Where a change in the leadership happens to be made in an 
establishment, and that in which the system of culture has attained 
to the highest point of excellence, it is always a matter of anxiety, 
and often of some difficulty with the new comer in endeavouring to 
maintain it. To the new man local methods of performing work 
No. 751.—VoL. XXIX., Third Seeie6. 
in some instances appear awkward, and the desire arises to sweep 
them away. Yet with the undoubted capabilities of a new broom 
he may find discretion the better part of valour. Even with those 
customs having but little else than antiquity to recommend them 
it may require some time and diplomacy to effect the change, for 
by the reason of age they are the hardest to efface. Undue haste 
may mean little short of a revolution. 
Some of our most cherished ideals, and some we fain would 
keep are doomed. In but few places can time now be found for 
that patient system of training by which our garden walls were 
covered in mathematical precision by the fruit bearers. The free 
hand system will doubtless relegate it to obscurity. Apart from 
appearance, which cannot be ignored in a well-kept garden, a freer 
method of training may result in some danger of overcrowding 
when the eye is no longer controlled by fixed rules. Hard and 
fast lines are not always desirable, but to most eyes that have seen 
perfect examples on a good wall they were lines of beauty. Why 
do Peaches not succeed on the walls outside as formerly ? Good 
examples of this method of culture are—at least on this side the 
Channel—all but of the past. The above question was put to me 
some years ago by the late Sir John Mitchell, then commander of 
the forces in Ireland. He quoted various instances of gardens 
formerly noted for outside Peaches in which their place knew them 
no more. The result of our discussion was a mutual abuse of 
climate. Yet I have thought since the decadence is more attri¬ 
butable to men and their methods than to any climatic change, 
which, if in progress, covers too vast a span of time to be 
appreciable in our short span. That our much-abused climate is 
to blame is negatived by some admirable examples still to be met 
with, though few and far between. Cheapened glass, with time 
and labour diverted into fresh channels, is probably the reason. 
An employer once said to the writer, “ I know a gardener’s 
work is never done, and I consider it is never paid for.” This 
arose from a keen perception of the ever-increasing work with 
the consequent physical and mental labour necessary to cope with 
it. Men in general, and gardeners in particular, have a wholesome 
ambition to be up to date, and as that up to date is ever moving on 
with but a remote possibility of its stopping, any plan whereby 
head and hands can keep up with fleet-winged Time must be 
embraced. He who accomplishes best this desirable end is the man 
of method, with clearly defined ideas of what he will do, how he 
will do it, and the most suitable time to carry out his purpose. 
—E. K., Dublin. 
FORMS OF FRUIT TREES. 
Without going the length of advising British gardeners to 
closely imitate the French methods of training fruit trees, I yet 
am of opinion that a little more variety might with advantage be 
introduced into our gardens. Fan-shaped Apricot, Peach, and Plum 
trees, with Pears horizontally trained for walls, also bush, pyramid 
or standard Apple and Pear trees for the open, are all many of 
our growers aspire to, a comparatively few adding cordons with 
perhaps one or two other methods of training. If by means of 
these old-fashioned trees every available foot of wall space could 
be kept well clothed with fruiting wood, and every plot of open 
ground utilised to its full extent, then there would be nothing that 
could reasonably be urged in favour of a departure from these 
time-honoured practices. As it happens half the walls in the 
country are imperfectly clothed with trees, and much good garden 
ground is occupied that might be turned to better account. 
Especially is this the case with horizontally trained Pear trees. 
As a rule these are assigned more room than they ever occupy. A 
fairly vigorous variety worked on the Pear stock ought certainly to 
cover a breadth of 15 feet to 18 feet, and reach almost any height, 
but not if planted in succession to old trees and in borders 
only partially renovated. Not unfrequently trees on the Quince 
No, 2407 .— VoL. XCI., Old Series. 
