OBSERVATIONS ON THE PROPOSED GARDENERS’ SOCIETY. 27 
I have been at the meetings of the Acton Society several times, and, 
considering their limited means, and the short time the society has 
been formed, they have certainly got a very respectable library. But 
the advantages, I am sorry to say, are monopolised by master gar¬ 
deners; for, as far as is known to me, there is not a single journeyman 
gardener connected with the society. But, not to descant too severely 
on a society that may be considered as yet “ in the bud,” and which I 
believe is the first society of the kind that has ever been formed in the 
united kingdom, I shall pass on to state what, in my opinion, ought 
to be the great principle of the new society. I deem it essential that 
no respect he paid to persons—that gardeners of all denominations, 
from the head gardener to a nobleman, down to the apprentice in a 
commercial garden, he at all times admitted, and enjoy the same pri¬ 
vileges. This will appear a rather radical proposition, but it is the 
ce great level” to which all who are desirous for the advancement of 
gardeners and gardening must succumb. I also think the society should 
be as much as possible a debating one, for it is an appalling fact, that 
in argumentative powers gardeners, as a body, are very deficient. It 
is not required that we should become regular orators (if we do, all the 
better), but it is absolutely necessary that we should be able to express 
ourselves on all professional subjects with clearness and precision; 
for, observes a recent writer in the “ Gardeners’ Magazine,” In 
addition to facility and correctness of expression, it is particularly 
advisable that an artist, in whatever department he may be, should 
possess a well-grounded and perfect controul over his own temper and 
feelings. By this self-command, united with a suavity of manners 
and firmness, he may often save his employer from falling into absur¬ 
dities, and his own works from mutilation. We very well know that 
an opinion, when stated with gentleness and in a pleasing manner, does 
not appear the same as when arbitrarily advanced, and thrust upon us, 
as it were, by force. It is very difficult indeed to withstand truth, 
when it is supported by a mild and gentlemanly address. Prejudice 
almost always yields to it, and corrected ignorance retires abashed from 
the contest. ” And as it must be admitted that there are few pro¬ 
fessions so exposed to absurd innovations as Horticulture, it becomes 
necessary that we should prepare ourselves to meet such exigencies ; 
and as such preparations can only be made by acquiring extensive 
literary knowledge, I hope we shall not any longer remain indifferent 
on the subject, but meet as a body and lay the stepping-stone of a society 
worthy of gardening and of the nineteenth century. 
