THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Decembeb 14, 1858. 
165 
to tlie lesser interests committed to him ? Many a young 
gardener hopefully looks forward to the time when he 
will manage so well, and not be troubled with trifles. 
He would be surer of success, if he formed a sound 
foundation by a thorough understanding of, and an 
attention to littles now. 
I have known some head gardeners who never cared 
about getting a fresh assistant under them, if they had not 
previously seen him at work, just in the usual routine of 
everyday employment. They, from seeming little things, 
judged of a man’s general habits. I know one, otherwise 
estimable young man, who lost, without knowing it, a 
first-rate foreman’s place, because, in setting small pots 
on a shelf and platform, by the side of a straight walk, 
the pots stood every way but in a straight line. He 
was at once considered defective in order and system. 
Another was judged to have no knowledge of economy, 
or the value of fuel, because the dampers and ashpits to 
his furnaces were both standing open, when they ought 
to be shut. “We cannot afford to heat, and then cool 
the fire and the boiler, by throwing as much cold air 
as possible over the embers from both above and below.” 
A third was pronounced a thorough sloven, because he 
allowed a heap of ashes to be at his ashpit door, and 
did not switch with a scrub broom the floor and steps of 
the stokehole, and even then have a wipe of bound straw, 
or evergreen branches, to prevent his feet carrying marks 
of ashes over the gravel. “ Besides the impossibility 
of tolerating such slovenliness, and the vast trouble and 
unpleasantness of breaking habits, of which this, like the 
feather on a windy day, is only symptomatic of the bias 
of character, I would be afraid to sleep in frosty and 
windy nights, for dread of a conflagration.” A fourth 
was passed over as either too ignorant, or, what was 
inestimably worse, too careless to mingle thinking with 
his working, because in a sunny but keen frosty day, 
while keeping the top lights of his greenhouse shut, he 
opened the front ones liberally, thus allowing the cold, 
dry air at once to strike upon his plants ; whilst, if 
admitted at the top, it would have been softened by 
passing through the warmest and moistest air of the 
house, as it escaped. 
I need not enlarge on procrastinating sowing, thinning, 
potting ; of careless watering; on wasting time and shoe- 
leather ; in making set jobs of what ought to be done in 
passing; of having a day to pick off yellow leaves, when 
removed in passing, or in watering, as soon as seen, there 
would never be, at one time, any such disfigurements ; 
and many other.similar matters. My purpose will be 
gained, if young, men will be convinced that these matters 
are keenly noted by their older brethren, and that at¬ 
tention to the littles is of such primary importance, that 
if, without it—though that is not very likely—they may 
obtain a good situation, there will be great odds against 
either keeping it, or being honoured and respected in it. 
I speak thus freely, but kindly and feelingly, because 
if there is one thing, that, as a gardener, I regret more 
than another, it is, that, when younger, I clid not pay 
sufficient attention to the littles, as the true groundwork 
for future successful practice. 
I find I have not space now, nor, indeed, do I feel 
willing to enter upon the grumblings of head gardeners, 
because their employers remind them at times of some 
of these littles. Every man would be a Pope if he could; 
and gardeners, as a class, dearly like to have their own 
way. It is always best, if it could be so managed, to 
anticipate such hints and desires, and thus prevent the 
expressing of them. When such hints are expressed, 
it is comparatively seldom they are given in the way of 
carping fault-finding. They are just mentioned in pass¬ 
ing, and are seldom more thought of, unless they are 
again foolishly and paradingly obtruded. Some people, 
in order that they may work themselves up into being 
Mended, will prefer looking through a pair of yellow, 
jaundiced spectacles, instead of using their own sober 
reason, and good eyesight. Much of this narrow-minded 
touchiness would be thoroughly dispelled, did we con¬ 
stantly keep before us the fact, that, as servants, it is 
our duty and our interest, to serve our employers just 
as they wished to be served, by studying and supplying, as 
far as possible, their peculiar desires and wants. Almost 
every gardener has his favourite hobby ; but if he is wise, 
he will make that succumb to the hobby of those who 
pay him. Allusion to these littles will often enable him 
to see in what their peculiar likes and dislikes consist. 
True, these may often show a great change in taste; but 
we all change, and we all like change. There is in this 
nothing to complain about, if due time and convenience 
are given for effecting the change. When this is not 
the case, there is ground for expostulation. For instance, 
a gentleman told his gardener, that he was sick of the look 
of Cucumbers, to grow none next season, unless upon 
the open ridge ; and then, a fortnight before Easter, hoped 
he would have plenty of Cucumbers by Good Friday 
A clear, defined arrangement should be thoroughly under¬ 
stood in all such implied changes. A mere passing al¬ 
lusion, to being sick, or tired, of a certain article, should 
generally be taken as a hint not to grow so much of it, 
not to send it so often to table, rather than as relinquish¬ 
ing its growth altogether. Praising up something else, 
should not lead us to send it to table every day, or 
even that will prove insipid to the taste, ancl tiring to 
the eye. Man, and every other animal, iike, and thrive 
upon change of food. I have known instances, in which 
gentlemen so often spoke of Cauliflower being the best 
flower in the garden, and the best vegetable too, and, as 
a consequence, were so well supplied by the gardener, 
that the whole family would be so tired of it, as to semi 
it untasted from the table, even in the winter months, 
when, otherwise, it woidd then have been looked upon 
as a costly delicacy. Could the gardener have cause 
for annoyance, wlien desired to grow r less Cauliflower in 
future? Another gardener was desired not to send in forced 
Strawberries, unless there should, at least, be one fruit 
for every one at table; and he resolutely sent no more 
for weeks, until he could send a heaped peck basketful. 
Heed wo wonder, that sensible men blamed him for his 
folly and thick-headed obstinacy. His otherwise good 
talents were neutralised by his contempt of the littles, 
even in courtesy. There are, no doubt, employers, whom 
the most attentive and obliging would find it impossible 
long to serve; for the causes of mutual dissatisfaction 
are anything but always to be found with the servant; 
but when part, at least, of these causes can be honestly 
laid to his charge, it will generally, as a rule, be found, 
that the unpleasant results are less owing to want of know¬ 
ledge, want of attention, and want of untiring industry, 
than to the want of giving due prominence to those little 
matters on which an employer places a value. These 
trifling omissions are ever obtruded, and from these he 
is, perhaps, too apt to judge of the general conduct. 
He rightly considers, that, in all things lawful, his will 
ought to be the rule of action. 
In one concluding word, we would say to our young 
friends, that they may rest assured, that if thoy do not 
master the littles, they will be mastered and controlled 
by them. " E. Fish. 
GLASS FIXTURES. 
Youb correspondent, tlie “Rev. E. E. Robinson,” does not 
appear to be aware, that the Queen’s Bench has decided, in the 
case of Martin and another V. Roe, that glass houses, not being 
essential to rectory and parsonage houses, erected on the glebe 
by an incumbent, may be removed by him, or his executors, 
though “attached to the freehold;” and are not subject to a 
claim for dilapidations.—B. W. Vawdeey. 
[The ease is reported in the Law Times, vol. xxviii., p. 283, 
and we gave a still fuller report of the case in our No. 439, 
p. 350.—Eds.] 
