22 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Sept. 13 tli, 1SS4. 
the sulphur destroy all fungoid germs, but it made 
the bark of the trees look as if polished, as it was 
cleared of all parasites, which were killed and came 
off or shrank up during winter. 
Besides the peach fungus referred to, there is 
another, Puccinia malvacearum, which is peculiar 
to the Mallows and has nearly annihilated 
Hollyhocks, as it causes death to the foliage. We 
have tried year after year to combat this disease by 
Using Gishurst, and sulphur in its many forms, but 
though the plants, at times, seemed benefited, the 
effect was not lasting, as the f ungus appeared again 
on every new leaf that was formed. For a season 
or two, we were without plants, thinking to get rid 
of it in that way, but all to no purpose, for, though 
we started again with seedlings, they showed it just 
as bad, and died out as before.— Alpha. 
( To he continued.) 
GARDENERS IN AMERICA. 
Questions are frequently asked by gardeners of 
those who are supposed to know, editors of horti¬ 
cultural newspapers among the number, respecting 
the position of gardening and the prospects of 
gardeners in the United States, and we are afraid 
that the answers given are not always of a very 
definite character, erring in fact, as a rule, on the 
side of caution. The truth of the matter is, there 
are few men, connected with the horticultural press 
especially, who are capable of giving any useful 
information on the subject, because of necessity 
their actual knowledge of these matters is limited, 
and no right minded man, without full information 
cares to advise another in such a momentous matter 
to a working man as a journey to the States or any 
other far off country. Under these circumstances 
we need make no apology for introducing into these 
pages the following communication on the subject, 
which appeared in a late number of the American 
Gardeners’ Monthly. The observations made by the 
writer, “ Semper B. Fairsquare,” afford us one view 
of the situation, and it is such a picture as should 
make good men think twice, before going to America 
at all events :— 
“ When we review the different countries in which 
modern gardening is practised, comparing the 
chances and the social position of gardeners with 
what they have to expect here in the land of the 
free, the result is not altogether encouraging nor 
flattering. A man who indulged for a number of 
years, perhaps the best of his life, in the belief that 
gardening is the inseparable companion of civilisa¬ 
tion and is sure to become everywhere, after the 
first necessities of society have been supplied, an 
honourable and remunerative calling, worthy of an 
intelligent man’s devotion, may finally find out that 
this belief was somewhat delusive. Examining the 
majority of the class he is supposed to belong to, 
their social rank and average compensation, he will 
find that he has got amongst the order of “ minorum 
gentium/’ and he must be a philosopher if he can 
take himself by the nose, and say “serves you right 
otherwise he must feel bitterly disappointed, nay 
miserable. Why is it, that so great a number, per¬ 
haps the majority, of ‘ hired’ gardeners are so dis¬ 
satisfied with their lot ? Should the blame indeed 
justly be laid all to them ? I think not. There are 
undoubtedly many who are gardeners only in name 
and really know, as Downing said, ‘ little beyond 
the mysteries of cultivating that excellent plant, 
the Solanum tuberosum.’ 
“ But there are also employers, who are gentlemen 
only in name, whose gardeners in every respect, 
apart from money, are their equals, if not their 
superiors, taking their moral and intellectual quali¬ 
ties together. It is just this class of gardeners 
which has less chance here than the former. Why 
this is so may be found out, but it is yet a public 
secret. No one dares to divulge it openly and 
publicly; it is whispered over the fence into the 
ear of the discreet neighbour, who, with a signifi¬ 
cant twinkling of the eye, says that he always 
thought so. 
“ have meters for everything, chronometers, 
lactometers, dynamometers, alcoholometers; — the 
latter invented by Tralles, a clever Frenchman, who 
after inventing a meter for the spirit of distillers 
ought to have invented a little machine, which 
gardeners might carry in their pocket, when going 
after a situation, to ascertain the true spirit of 
gentlemen or those who wish to pass themselves 
for such. A cheap little apparatus of that descrip¬ 
tion might be found very useful by a good many 
others than gardeners who have to work for a living. 
For without it, whether or not the article be 
' proof,’ can only be found out after some experience 
has been gained by tasting. 
“ As little as a man of bone and muscle, willing to 
work, is therefore able to perform the higher duties 
of a gardener, so little is a man of property and 
money willing to pay for what he gets, therefore 
able to perform the higher duties of a gentleman. 
It is not he a gentleman who knows how to exact 
of others everything he deems due to himself, but 
he who never forgets what he owes toothers. And 
this is not always money for ‘ value received/ but 
it is paying respect where respect has not yet been 
forfeited. By what right, for instance, do employers 
call the gardener by his Christian name, like a boy ? 
It is this, an offensive familiarity, which is only 
permitted to relatives and special friends after along 
and intimate intercourse. That planters adopted 
that custom with their slaves may, like many other 
tilings appertaining to slavery, have been proper 
and natural, but even in the land of liberty it is 
making a little too free. 
“ One who wishes to secure a respectable and intel¬ 
ligent man’s faithful services exclusively to himself 
must be both able and ready to situate and treat 
such a man in a manner calculated to win his 
attachment. The chilling question £ Don’t I pay 
you?’ often addressed to gardeners, disapproving 
of a foolish notion to be carried out, may be excus¬ 
able with a menial hired for an occasion, but it is 
certainly maladressed when offered to a man who 
is Expected to manage faithfully a considerable 
portion of the property, and not only to administer 
to; but to anticipate, his employer’s comforts and 
pleasures, which are of a more refined and superior 
character than those derived from a cook or coach¬ 
man,—two important dignitaries on every place, 
whom the gardener must avoid to offend, by not 
cultivating their acquaintance. 
“ I have also read and heard a great deal, 
especially at meetings of horticultural societies and 
in periodicals, about what men should all do to 
make themselves desirable gardeners, but of what 
men should do to make themselves desirable 
employers, I never saw anything in print, nor ever 
heard it intimated in any remarks upon the 
‘ State and Prospects of Horticulture ; ’ ‘ Hints 
for Young Gardeners/ ‘ On the Improvement of 
Gardeners, ’ or ‘ Scarcity of Good Gardeners.’ 
All of which have appeared in the Magazines. 
“ Having frequently taken especial pains to 
ascertain the causes of gardeners leaving places, 
where I supposed a good man had a fair chance, 
judging from the known wealth and the social 
position of the proprietor, I found upon close in¬ 
vestigation, in most cases, that the original, the 
fundamental fault, was the employers’. Some of 
these had even got themselves and their places 
into such bad odour, that no gardener would 
advise another to go there, and so the place went 
from bad to worse. Yisiting occasionally florist 
and nursery establishments, when looking over a 
space and stock, the smallness of which indicated 
small income, close economy, and slow progress, I 
find the fable of the wolf and the dog illustrated ; 
for none of these men were ever found disposed 
to swap horse with any gentleman’s gardener 
in the country. And is it not a significant 
fact, too, that no Americans present them¬ 
selves as candidates for such situations which 
in many eases are only sought for by foreigners 
of inferior quality, or such as have, through 
adverse circumstances, no other choice left 
to them ? There seems, indeed, to be something 
like degradation connected with the position of a 
‘hired’ gardener, for when there is a farmer on 
the place his position is invariably above that of 
the gardener, who is generally looked upon by the 
domestic servants as one of themselves. 
'* Why gardeners should not he competent to 
direct here in America, as they do in other countries, 
both the farming and the gardening on a place, 
consisting of but a few hundred acres at best, I 
never could understand; and it must be clear to 
every intelligent mind that the two-headed system 
is no more an economical than it is a necessary one; 
because the places are mostly too small to actually 
require and to cover the expense of an extra farm¬ 
ing force ; and when the gardener is not compe¬ 
tent to manage it economically he is certainly not 
a head gardener. 
“ How many gardeners get as much as a hundred 
dollars a month—the average earning of a good 
mechanic ? As far as I know, very few. Do these 
gentlemen, entertaining such a high opinion of 
their own smartness, dignity, and knowledge of 
human nature, really imagine that a man, capable 
of performing and carrying through the various and 
multitudinous details of operations in any estab¬ 
lishment, where fruit, flowers, and vegetables are 
required, both in and out of season, to say nothing 
of other affairs which he often has to take charge 
of, would come : and if he does, stay for the monthly 
pittance held out as an inducement to forsake the 
chances, commodities, and general agreeableness of 
a town and a neighbourhood, for a life of drudgery 
in the country, which has not even the advantage 
of being cheaper ? And, when the man is married, 
as he is sometimes especially desired to be, what 
chances has he for his children, if he is permitted to 
have any ? We know it to be a fact that, employers 
want married men, but no ‘ encumbrance.” 
JUDGING AT EXHIBITIONS. 
Much has been said and written at various times 
on this subject, and especially on the methods 
which judges should adopt, in order to assist them 
in arriving at a right and proper decision. As far 
as my knowledge goes, I am not aware of any rule 
having been propounded, which has become general 
in application, or universally practised. Judges, 
therefore, still continue to exercise their own dis¬ 
cretion, and adopt their own methods of coming to 
a conclusion. Some censors arrive at a decision by 
a broad view of the condition and general appear¬ 
ance of the subjects under review ; while others, in 
the first instance, discard from account all inferior 
exhibits, and then bring the rest into competition 
by means of comparison ; and some, again, take 
into consideration the merits of every dish or 
exhibit, and employ points to determine the issue, 
giving a maximum number to the best productions, 
and less to those of an inferior description. To my 
mind, this plan is the most simple and best calcu¬ 
lated to lead to a fair and just decision. 
For many years I have been an enthusiastic 
cultivator and exhibitor of both fruits and vege¬ 
tables, and during this period it has many times 
fallen to my lot to be called upon to adjudicate 
upon these particular subjects. My experience has 
been the means of convincing me that when 
officiating in this important office no plan surpasses 
that of making a computation of merit by points. 
It seems to me so simple in calculation, and cer¬ 
tainly it is a safe course to take, to arrive at a just 
and equitable decision, besides producing a state of 
satisfaction in oneself. As regards the number of 
points to be given, I believe in the motto, “ the 
fewer the better,” as being less liable to bring 
about complication in reckoning. I take three as a 
maximum, and two and one respectively ; and give 
three to a first-rate exhibit, and less to others of 
inferior merit. I also apply the same rule to the 
general appearance, to quality, and to any other 
characteristic which an exhibit may possess, if 
worthy of consideration. 
In conjunction with some of our ablest judges of 
fruit and vegetables at the metropolitan shows, I 
have put this simple plan into practice, and have 
always found it an easy matter to arrive at a 
decision that is at once fair and equitable. This 
circumstance it is which has induced me to com¬ 
mend this plan, more especially to the notice and 
consideration of those who iu the future will be 
called upon to undertake the responsible duties of 
