January 1, 1898. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
283 
punctuality. This must be enforced, especially 
where you have a number of men under you. The 
gardener should be at his post (health permitting) 
every morniDg at the specified time, the men are to 
begin work so as to direct them as to what their 
labour is to be for the day ; and a gardener must be 
able to lead and not be led. He must also command 
authority. By this I do not mean that he need be 
harsh and driving, but to see all the employees under 
him do their duty. He must look into details and 
keep a watchful eye over all that is placed under his 
charge ; for he alone is held responsible, and must 
point out to his assistants, when this or that plant 
requires to be cleaned or re-potted, and what com¬ 
post he would like to have used, or Vine disbudded, 
tied down and stopped. 
The same with Peach trees, Figs, Cucumbers. 
Melons, &c. If he has not the time to do this him¬ 
self be must be competent to show his young men 
how to perform it; and the same holds good in the 
flower and kitchen garden respectively ; for if you 
have a labourer that does not know how to use a 
tool, or how to put in a plant, it is your duty to 
give him the lead and put him right. 
Of course, a gardener, when he has a large place 
under his charge, and many men to superintend, has 
not the time to do much manual labour himself; 
and here, in my opinion, he is placed at a disadvant¬ 
age compared with a man holding a single-handed 
place, because the latter can, at least, has to, see to 
all his plants, fruit trees, and crops in general, in the 
way of potting, watering, and so on. He has the 
satisfaction of knowing that the work has been 
properly performed ; but how often do we find in 
these smaller places things in general well done ? 
By this assertion I do not wish to cast any or the 
slightest disparagement on under gardeners. The 
majority of them, that is, those who are fond of their 
work, perform their duties to the best of their 
abilities, but it takes many years before a man is 
competent to be called a gardener. 
Though, as I said just now, having a love for our 
work is half the battle. The knowledge of gardening 
is a thing that is never complete in my opinion. 
There is always room for improvement, and how 
often is it that our failures eventually lead to success ? 
We profit by those said failures and persevere to 
overcome them, with the result, generally speaking, 
of better crops of fruit, finer vegetables, or a better 
flowered plant, whichever the case may be. It is 
only by dogged perseverance in the present age, with 
so much competition, that we can hope to reach the 
highest standard of excellence in the cultivation of 
fruit, flowers, and vegetables. 
He must also thoroughly understand the art of 
pruning. I consider the head gardener ought to do 
all this under glass, at any rate in the fruit depart¬ 
ment, such being my practice, and I do a good bit 
outside when time permits. Of course, there are 
exceptions to the rule, extra large establishments 
being provided with a foreman for each department, 
probably men not much under thirty years of age with 
good experience, capable of being entrusted with this 
woik ; but it requires great judgment and should only 
be undertaken by qualified hands. 
Disbudding, too, must claim the gardener’s atten¬ 
tion, there being a right time as well as a right way 
to do this ; and herein lies the secret of success as 
to whether you will reap the best crops of fruit that 
this stage makes possible, or whether by mismanage¬ 
ment you succeed in getting only a badly formed 
tree, or a mass of nnripened shoots. 
Thinning the fruit is another duty the head gardener 
should perform, as this requires care, the Grapes 
excepted, as it would be in.possible for him to do all 
this himself where several houses are devoted to this 
fruit. He should give a helping hand so as to be 
able to point out to his assistants how to thin a 
bunch of Grapes, which is most tedious work and 
requires daily attention in the early spring and 
summer months. The watering of the borders that 
may contain the roots of fruit trees, or plants must 
be seen to by the gardener. No hard and fast line 
can be laid down, as soil, position, and the season 
must guide him in this to a great extent. 
Seed sowing is another item that calls for the 
qualified gardener’s care. Especially is this the case 
with some of the flower seeds, as some are so minute. 
For instance, Begonia, Calceolaria, Gloxinia, and 
snch like, if covered with much soil would fail to 
germinate, so this must be performed by an experi¬ 
enced hand or failure will surely follow. 
The packing of fruit and flowers to go by rail, 
when your employers may happen to be at a dis¬ 
tance, often falls to the lot of the gardener, and must 
claim his attention, as fruit in particular requires to 
be carefully handled, such as Grapes, Peaches, 
Strawberries, Figs', and such soft delicate kinds that 
may have to be despatched. I always do this my¬ 
self ; but my assistants are about and can always see 
how it is performed, which 1 hope will be of service 
to them later on. 
Hardening off plants for bedding out and other 
purposes must rest with the gardener, as no precise 
date can be fixed as to when it is safe to fully expose 
them. The weather must guide one in this to a great 
extent, as also must be the housing of them again in 
the autumn, as a slight frost may cripple such things 
as Bouvardias, Callas, and many others that are 
stood out in the open during the summer months. 
I must now pass on to outside work, and will touch 
upon the flower garden and pleasure grounds. Of 
course, there is a deal of supervision required here, 
from April up to the middle of November, when, as 
a rule, most of the deciduous trees have shed all their 
leaves. Often in the month of March the mowing 
machine has to be brought to the fore, and when 
once this is started there is always a lot of cutting 
and clipping to be done around trees and shrubs, 
flower beds, and walks. To keep one's place in good 
trim this must be done about every ten days up to 
October, when iess often will suffice. 
Towards the end of May the putting out of tender 
bedding plants absorbs a lot of the gardener’s time ; 
also the marking out of the beds, where the various 
kinds have to be planted, and seeing that the same is 
being properly performed. Later, the pegging down, 
staking and tying, wherever necessary, and last, 
though not least, the watering of the same demand 
almost daily attention. Neither must the weeding and 
the rolling of the walks be lost sight of; nor must 
the plants that soon fall a prey to mildew, green fly, 
caterpillars, and maggots, such as Roses, Verbenas, 
and many others be overlooked. From early in 
October the birch brooms must be kept incessantly 
on the move for six or eight weeks. 
This date (October) brings us to the kitchen 
garden. The gardener must soon see about the 
raising and storing of most of the root crops; the 
manuring and eventually the trenching and digging 
of ground for the various crops of vegetables, and 
allocating the plots for each kind to be sown or 
planted in early spring must not be lost sight of, if a 
succession is to be kept up. The root pruning 
of fruit trees that may be making rank growth needs 
attention most autumns. The gathering and storing 
of Apples and Pears require a lot of time bestowed 
upon them as each kind becomes fit through the 
months of August, September, and October; and 
these require the gardener’s personal attention. 
None knows better than he the many insects that 
we have to fight against, among fruit trees in 
general, from February to September, or rather, all 
the year round, if we take the green and black fly, red 
spider, Autumn and Winter Moth, Apple-blossom 
Weevil, and the Gooseberry Sawfly, each one very 
destructive in their season, and requiring a deal of 
perseverance to keep them at bay. 
As I said before, it is a decided advantage to a 
gardener to be able to draw out a plan in the way of 
beds, paths, or roads, level a piece of ground, and 
do similar work, whenever called upon to do so. 
I must not omit still another duty, and an impor¬ 
tant one I consider; and this is th= gardener’s usual 
walk round with his lamp through all the glass¬ 
houses from the end of September to the end of 
March. My time, to see that the required tempera¬ 
ture is somewhere near the mark, is about g p m. 
each night. This march round sets one's mind at 
rest before retiring for the night if you find all is 
right in this department. Not only is this the case, 
but the young man on duty takes more pains with 
his work in the way of stoking and regulating his 
fires, with the knowledge that his chief will be on 
the alert at his usual hour, and, naturally, his first 
duty in the morning is to repeat the visit. 
In most large places the employer usually finds 
one or more gardening periodicals each week. These 
should be passed on to the young men when the 
gardener has perused them. These papers help to 
keep the gardener and his assistants in touch with 
the times and up-to-date gardening, which, as a pro¬ 
fession, dates back to the beginning of time, for 
does not history tell us how Adam, the first living 
man, was placed in charge of the Garden of Eden to 
dress it and keep it ? It is doubtful whether Adam 
possessed those many qualifications just enumerated, 
and we know for a certainty that he had not one 
hundredth part of the duties to perform that the 
present age gardener has. This reminds me of the 
lady gardeners, as we are told that Eve, the first 
woman, was also placed with Adam as a help-mate; 
but I do not think it proved a very great success, as 
these so-called lady gardeners have not made much 
headway as yet. 
I understand there are one or two at Kew and 
other places, but I do not think we have much to 
fear that they will supersede us. I think household 
duties are more suitable for the fair sex. 
I could name a host of other duties that a gardener 
has to perform ; but enough has been said to show 
that his post is no sinecure. It is certainly a trifle 
different from what it was in the year 1850, even if 
we are to judge by that familiar board that is placed 
at Bicton, and says, “ The gardener at a hole looks 
out, &c., &c.,” presuming, of course, that he spent a 
deal of time there. I do not think the subject that I 
have spoken upon this evening has been placed promi¬ 
nently enough before our younger members of the 
craft, to whom we must look to uphold our profession 
in the next century. I would like to see the county 
councils take the matter in hand, and arrange a few 
lectures at convenient centres, so that those young 
men could attend and reap the advantage of such. I 
could hope that my well-meant, though imperfect, 
paper may be a means to that end.— Jamis Mtyne. 
LESSONS FROM CHRYSANTHEMUM 
SHOWS. 
Now that the "laugh and riot ” of the " Chrysan¬ 
themum feast’’ is o’er, itshonld be profitable for us, 
as 'Mum points out on p. 247, to reflect calmly on 
some of the lessons that have come to us amidst the 
tumult, if so be that we can evolve from them some¬ 
thing of practical advantage for the future. 
The craze for size seems in no way to have abated. 
The " big bruisers,” as 'Mum calls them, are still 
striven for with might and main, but there seems a 
tendency to limit these monsters to their proper 
sphere—the show board—and more, to insist upon 
the other phases of Chrysanthemum culture receiv¬ 
ing due attention. The idea seems to have gained 
firm root that it is not sufficient to have, at a Chry¬ 
santhemum show, a vast quantity of giant blooms 
arranged with becoming regularity in seemingly end¬ 
less lines upon show boards, with an odd group or 
two of plants dotted here and there to break the 
monotony. 
The break away into having flowers cut with long 
stems, and arranged in such a way as to give some 
idea of the natural pose of the flowers upon the 
plant, was a pleasing and a happy idea, although its 
application in limiting the blooms to three in a vase, 
leaves something to be desired. However, it has 
caught on to a wonderful extent—witness the mam¬ 
moth prizes offered this autumn by the Scottish 
Horticultural Association for blooms, staged in this 
way, and also the announcement recently made of 
the special class for a number of vases of such 
flowers arranged for next year by the National 
Chrysanthemum Society. 
'Mum is on the right track when he calls for larger 
vases and more flowers in them. We should then 
have such noble and imposing exhibits as those 
which constituted such a conspicuous feature of Mr. 
Norman Davis' group at the Royal Aquarium in 
November. Whether other foliage besides that 
borne by the plants should be permitted in filling 
these large vases is a matter of detail. For the 
sake of variety miscellaneous foliage might be per¬ 
mitted in some cases and prohibited in others. 
With regard to the '* artistic groups of plants or 
flowers ” the public is being surely if somewhat 
slowly educated up to them, for the haphazard 
fashion of crowding the plants together in such a 
manner as to annihilate the individuality of each 
plant, and leave nothing but a blur of colour no 
longer is sought after. The public has found that 
it needs something better. 
'Mum also comments very sensibly upon the 
influence of light and air in developing the colour 
of the flowers. Growers in the vicinity of London 
and other large towns and cities are heavily handi¬ 
capped from the “colour” point of view, and it is 
