May 6, 1893# 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
565 % 
“L’HORTICOLE COLON) ALE,” Limited, 
Head Office—PARK LEOPOLD, BRUSSELS. Cablegram-HORTICOLE-BRUSSELS. 
General Director - - LUCIEN LINDEN. 
This new and powerful Company (Capital, 2,400,000 francs), has just been founded for Influential Amateurs, 
Bankers, and Colonial Societies, by the amalgamation of three well-known Horticultural Establishments; and 
possesses:— 
I. —The “PARK LEOPOLD NURSERIES” (formerly “L’Horticnlture Internationale”) establishment, specially retained for the permanent 
exhibition and sale of all the specialities of the Company. (Open daily, entrance free.) 
II. —The “ LINTHOUT COLONIAL NURSERIES,” John Linden’s Avenue, Linthout, near Brussels. This extensive establishment is specially 
founded for the propagation and culture of economic plants, and also for new, rare and decorative plants of all kinds, etc., etc. 
III. —The “MOORTEBEEK NURSERIES” (formerly Lucien Linden & Co.), the well-known Orchid Establishment, possessing the largest and 
best stock in the trade of choice varieties of ODONTOGLOSSUMS (over 100,000 in cultivation), CATTLEYAS, CYPRI- 
PEDIUMS, etc., etc. 
SPECIAL OFFERS ON APPLICATION, 
Please Note Our Address:- 
“ L’HORTICOLE C0L0NIALE,” Park Leopold. BRUSSELS, BELGIUM. 
" Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refieshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
Edited by J. FRASER, F.L.S. 
SATURDAY , MAY 6 th , 1899. 
Position and Prospects of the 
Modern Gardener.— Since the men¬ 
tion in our columns of some remarks passed 
on the education of gardeners by Miss 
Jekyll the subject has changed sides more 
than once, some gardeners admitting their 
poverty in more than one sense, and others 
indignantly denying it in every respect. 
Different experiences must be held respon¬ 
sible for the widely divergent views taken 
upon the subject. Compared with other 
professions and vocations that of the 
gardeners has long been considered a poorly 
paid one. The rate of wages accorded to 
journeymen and head gardeners has not 
increased with the times in the same ratio 
as that of masons, bricklayers, and 
carpenters; but notwithstanding this fact 
we have always considered that gardeners 
possess the capability of maintaining quite 
as respectable an appearance as any of the 
working classes mentioned. This in itself 
should be taken as evidence'of superior educa¬ 
tion on the part of the gardener, and his 
practical application of such knowledge. No 
doubt there are exceptions, and gardeners, 
whether in towns or their suburbs are often 
more handicapped in making ends meet 
than are those in purely country districts. 
Higher wages as a rule are obtainable in 
towns than at a distance from the same, and 
no doubt many are attracted thither by the 
glamour of the same, without calculating 
the greater cost of the necessaries of 
life, as well as house rent in many cases. 
This is to some extent counterbalanced by 
greater social advantages, and proximity 
to seats, or schools of learning of various 
kinds, of which those inclined may take full 
advantage often to their ultimate profit. 
Although journeymen gardeners and even 
foremen are paid at a lower scale than 
mechanics, they have less broken time as a 
rule, something being found for them to do 
in'all sorts of weather, and the weekly 
wage remaining the same. Then, again, 
gardeners have no trade union to support, 
no strikes to fear, nor the dread of being 
compelled to leave off work by their fellow 
men, to starve while an ili-advised strike is 
running its foolish course. There are on 
the contrary some gardeners to whom this 
mode of excitement would be acceptable, 
and who accuse their fellow men for their 
lack of power or spirit to combine for the 
general good, as they are pleased to regard 
it. 
In accounting for the low rate of wage 
offered to gardeners generally some have 
accused head men for the number of ap¬ 
prentices they engage to work the place for 
the sake of cheapness. This may to some 
extent be true, but some gardeners do it for 
the sake of lightening their own burdens in 
the keeping of large gardens that are under¬ 
manned. To a certain extent the appren¬ 
tices themselves or their parents are re¬ 
sponsible for the increase of gardeners, the 
former in some cases being drawn into the 
profession by the allurements of gardening 
for its own sake, and the latter being glad 
to get their sons or daughters into an 
occupation of some sort. We have known a 
case where the son of a mason hesitated a 
long time over accepting a berth as appren¬ 
tice gardener, and lost it, and a farm servant 
who turned up his nose at the mention of 
it. On the other hand a young man of much 
higher social standing than either was 
delighted to obtain the appointment. 
Probably this has always been, and always 
will be part of the life-history of the pro¬ 
fession. Notwithstanding low wages, severe 
competition and all other concomitant evils, 
real or imaginary, young men continue to 
swell the ranks of the profession, and latterly 
young women have been wedging them¬ 
selves into the ranks of gardening, to the 
no small dismay of some and the indiffer¬ 
ence of others. There can be no doubt 
that the allurements of the profession are 
many, particularly to the young mind ; but 
there are those who take to the occupation 
with eagerness, and remain enthusiastic 
gardeners to the last, low wages notwith¬ 
standing. Those who are born gardeners 
cannot help themselves, but honour their 
profession by sticking to it with all its 
shortcomings. Many gardeners in bygone 
times served their day and generation con¬ 
tentedly, considering themselves “passing 
rich on forty pounds a year,” or very little 
more, and we have no doubt they were fully 
as well to do as many of the present day 
having half as much again for their services. 
In remote rural districts wages are still 
very low, but we scarcely doubt that many 
gardeners there are in better circumstances, 
and are able to take life less seriously than 
their brethren in town and suburban gar¬ 
dens, on which the fierce light of modern 
requirements beats strong. To meet these 
requirements, a great tax is laid upon the 
resources and energies of the gardener, 
while the conditions and circumstances of 
environment make successful gardening less 
possible than in districts remote from town 
where the skies are clear and the air more 
pure. 
It may seem strange that schools of hor¬ 
ticulture should be carried, on at great 
expense in order to educate men and women 
for a profession that is said to be already 
over-supplied ; but modern requirements of 
the gardener are multiplying, and it must 
be that the better educated will be the most 
capable of meeting the requirements. 
Moreover, it becomes more apparent year 
by year that competition is not limited 
merely by the state of matters in this 
country, as the road is open to foreigners, 
and our markets to their products. This 
sort of competition has to be met, and edu¬ 
cation, commercial and otherwise, is cer¬ 
tainly a powerful means of enabling us to 
hold our own. The county councils who 
support or partly support schools and offer 
scholarships for the maintenance of students 
while graduating in gardens of repute, must 
certainly have some faith in the efficacy and 
utility of science with practice, and in the 
advantages of the higher education. 
Gardening Appointment.—Mr. Duncan Mackay, 
head gardener at Kingston Grange, Liberton, has 
been appointed head gardener to the Honourable 
Mrs. Baillie Hamilton, Langton, Duns, N.B. 
The Royal Gardeners’ Orphan Fund.—At a meeting 
of the Committee held on the 29th ult., the sum of 
£32 2S., inclusive of two annual subscriptions for one 
guineaeach, was received from the Gardeners' Charity 
Guild, per Mr. Gerald Dean, Secretary, as the result 
of the Smoking Concert, which took place at the 
Cannon Street Hotel on March 15th. A special 
vote of thanks was accorded to the Committee of the 
Guild, and six of its members were placed on the list 
of “Life Voters.” 
Some desirable Blackberries —The most hardy 
varieties, according to the Onio experiment station, 
are Early King, SDyder, Eldorado, Ancient Britain 
Eaily King is the earliest of any hardy kind, bemg 
nearly equal to the Snyder in hardiness and about 
two weeks earlier. Eldorado is the largest of the 
hardy sorts and the best in quality, while the Snyder 
seems si ill to hold first place in productiveness. 
Erie and Ohmer are excellent varieties but not 
perfectly hardy. Rathburn is promising, although 
it has not been fully tested as to hardiness. 
Citiswick Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Associa¬ 
tion.—At a meeting of this association on Thursday, 
the 27th ult., a paper on " Roses ” was read by Mr. 
George Gordon of The Gardeners' Magazine. He 
commenced by giving a short account of the early 
history of Roses in the time of the Romans ; and then 
proceeded to deal with their culture. All the princi¬ 
pal groups or sections of the genus as known in 
gardens were then dealt with seriatim, and their 
principal features and characteristics pointed out. 
A lively discussion followed in the course of which 
the custom of growing standard Roses was strcngly 
condemned as formal, artificial, and in bad taste. 
