January 17, 1903. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
53 
Letters to the Editor and Questions and Answers. 
Working by Time-table. 
To the Editor of The Gardening World. 
I would crave your indulgence for space to dissent from 
what your correspondent, “ J. O. Dick,” writes regarding (what 
it really comes to) the absurdity of keeping a diary. I have 
myself taken notes, when a journeyman under able men, and 
also when acting as foreman, and more fully since I became head, 
and have found these notes very helpful indeed. 
I would be sorry, from what “ J. C. Dick ” writes in this 
week’s issue, if any young man should get the impression that 
a diary was not only unnecessary, but dangerous. But I cannot 
but think these gardeners which “ J. C. Dick ” claims acquaint¬ 
ance with are few and far between, who would hold so rigidly 
to any notes which would lead to give instructions to prepare to 
sow Onion crop (though the ground was in a sodden condition), as 
the date had come round when these things must be sown. 
Common sense is the necessary qualification in working to notes, 
as in most things; and I would strongly urge our young men to 
keep notes of the principal work done day by day. And now is 
a capital time to begin, when the season is about to open. And 
they will find how helpful these notes will be in years to come. 
I would only give a strong instance of the present time to show 
how the gardeners referred to by “ J. C. Dick ” would find them¬ 
selves in difficulty. I have for several years put in the bulk of 
our ’Mum cuttings (for producing large blooms) during the month 
of December. This season I have found it utterly impossible to 
get cuttings, and now we are well into January and few cuttings 
taken. Have I to throw aside the notes of so many years, because 
in a case such as this I have been forced to depart from them? 
No, emphatically no. But the notes of 1903 must necessarily 
contain “ ’Mum cuttings inserted the latter end of January, and 
it will, I fear, be well into February before many varieties can be 
had.” I dislike narrowness in either thought or method. Therefore 
let our motto be for 1903 : Look not mournfully into the past. It 
comes not again; wisely improve the present; it is thine. Go 
forth to meet the shadowy future without fear, and with a manly 
heart. Vigilant. 
Gardeners' Bothies. 
To the Editor of The Gardening World. 
When reading The Gardening World, the other night, I 
came across an article on “ Gardeners’ Bothies,” by Mr. Main, 
where he says that 90 per cent, of bothies existing in Scotland are 
satisfactory, and the other ten are ill-ventilated hovels. I think 
if Mr. Main would take a look round Aberdeenshire he would 
reverse his statement, and say that ten bothies existing in 
Scotland were good, and the other ninety ill-ventilated hovels. 
I once stopped six months in a bothy that was more like a 
cow-shed than a habitation for human beings. I will give 
you an idea what it was like. The size of it was about 25 ft. 
by 12 ft., with only one small window in it. There was no par¬ 
tition in it; we had to doi our cooking and sleep all in one place. 
If Mr. Main was staying along with other two young chaps in a 
bothy like that which I have spoken about he would change 
his opinion of bothies. 
I have been through most of the bothies in Aberdeenshire, and 
I have only come across two good ones yet; the rest are what. 
Mr. Main would call ill-ventilated hovels, which the sun never 
shines on from one year’s end to another. Trusting this will meet 
the eyes of Mr. Main, and see what he has to say in return. 
Aberdeenshire Loon. 
To the Editor of The Gardening World. 
It appears that Mr. A. V. Main adheres to the statement that 
the photograph shown in Gardening World was the bothy; but 
he informs us now that it is attached to the gardener’s house. 
I would be pleased if he could supply a view of the gardener’s 
house ; from personal knowledge, a poor remnant would remain 
for the bothy. The photo shown, I must maintain, was mis¬ 
leading, and must have caused young men like myself living in 
a lean-to, and hugging the winery walls, etc., as I truly described, 
to sing, “ Had I the wings of a dove, I would fly,” to Fordell or 
the other two celestial mansions so ably described. I have 
travelled about, like the most of garden hands, yet I never felt 
bold enough to ask a new master what sort of a bothy I was 
going to. My training happened to be in large places, some 
larger and of more importance than the place where our friend 
writes from. My experience of bothies was not obtained from 
any of the chance acquaintances one happens to meet at term 
times or shows. From duke to squire, these lean-to’s depicted 
are scattered over the country, and not confined to Fifeshire. I 
have been under Scotch, English, and Irish head gardeners, all 
I admire yet as men and true horticulturists. 
These head gardeners could not have built a new bothy, how¬ 
ever much they felt for their under-men. How many bothies 
could Mr. A. V. Main count that do not look to the north and 
behind the garden walls ? I myself can only boast of living in 
one which got the benefit of good Old Sol shining in at the 
window. Fifer. 
To the Editor of The Gardening World. 
( I have read “ Fifer’s ” and “ Scottie’s ” letters in last week’s 
Gardening World. They have been showing Mr. Main up 
about, his photograph of Fordell Bothy. He might have said the 
bothy was joined on to the gardener’s house. I think Mr. Main 
makes a mistake when he says there are 90 per cent, of good 
bothies, as I have seen a few myself, and I know for a certainty 
there are too many bad ones. Some of them are, as “ Fifer ” says, 
fearfully damp, and if some of the head gardeners were as par¬ 
ticular about the bothies the men are to stay in as he is about 
the physical defects they are not to have, there would be fewer 
)acl ones. If the chaps have not got physical defects when they 
go to some places, they ought to have,'judging by the bothies 
they stay in. Of course, it is only head gardeners that are 
van compos mentis that ask these questions, and they that are 
physically defective themselves. Some bothies are fearfully in¬ 
fested with rats and cockroaches, and remind one of the Zoological 
Gardens on a small scale. What is wanted are some bothies on 
the plan of Newtondon and Philiphaugh, where every comfort is 
provided for the men. Jtjmsie 
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 
The Editor invites enquiries for reply in this column. These 
enquires may cover any branch of gardening. Questions should be 
put as briefly as possible, and written on one side of the paper only ■ 
a separate sheet of paper should be used for each question. 
Readers are also invited to (live.their fellow gardeners the benefit 
of then' experience by sending supplementary replies. 
Replies cannot be sent by post, even if a stamped , addressed 
envelope is enclosed, and the return of specimens cannot be undertaken. 
Anonymous communications are treated in the usual editorial manner. 
Address letters: The Editor, “The Gardening World,” 37 and 
38, Shoe Lane, London, E.C. 
Journal of the Kew Guild (Interested). 
The journal in question is not obtainable of any bookseller, 
as far as we are aware, being printed and circulated primarily 
for the benefit and interest of the members of the guild. The 
most feasible method of obtaining a copy is to procure it from 
some of your friends who may be a member, and has a spare 
copy to dispose of. Provided you cannot otherwise succeed in 
procuring a copy, send a shilling and postage to the Editor of 
The Gardening World, and a copy will be sent you as a matter 
of favour, or the money returned in the event of a copy not being 
procurable. 
Hands Blistered through Handling Primula Obconica (T. D.). 
Your experience is not exceptional, although there are many 
who doubt the probability of the irritation altogether, and attri¬ 
bute the cause to something else. We do not discredit the idea 
of skin irritation in certain cases, because we are aware that 
not everyone is constituted alike. There are many plants fur¬ 
nished with irritating hairs, including Dead Nettles, the Cow- 
Itch (Mucuaa pruriens), Malpighia urens, Stinging Nettles, 
and various others, of whose mischievous effects there can be no 
doubt whatever. There is another class of plants, however, fur¬ 
nished with glandular hairs, which contain a fluid that may be 
regarded as irritating, inflammatory, or otherwise hurtful to 
those having a thin skin, or one that is peculiarly sensitive to 
foreign substances, such as we have described. On the other 
band, it may happen that the hands have been cut or scratched, 
thus offering a ready means of ingress to the poisonous liquid 
contained in the glandular hairs, and liberated when brushed or 
