the gardening World. 
March 12. 1904. 
222 
and there will be less risk of damage being done to anything 
green which may be growing under or near the trees. 
If applied warm, it will be more effective, but a calm day 
should be chosen, for the operation, care being taken, not to 
get any of the material on the skin or clothes. Ten gallons 
will go a long way, and the cost of the same will not exceed 
Is. 6d. ’ A. H. F. 
Argyllshire. 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
The Bothy. 
To the Editor of The Gardening World. 
Sir, —I see you have had a letter from “ W. G.” on the above, 
in which lie expresses surprise at “ Japonica’s” existence, and 
tenders to, him sympathy, but “ Japonica,” with all Iris narrow 
escapes, condemns not the lowly dwelling. “ W. G. ’ tells 
us he has been in bothies, but |o have been, in a bothv and lived 
in one is altogether different. At all events, if he has lived 
in one or more, I am afraid, judging by his letter, they have 
been rum shops, yet he says not so much so as “ Japonica’s.” 
Poor “ Japonica ”! 
The bothy is condemned as being not fit for the future gar¬ 
dener to live in, generally speaking. How about the advanced 
strides in horticulture during the past half century? I ven¬ 
ture to say the majority of head gardeners in good positions 
to-day had a touch of bothy life; aye, and were not the worse 
for it. Judging by the conduct of the average young gar¬ 
dener, “ W. G.” lias good cause to think otherwise than, that 
all young men are wayward; and my idea,, that the bothies 
he has been in contained young chaps that were their own 
masters, without a guiding star, is probably n,ot so far out. In 
fact, they seem to have been addicted to bad habits', and a 
newcomer fell in. I think highly of young gardeners, but 
admit there are “ bad pennies ” among them, but that occurs 
in every class. 
Well, I admit the cooking could be improved upon, and it 
is not very nice that a young gardener should have to work 
and cook. But a young man able to work isi worth a lot, and 
if he can, cook his own food he may be thankful for that some 
day. When this marrying comes off, and the lodger comes 
in, and the wife slips off for a, turn, round, it is reasonable 
enough to think one’s home would have a more cheerful ap¬ 
pearance than the average bothy, but I fall to see why a young 
gardener bent on study or good behaviour cannot do so in the 
bothy. 
“Japonica’s” advice is excellent to young gardeners con¬ 
demned to bothy life, and—well, to those who have got off 
with lodgings, they too would lose nothing by abiding by it. 
“ W. G.” has, toi my idea, failed to solve the problem of im¬ 
proving the lot of the young gardener in the bothy. Some 
head gardeners: have, a job to keep, single men, but if onoei they 
can be got with a wife and furniture he may succeed in that 
respect. 
The young gardener in the bothy has to a great extent the 
making of his own comforts, and, of course, vice versa. A 
manly, conscientious foreman, backed up by the head gardener, 
can, without much trouble, keep order; and take a lot of 
young gardeners in a crowd—say, at a flower show, or a, social 
gathering, or at a, “ fit-ba’ ” match ; aye, or out with his girl— 
I venture to say they are as respectable, tidy, intelligent, 
healthy-looking, and as well off a lot a,s one may wish to find 
on their level, and all that after living in a bothy. Again, 
many a good debate, both on. gardening and other topics, takes 
place in the bothy, and those not taking part are, aye, listening 
and learning, and, as a rule, most bothies are a sort of minia¬ 
ture reading-rooms. Lodgings, I do not like the word—if one’s 
mother is the landlady, that is all right; but it needs the 
'straining influence of a respectable pocket to meet your com¬ 
forts if she be no relation. I am afraid “W. G.” will have 
to think it out yet again, as he lias thrown out, a matter for 
the consideration of the employers, and a very serious one 
indeed for one-half of the under-gardeners. Their lasses will 
be in great glee who have seen or heard of “ W. G.’s ” letter to 
the Editor. Patience, my “ hearties ” ! J. R. B. 
To the Editor of The Gardening World. 
Sir, —This subject has again found space in the oolumns of 
our improved Gardening World. The last controversy passed 
from the old paper into our more up-to'-date periodical. The 
views then expressed were the condition of bothies existing. 
An assertion was made that by far the majority of bothies 
(connected with gardens of any repute) were most satisfactory 
in every way. First of all, our correspondent “Japonica” 
deals with the bothy, with instructions how to conduct cur- 
selves, Latterly, “ W. G.,” who speaks from bothy experience, 
mark you, degrades the bothy life .as unfit for the present-day 
gardener. I have been in five bothies and in two lodgings. If 
I bad been in lodgings all that, time I would not have been so 
well versed in horticulture to-day. I would not have beer 
able to contribute articles on various subjects to our esteemed 
paper. “ W. G.’s ” substitute for the bothy is the most erro¬ 
neous one ever I heard of. He advocates that half of the men 
in the garden should be married, the other half single, to lodge 
with the above. 
My conclusions are that our friend “ W. G.” has never been 
in a properly-conducted bothy, with individual rooms, bothy 
cook, and everything done on a methodical principle. Young 
gardeners, if inclined to study, will find such a bothy very much 
in preference to lodgings. What an idea,, to imagine that, this 
reformation of “ W. G.’s ” would elevate the status of the 
gardener! Bothies would always exist for assistant gardeners. 
I never in all my experience heard the expression that lodgings 
supersede the bothy. Some of our eminent horticulturists are 
proof of that. Their experience is of more weight than the 
new code introduced. I never thought of encouraging this 
problem again, but, I could not restrain myself from writing 
these few lines to counteract, such fallacies. I have only voiced 
the opinion of many readers of this paper. If we are to 
attain such a, height, of proficiency by this new code of “ W. G.” 
it would be but right to desert the bothy. However, it is 
hardly feasible. Journeyman. 
W-ishaw. 
To the Editor of The Gardening World. 
Sir, —I must say that “ W. G.,” in his article of February 
27tli, is very fortunate not to have been dragged through the 
same sort of holes as “ Japonica ” has been through. I myself 
have been in bothies and lodgings; and I would rather prefer 
the former, considering that you are put out into the back 
kitchen to have your meals by yourself, and then pay 13s. a 
week. But I do not sec where the respectable liome comes 
in for the young men to go to, as you are never wanted to stop 
in during the evenings, and where there are children it is not 
very pleasant., and the only" place then is the “ pub.” ; whereas, 
if you have a comfortable bothy, you can stop in or go 
out if you choose. And then, again, when you are on duty, I 
think it is the young gardener's place to be on the .spot, and 
to be there when he is wanted, and sometimes when he is not, 
so that he can attend to the fires and see that, everything is 
all right,. It is not very pleasant when you have to walk half 
a mile after ten o’clock at night, no, matter what the weather 
might be. I congratulate “ Japonica ” on his, article, “ The 
Bothy,” which I think was only just, and I would rather be 
condemned to life in a bothy than lodgings. 
J. W. Tyrrell. 
To the Editor of The Gardening World. 
Sir, —I feel very sorry that, my remarks, and also my friend 
“ Experienced One’s,” should hurt the feelings of Mr. Trevor. 
I can assure him I am always willing to take advice from ex¬ 
perienced ones. I am pleased to say at present I have com¬ 
petent and experienced hands above me always willing to 
give advice as regards watering. He says, very likely I was not 
born a gardener, but I a,m pleased to say at present I live 
a,s a gardener, and am always willing to take advice, but 
