April 8, 1905. 
THE HARDENING WORI.D. 
29:5 
strongly recommend all boys who wish to bo practical men to 
serve tlieir time in a, nursery. Foreman. 
To tilre Editor of The Gardening World. 
Sir,—In reply to Mr. Dickson’s letter in your issue of the 
25th, I admit he does not advocate small wages or premium 
iu his previous letter; but what, in Mr. Dickson’s estimation, 
constitutes an apprentice if he pays no premium? Most 
apprentices I have known have had to pay a premium, and 
also work for small wages for several years. If no premium 
is paid I see no difference between the apprentice and the 
crock-boy ; but perhaps Mr. Dickson will tell us the difference. 
As regards examinations, seeing that most gardener^ have a 
different principle of working, would the examiner pass two 
students who had worked under different gardeners each with 
a different method of working? As for myself, I do not see 
the necessity of it, seeing other trade societies do not require 
it. I think that a. mail who has served seven or eight years 
in different gardens, and whose testimonials will bear the 
strictest investigation as to character and ability, is qualified 
to enter the B.G.A. or is entitled to Fair Play. 
To the Editor of The Gardening World. 
Sir,—It is curious how some men can work round a subject 
without ever touching the main point in question. Here we 
have " Heather Bell ” writing at some length in answer to my 
last letter, and yet he fails to answer the questions I then put. 
He contents himself with reiterating his former statements 
plus the mention of a place in Scotland where he avers the 
prentice paid a premium and got 2s. 6d. a week in wages. I 
do not for one moment doubt “H. B.’s” statement of this 
latter, but as one swallow does not make a summer, I yet re¬ 
quire proof that the premium system is in operation in Scot¬ 
land. 
" H. B.” seems to doubt my word when I say that appren¬ 
tices in Scotland receive a living wage, and asks, if such be 
the case, why lads will work in a garden without being appren¬ 
ticed. The answer to this is so 1 obvious that I need only say 
for the benefit of “ H. B.” that our average lad is not a fool. 
He sees well enough that although the wage of the apprentice 
is good, the journeyman's is very poor compared with that of 
other trades or professions, and so learns a trade with better 
prospects in it. To my question whether he believes in appren¬ 
ticeship for other trades, he returns a very lame answer, and 
carefully refrains from giving any reason for making the gar¬ 
dening profession open to all and sundry who may at any 
period of their lives take the notion to enter it. 
I must now turn to your voluble correspondent with the 
“ assumed ” name. Is the nom de plume any criterion to his 
standing in the profession? I must confess to having no liking 
for the man who is ashamed to put his name to his opinions. 
Of course, in the present case, I hardly wonder at it. Perhaps, 
however, I wrong “ Homocea ” ; it may be an excess of modesty 
that compels him to hide his light under a patent medicine 
box. However, I am deeply sorry that my awkward style of 
writing has caused him trouble as to whether the labourer or 
the parson has had the bad luck. I leave the question open ; 
" you pays your money and you takes your choice.” 
I am obliged to “ Homocea ” for giving us the conditions for 
becoming a member of the B.G.A. I cannot think, however, 
that if the rules are, as stated, it will attract the bulk of 
genuine gardeners. I certainly would have had more hopes of 
its ultimate success if there had been a little more of trades 
unionism about it. However, my approval or otherwise will 
have no effect on the movement, so I will leave it there. 
In conclusion, I think that if “ Homocea ” would carefully 
study the letter by “ Cabbager ” on this subject, he would, 
perhaps, get a little light, for in my humble opinion not even a 
membership of the B.G.A. will give a man that experience so 
necessary to a successful gardener which time alone and a 
thorough love for the 1 profession can give. Now I say that no 
matter how clever a man is, if lie does not begin his life-work 
until well on in years, he cannot possibly bring that experiem 
so necessary in all walks of life to bear on his chosen prou 
sion. We cannot learn too much, and surely a man entering .■ 
profession when over twenty loses much needful e perience. 
Does “Homocea” doubt this? C. Blair. 
“ A Gardeners’ Year.” 
To the Editor of The Gardening World. 
Sir,—I have just finished reading “A Gardener’s Year,” by 
H. 11. Haggard, and although iu many respects 1 have enjoyed 
doing so, it has not been by any means an unalloyed pleasui • 
The author’s experience of British gardeners has been dis¬ 
astrous, and, I should hope, uncommon. 
Most gardeners of my acquaintance are the trusted and faith¬ 
ful servants they ought to be, looking more, if anything, to their 
employers’ interest than their own, and yet Mr. Haggard puts 
no confidence either in their trustworthiness or ability, and 
advises every employer to attend personally to his garden, espe¬ 
cially if he has an Orchid about, or it is sure to be neglected. 
One cannot help saying: “Poor Mason, I’m afraid it is not 
all ' beer and skittles,’ for him and his myrmidons; no wonder 
Charles took to the stables.” 
Our home nurserymen also will feel rather small when they 
read Mr. Haggard’s opinion of them and their charges. He, in 
fact, goes abroad for almost everything ; it is so much cheaper, 
and thus one is forced to exclaim : “Ah ! here we are ‘ dumping 
with a vengeance.” A working-man’s wage appears as 2s. 6d. 
a day. I’m afraid he must be foreign as well. These few 
objections could be increased, but let it suffice. They spoil 
considerably what would without them be a delightful book. 
J. H. L. 
Gardening as Employment for Women. 
To the Editor of The Gardening World. 
Sir,—A correspondent in your issue of March 25th, 1905, 
airs his views on the above subject. It is a matter of consider¬ 
able regret that he has not used a little more air and had his 
misty ideas dispelled, and allowed the bright sunshine of 
acknowledged fact to illuminate those dark and hazy recesses 
of his benighted brain. He starts by calling it a craze and an 
empty dream, and by the general tone of his letter suggests that 
is is not, and never will be, a success. Has he any reasonable 
grounds to base this statement on, or is it only the fear that one 
day this same lady gardener will drive him from a post in which 
he is simplv vegetating? I advise him now to rouse himself 
from his dormant condition, and, while there is yet time, to 
thoroughly equip himself with a more extensive and broader 
idea of matters relating not only to gardening, but to twentieth 
century life. Your correspondent accuses lady gardeners of 
want of common sense, and describes the calling as precarious 
and uncongenial as well as unsuitable. I presume our friend 
has an abundance of common sense himself—so much so, in 
fact, that those higher in the social scale than himself who 
send their daughters to be gardeners have more money than 
brains; in other words, they lack the degree of common sense 
that our worthy friend makes his boast of. I wonder, too, at 
what time of life this marvellous degree of common sense 
became the valued property - of your contributor. It seems 
to have been bestowed rather late in life, or why should lie 
waste his life at such a “ precarious calling ? Why did he 
not take the advice he is so generously presenting to the lady 
gardener? Could he not have secured one of those superior 
places in the sphere of worthy employment for men in Govern¬ 
ment service, or many others?” I consider he has only 
wasted and abused his* life by devoting it to gardening. I 
wonder if he has ever seen a trained lady gardener at work. 
Does he imagine for a moment that a lady gardener 
is a. sort of imbecile who runs here and there about a garden 
with a bunch ‘ a flowers in one hand and a dictionary of garden¬ 
ing in the other? If he has any such notion the soonei he 
releases it the better. Let me tell him what I know about 
them and their work. 
