226 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
March  10,  185  8. 
THE  YOUNG  GARDENERS’  DOMAIN. 
To  OuK  Boys. 
Having  obtained  permission  to  address  a  little  homily  to  my  friends, 
our  young  gardeners,  I  am  inclined  to  wonder  whether  there  are  not 
some,  or  many,  of  them  “who  fain  would  climb  but  that  they  fear  to 
fall  ■’  into  the  editorial  arms  ;  or,  if  under  the  criticism  of  their  compeers, 
the  few  who  have,  by  availing  themselves  of  iis  space,  strengthened 
their  wings  for  higher  flights.  Perhaps  it  is  so  ;  perhaps  not.  I  read  its 
columns  every  week,  so  smart,  so  concise,  so  practical ;  and  suppose  that 
in  every  bothy  in  the  United  Kingdom  wherever  the  Journal  of  Hortioulhire 
finds  ils  way  (and  where  does  it  not?)  that  this  part  of  its  pages  is 
never  “  skipped.”  How  is  it  then  that  only  some  half  dozen  bright  pens  are 
represented  in  it  ? 
Is  the  rising  generation  of  gardeners  deteriorating  ?  Is  it  they  have 
nothing  to  say,  or  having  it  they  are  tongue-tied  ;  or  is  it  that  they  are 
ink-bound?  Judging  from  what  I  see,  and  hear,  and  know  of  matters 
generally  as  they  exist  in  bolhydom,  other  deterrents  must  account  for 
Young  Britain's  backwardness  in  coming  forward.  In  comparison  with 
the  good  (?)  old  times  of,  say,  thirty  years  ago  young  gardeners  of  to¬ 
day  in  their  position,  their  dress  and  address,  their  education,  their  attain¬ 
ments  and  privileges  generally,  especially  in  this  sympathetic  desire  to 
give  them  scope  for  careful,  thoughtful,  intelligent  practice  with  the 
instrument  which  has  often  proved  an  added  power  to  the  spade  greater 
than  many  appreciate. 
“Do  you  read  the  articles  in  ‘The  Young  Gardeners’  Domain?’” 
I  recently  asked  a  friend.  “  Yes,'’  he  replied  ;  “  and  what  do  you 
think  of  them  ?  ”  “Well,”  the  answer  was,  “if  they  are  really  written 
by  lads  then  I  think  their  young  shoulders  have  very  old  heads  upon 
them.”  I  do  not  endorse  that  verdict,  which  brings  young  gardeners  down 
to  the  level  of  Doctor  Blimber’s  establishment,  “  a  great  hothouse 
.  ,  .  .  where  all  the  boys  blew  before  their  time,  whose  mental  Green 
Peas,  intellectual  Asparagus,  and  mathematical  Gooseberries  were 
common  at  untimely  seasons  from  mere  sprouts  of  bushes  ;  ”  but  to  one 
less  keenly  interested  such  an  inference  was  not,  perhaps,  altogether 
unwarranted.  In  many  ways  boys  are  what  bo3's  were  a  few  decades 
ago,  and  probably  will  remain  so  for  a  few  decades  to  come,  but  as  their 
opportunities  are  greater,  their  responsibilities  have  increased.  Do  they 
feel  that  it  is  so  ?  Scarcely  as  much  probably  as  the  exigencies  of  life 
demand,  for  they  have  no  past  to  compare  with  the  present,  or  only  such 
as  history  can  give  them  ;  and  the  volatile  spirit  of  youth  is  apt  to  fly  oflE 
to  the  future,  losing  itself  in  contemplation  of  what  it  would  like  to  be 
instead  of  doing  what  ought  to  be  done  now. 
Never  before  has  life  attained  to  so  high  a  tension.  It  is  a  veritable 
struggle  to  get  to  the  front,  and  the  margin  for  any  slack  methods  woven 
from  loose  imagination  is  daily  diminishing.  In  this  sign  of  the  times 
lays  the  signal  for  action.  Do  young  gardeners  see  it  ?  Are  they  fully 
impl’essed  with  its  significance  ?  It  is,  at  least  the  desire,  it  should  be  our 
duty  to  hammer  at  every  bothy  door,  and  stir  up  the  sleepers  to  vital 
activity.  I  have  more  than  one  reason  for  supposing  there  are  such,  and 
that  many  a  lad’s  notions  of  how  he  will  become  a  head  gardener  are  of 
“  such  stuff  as  dreams  are  made  of.” 
For  one  instance,  if  it  is  not  so,  why  have  so  few  entered  this  domain? 
I  am  asking  a  ciuestion  to  which  I  could,  myself  give  a  dozen  pertinent 
answers,  but  not  one  of  which  is  the  shadow  of  an  excuse.  One  is 
“afraid.”  Afraid  of  what  ?  “Oh,  I  could  never  sit  long  enough  to 
hateh  out  such  practical  pieces  as  appear  weekly  ;  ”  and  still  another 
started  too  strong  and  finished  too  weak  ;  another  comforts  himself 
another  way,  so  they  are  on  the  wrong  side  of  this  domain  wall,  at  the 
wrong  time  too,  and  chiefly  owing  to  some  bogey  of  imagination.  Let 
us  hope  that— 
“  Some  of  your  griefs  you  have  cured. 
And  the  sharpest  you  still  have  survived ; 
But  what  torments  of  pain  you  endured 
Irom  the  evils  that  never  arrived.” 
One  could  not  reasonably  expect  many  to  enter  by  the  teacher's  door 
into  “  The  Young  Gardeners’  Domain,”  or  gain  admittance  by  shouting 
“  words  of  learned  length,  and  thund’ring  sound  ;  ”  and  yet  if  you  will  not 
use  the  openings  which  undoubtedly  exist  then  I  fear  a  lock-out  and 
lock-up  by  the  editorial  key  will  deprive  bothydom  of  a  privilege  un¬ 
dreamt  of  in  my  young  d  rys.  The  duties  and  the  circumstances  of  life, 
so  far  as  many  young  gardeners  are  concerned,  are,  in  a  measure, 
restrictive.  They  do  not  allow  of  much  communion  with  the  greater  area 
of  the  gardening  world,  hence  many  a  lad  leads  a  somewhat  lonely  life, 
shunning,  and  properly  so,  a  companionship  devoid  of  kindred  taste  and 
aims.  From  this  proceeds  the  danger  of  a  kind  of  mental  cramp,  for 
“  Home-keeping  youths  have  ever  homely  wits.  ’ 
It  was  with  a  knowledge  of  this,  derived  from  experienee,  that  I 
welcomed  for  their  sakes  this  new  departure  in  garden  literature,  qualified, 
I  admit,  by  somewhat  selfishly  envying  them,  a  prerogative  denied  to 
my  own  youth.  Denied,  1  say,  for  the  scribbling  itch  peculiar  to  a 
certain  age,  and  rather  common  to  it  too,  was  pretty  effectually  scratched 
out  of  me  by  ultra  conservatism  displayed  then.  Scratched,  or  scotched, 
only,  however,  not  killed,  but  the  scar  remains  to  emphasise  the  difference 
’twixt  then  and  now.  The  time  was  notripe  then,  presumably,  for  youno- 
men  to  wield  both  pen  and  spade,  but  it  is  now,  and  are  they  ready  ? 
Taking  the  proportion  of  young  gardeners  to  head  gardeners  as  three 
to  one — ^that  is  in  gardens  of  sufficient  scope  for  a  bothy,  and  they  are 
numerous — we  have,  I  think,  a  rather  important  section  of  the  gardening 
fraternity  to  deal  with,  and  we  look  upon  it  not  only  with  expectation  as 
to  the  future,  but  reasonably  expect  its  members  to  feel  that  they  are  now 
a  potent  power  in  the  vocation,  apart  from  the  brute  force  of  numbers 
and  muscular  strength.  Will  those  expectations  be  realised,  and  do  they, 
I  again  ask,  recognise  their  responsibility  ? 
It  is  not  a  matter  of  indifference  as  to  the  state  of  gardening  and 
gardeners  when  we  are  gone  ;  no  liberal-minded  man  can  so  regard  it. 
We  elders  know  that  they  have  a  hundred  advantages  that  we  never 
had,  but  we  may  not  ignore  or  contemn  the  innumerable  snares  and 
delusions  which  have  sprung  up  since  the  days  when  we  were  boys 
together,  and  consecpiently  escaped.  I  must  apologise  for  bringing  the 
obligations  of  “  heads  ”  and  “  hands  ”  together,  but  I  cannot  disassociate 
them  ;  indeed,  would  suggest  to  all  “  Old  Boys”  the  desirability  of  keeping 
the  young  fellows  in  touch  with  ourselves,  and  as  a  means  to  the  end  I  ^ 
would  ask  them  to  impress  upon  the  plastic  mind  of  youth  the  advantages 
of  self-education.  We  are  their  keepers,  and  it  is  our  prerogative — I  think 
our  duty — to  show  them  the  way  in  which  they  should  go,  and  bring 
them  in  their  early  day's  to  feel  and  to  know  they  are  important  faetors 
in  the  great  gardening  fraternity. 
A  parting  word  to  our  boys.  You  do  not  yet  quite  see  the  opening 
for  you  into  the  “  Young  Gardeners’  Domain.”  I  have  left  it  till  the  last 
that  you  might  see  it  clearer,  or  them,  rather,  for  there  are  a  hundred 
openings.  Can  you  not  contribute  all  sorts  of  notes  and  gleanings — not 
exactly  mental  Green  Peas  or  mathematical  Gooseberries — and  have  you 
no  question  to  ask,  nothing  to  learn,  or  something  to  say  about  your 
surroundings  ?  Will  you  not  tell  us  the  girth  of  “  the  big  Cedar,”  the 
weight  of  “  the  big  bunch  of  Grapes,”  wliat  your  opinion  is  of  the — 
whatever  ymu  like,  what  wild  flowers  you  find  in  your  rambles  ?  Young 
fellows,  I  am  surprised  at  your  diffidence  !  I  had  expected  better  things 
of  you  ;  do  expect  them,  and  as  I  believe  in  you  I  doubt  not  but  that  any 
reasons  you  may  have  had,  or  thought  you  had,  will  upon  a  little  reflection 
disappear,  to  the  betterment  of  yourselves  and  the  gratification  of — 
An  Old  Boy. 
[With  about  three  exceptions,  when  “  old  boys  ”  have  addressed  the 
young,  as  in  this  case,  the  whole  of  the  commirnications  which  have 
appeared  under  this  heading  have  been  written  by  young  gardeners,  and 
very  well  written  too  the  majority  have  been.  Some  of  them,  however, 
do  not  appear  to  be  largely  endowed  with  the  virtue  of  perseverance  ; 
while  a  few,  we  are  glad  to  know,  are  spending  most  of  their  spare 
evening  hours  in  attending  educational  classes  in  technical  schools. 
“  Shorthand  ”  seems  to  have  a  peculiar  fascination  to  young  gardeners, 
but  we  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  a  number  of  them  might  benefit 
themselves  more  by  seeking  to  acquire  accuracy  in  “longhand,”  or 
improvement  in  the  essential  art  of  composition.] 
HARDY  FRUIT  GARDEN. 
Pruning  Filberts  and  Cob  Nuts. — Owing  to  the  necessity  of  having 
plenty  of  catkins  or  staminate  flowers  to  produce  pollen  for  the  fertilisation 
of  pistillate  flowers,  annual  pruning  of  Filberts  and  Cob  Nuts  is  deferred 
until  the  female  buds  are  fully  open.  These  are  known  by  their  tufts 
of  crimson  styles  protruding  from  the  huds.  They  are  usually  situated 
on  the  upper  parts  of  young  shoots,  as  well  as  on  spurs,  and  short  twiggy 
growths.  The  male  flowers  hang  in  long  drooping  catkins.  When  fully 
mature  the  pollen  falls  when  the  catkin  is  disturbed  either  by  shaking  or 
moved  by  the  slightest  wind.  After  fertilisation  has  been  effected,  shoots 
furnished  with  catkins  may  be  shortened  back.  Weakly  branches  or  any 
that  crowd  the  trees  might  with  advantage  be  removed  before  the  flower¬ 
ing  period,  also  any  superfluous  growths  tending  to  crowd  and  obstruct 
the  necessary  light  and  free  circulation  of  air. 
Tovng  Trees. — Suckers  or  very  young  trees  must  be  pruned  with  a 
view  to  the  production  of  wood  for  the  formation  of  the  trees.  In  the 
case  of  a  sucker  with  a  single  shoot  shorten  it  to  18  inches.  From  the 
buds  which  start  select  six  of  the  strongest,  training  them  at  equal 
distances  apart,  a  hoop  secured  between  them  in  the  centre  affording  the 
best  means  of  doing  this.  The  following  year  nrune  back  each  shoot  to 
a  length  of  4  inches,  and  allow  two  growths  from  each.  This  will  afford 
a  fair  number  of  branches  and  give  a  well  furnished  tree.  Pinch  the 
side  growths  to  five  leaves.  Very  strong  growths  pushing  from  any  part 
of  the  trees  will  have  the  effect  of  robbers,  and  should  be  closely  removed. 
The  free  formation  of  side  shoots  is  Ijest  encouraged  by  shortening  the 
main  growths  or  leaders  in  winter  according  to  their  strength.  The 
weakest  may  be  pruned  more  closely  than  those  of  medium  or  more 
strength.  Cut  the  weakest  back  two-thirds,  the  strongest  one-third. 
Removing  Suckers. — Young  suckers  at  the  base  of  trees  or  bushes  or 
at  a  distance  away,  if  not  wanted  for  planting,  should  be  dug  up  and 
destroyed. 
Protecting  Apricots. — Apricots  being  the  first  of  stone  fruits  to  open 
the  blossom,  means  must  be  taken  to  duly  protect  it  from  inclement 
weather.  Cold  dry  weather  does  not  materially  affect  it,  but  it  is  liable 
to  receive  injury  when  the  weather  is  wet  and  boisterous  followed  by 
