August  3,  1899. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER . 
95 
To  all  who  desire  to  grow  abundance  of  good  fruit  my  advice  is, 
Plant  bushes,  shorten  the  shoots  in  autumn  till  the  requisite  number 
of  main  branches  (nine  to  twelve)  are  formed,  then  let  such  branches 
extend  in  all  directions  as  long  as  they  are  kept  thinly  disposed. 
For  a  year  or  two  many  stray  shoots  will  be  produced  in  the  centre 
of  such  trees;  stop  some  of  these  early  in  July  to  three  or  four  leaves, 
also  any  leader  which  has  a  tendency  to  grow  stronger  than  the  others. 
Early  in  September  give  the  shoots  a  final  pruning  by  cutting  away 
numbers  to  within  an  inch  of  their  base,  so  that  every  shoot  left  is 
fully  exposed  to  light  from  top  to  bottom.  Practise  little  shortening 
of  branches  in  winter,  and  such  trees  will  soon  form  fruit  blossoms  in 
a  natural  way,  and  will  cease  to  grow  stroDgly.  When  that  stage 
is  reached  no  summer  pinching  is  necessary;  the  whole  of  the  pruning 
needed  is  to  thin  the  shoots  in  September,  cutting  away  any  worn-out 
ones,  and  leaving  young  shoots  to  replace  them.  This  is  simplicity 
indeed  in  fruit  tree  management,  but  I  know  of  no  other  method  by 
which  such  good  results  may  be  obtained. 
In  regard  to  the  time  taken  to  form  blossom  buds,  Mr.  Mitchell 
has  allowed  far  too  much  latitude.  Some  of  the  early  varieties  of 
Apples  will  form  such  buds  in  one  year,  and  many  varieties  of  both 
Apples  and  Pears  make  growth  and  lorm  blossom  buds  in  two  years. 
— H.  Donkin. 
AN  INDIAN  GARDEN  IN  WINTER. 
I  really  have  almost  scruples  about  entering  upon  this  engaging 
topic,  lest  my  pen  should  run  riot  and  carry  me  beyond  the  bounds  of 
prose,  for  it  is  long  since  I  had  such  a  delightful  time  as  the  cool  and 
fragrant  early  mornings  and  evenings  with  my  hostess,  herself  an 
ardent  and  appreciative  lover  of  Nature,  bird,  and  insect  life,  in  that 
Indian  home. 
My  friend’s  bungalow  was  at  Bankipore  in  Bengal,  he  being  the 
Commissioner  of  the  district,  and  an  extremely  busy  man  at  that.  It 
was  I  think  the  very  first  evening  that  I  made  acquaintance  with  the 
smallest  but  perhaps  favourite  pet  of  the  establishment,  a  beautiful 
little  mongoose,  and  touching  indeed  it  was  to  see  the  little  creature 
coyly  running  about  its  mistress’  vicinity  and  sometimes  giving  a 
pull  at  her  skirts  to  attract  attention.  Its  favourite  pastime,  however, 
was  playing  hide  and  seek  with  the  spaniel  puppy,  an  odder  and 
prettier  sight  than  which,  I  think,  I  have  never  seen.  But  it  is 
with  the  birds  and  the  flowers  that  we  are  chiefly  to  be  engaged.  My 
host  being  even  busier  than  his  usual  wont  owing  to  making  up  the 
famine  returns  for  the  terrible'preceding  season,  and  having  the  following 
week  to  receive  the  Viceroy,  I  found  myself  largely  in  the  hands  of 
my  hostess.  This  gracious  lady  and  I  speedily  found  we  had  interests 
in  common  in  the  shape  of  the  beauties  of  Nature  and  the  attractions 
of  animal  life. 
Oh  !  those  early  mornings  replete  with  every  charm  of  creation.  We 
repeatedly  made  a  practice  of  counting  the  various  birds  we  could  see 
at  one  interview,  shall  I  call  it,  for  really  it  was  so.  Many  were  so 
ridiculously  tame  that  they  hardly  took  the  trouble  to  move  as  we 
glided  through  the  parterres  or  picked  our  way  along  the  irrigated 
plots.  Some,  of  course,  were  much  shier,  and  some  we  had  to  watch 
for  carefully  and  by  stealth,  but  the  variety  of  colours,  brilliant  and 
electric,  was  remarkable  to  a  degree.  It  was  indeed  a  liberal  education 
in  itself,  and  my  fair  cicerone  was  a  very  able  schoolmistress.  When 
the  time  came  for  speeding  the  parting  guest  I  think  I  was  quite 
learned  in  the  various  kinds  of  parrots,  the  size,  notes,  and  ways  of 
the  golden  aureole,  the  gorgeous  plumage  of  the  red  and  green  wood¬ 
peckers,  the  turquoise  jays,  hoopoes,  green  bee-suckers  and  numerous 
others  of  every  possible  shade  of  colour.  I  cannot  enter  here  into  the 
beauties  of  the  butterflies  which  were  also  very  numerous,  as,  too, 
alas  !  were  the  mosquitos,  which  always  somehow  seem  to  get  within 
your  apparently  impenetrable  net. 
What  wonderful  institutions,  too,  these  Indian  establishments  are. 
My  friends  were  rather  quiet  people  than  otherwise  (though,  of  course, 
their  position  necessitated  a  certain  amount  of  show  and  entertainment), 
yet  his  household  consisted  of  about  forty  attendants,  and  remarkable 
are  these  same  servants,  the  ones,  that  is,  that  you  are  likely  to  have 
to  do  with.  The  various  bearers  seem  to  be  always  gliding  about 
behind  pillars,  on  the  verandah,  or  more  often  from  apparently  nowhere. 
Then  the  compound  and  the  stables  have  plenty  of  interest;  what 
with  polo  ponies,  riding  hacks,  and  tumtum  cobs,  you  can  well  put 
in  an  hour  or  so  in  this  department  and  learn  a  little  extra  Hindostani 
from  the  syces,  should  you  be  disposed  to  increase  your  learning. 
But  I  must  hasten  on  to  our  neighbour  “the  Judge.”  This 
gentleman’s  garden  was,  I  take  it,  perhaps  exceptional,  as  he  was 
famed  round  about  for  his  flowers,  but  such  Roses  I  certainly  have 
never  seen  anywhere  else.  It  struck  me  that  even  the  finest  speci¬ 
mens  one  sees  at  the  large  exhibitions  at  home  in  England  would  be 
nowhere  beside  such  magnificent  blooms  as  I  saw  in  the  greatest 
profusion  here.  Our  friend  seemed  to  have  all  the  best  known  varieties 
of  the  queen  of  flowers ;  they  were  highly  cultivated,  no  doubt,  and 
beautifully  trained,  but  the  secret  apparently  lay  in  tho  rich  alluvial 
soil.  The  whole  was  irrigated ;  very  close  by  lay  the  rich  tracts  of 
paddy  and  corn  which  enjoyed  its  annual  flooding  from  the  mighty 
waters  of  the  adjacent  Ganges,  miles  and  miles  of  the  flat  plain  being 
at  that  season  under  water. 
The  Judge  had  other  flowers,  too,  in  abundance,  and  was  especially 
interested  in  which  of  those  seeds  that  we  usually  grow  in  England 
would  do  also  in  India.  A  large  consignment  of  Messrs.  Sutton's 
choicest  seeds  had  accordingly  been  sown  and  were  being  tested. 
I  have  often  thought  of  this  charming  spot  as  a  kind  of  oasis  in  the 
scorching  plains  and  burning  heat  of  India’s  terrific  sun,  a  recompense 
and  a  delight  no  doubt  to  the  owner  in  his  enforced  sojourn  in  this 
distant  clime. — J.  A.  Caunegie-Cheales. 
THE  FIRST  CHARGE. 
Tiie  initial  difficulty  is  to  get  it,  for  though  we  look  at  the  matter 
in  the  most  favourable  light  the  fact  remains  that  one  of  the  most 
disheartening  times  in  a  gardener’s  career  is  when  he  feels  the  time 
has  come  for  him  to  leave  tho  subordinate  path  of  journeyman  or 
foreman  and  take  the  responsibility  of  an  establishment  on  to  his  own 
shoulders.  I  am  no  pessimist  who  votes  life  to  be  a  failure,  nor  would 
I  for  one  moment  say  anything  to  discourage  the  hundreds  of  young 
men  who  are  to-day  working  on  to  the  goal  of  headship ;  rather  I 
would  say,  Go  on,  and  win.  But  I  have  never  yet  met  with  a 
difficulty  that  is  not  made  easier  by  probing  to  the  bottom  and  finding 
out  exactly  how  one  stands.  It  is  all  very  well  to  float  with  tho  tide 
if  you  are  quite  sure  that  it  is  flowing  in  the  direction  whither  you 
would  go,  but  if  it  is  full  of  whirls  and  eddies  which  lead  apparently 
nowhere,  it  is  better  to  steer  some  definite  course,  even  though  the 
progress  be  slower. 
Taken  altogether  the  life  of  a  probationer  is  far  from  an  unpleasant 
one,  no  matter  how  he  starts.  He  may  drift  into  the  garden  as  stoke¬ 
hole  boy,  and  if  he  prove  himself  efficient  at  that  it  is  a  proud  moment 
for  him  when  he  is  promoted  to  the  houses  and  a  charge  is  allotted  to 
him.  There,  if  he  has  a  love  for  gardening,  there  is  enough  to  make 
life  interesting,  and  after  staying  the  orthodox  two  or  three  years  he 
moves  on  to  extend  his  knowledge  and  experience  elsewhere.  Lite 
goes  on  pleasantly  enough  during  these  transitory  years,  for  the  con¬ 
summation  ot  hope  is  yet  in  the  future,  and  our  young  man  feels  not 
the  pressure  of  competition. 
The  years  when  a  gardener  has  a  chance  of  establishing  himself  are 
short  and  fleeting.  The  youthful  would-be-head  does  not  often  impress 
employers  favourably  when  he  has  to  take  his  chance  against  older 
men,  and  yet  when  the  meridian  is  passed,  and  the  downward  grade 
has  commenced,  the  chances  are  even  less  in  his  favour.  In  spite  of 
the  incessant  cry  of  the  hour,  that  this  is  the  age  of  young  men,  it 
does  not  appear  to  have  reached  the  ranks  of  gardeners,  as  it  is  a  rare 
instance  when  you  hear  of  a  man  under  thirty  being  appointed  to  the 
charge  of  a  fair  sized  and  moderately  paid  establishment.  Only  run 
your  eye  down  the  advertisement  columns  of  any  of  the  leading  horti¬ 
cultural  organs,  and  the  names  will  be  seen  of  many  who  are  realising 
the  difficulty  of  crossing  the  line,  and  there  are  scores  more  in  the  same 
position  who  have  not  sufficient  faith  in  the  results  to  advertise,  t  hey 
are  simply  waiting  and  hoping  that  something  may  turn  up.  It  is  a 
commonly  cherished  idea  among  gardeners  that  the  spring  is  the  best 
time  for  openings  ;  but  the  spring  has  changed  to  summer,  and  the 
names  are  still  appearing,  and  I  am  afraid  there  are  many  unsuited. 
And  why  is  there  such  difficulty  for  the  foreman  or  under  gardener 
to  obtain  his  first  head  place  ?  Because  the  occupation  is  overcrowded, 
perhaps  someone  will  answer.  Quite  so;  and  also  because  employers 
have  a  habit  of  passing  by  the  young  man  in  favour  of  the  one  who 
“  has  had  experience  as  head,”  and  there  is  no  lack  of  the  latter  in 
search  of  situations.  There  is  no  doubt  this  is  a  drawback  to  the 
young  man  making  his  first  effort.  He  may  have  excellent  credentials 
and  long  experience  to  recommend  him,  but  hitherto  he  has  been  a 
subordinate  without  sole  responsibility,  and  the  long  and  short  of  it  is 
employers  are  afraid  to  trust  him.  Again,  tho  usual  step  is  from  fore- 
manship  in  a  large  establishment  to  that  of  head  in  one  much  less 
pretentious,  the  owner  of  which  often  gets  an  idea  that  a  man  who  has 
been  used  to  the  routine  of  a  .large  place  is  not  the  one  to  meet  with 
his  requirements,  and  in  thi3  respect  the  young  man  who  is  anxious 
to  settle  meets  obstacles  which  tend  to  dishearten. 
Yet  in  spite  of  it  all  he  gets  on  if  he  is  made  of  the  right  stuff ; 
sooner  or  later  Dame  Fortune  smiles  on  him,  and  then  comes  the 
trying  ordeal,  for  the  way  in  which  a  man  conducts  his  first  charge 
generally  has  important  bearing  on  his  future  career.  He  finds  him¬ 
self  playing  a  new  part  in  the  drama,  with  a  hundred  duties  to 
perform  which  he  has  never  known  before ;  he  has  to  work  on  his 
own  initiative,  and  shoulder  the  responsibility.  He  learns  that  not 
only  has  he  an  employer  to  please,  but  he  must  steer  a  cleat  course 
through  the  numerous  shoals  that  are  well  known  to  every  gentle- 
