June  18,  1896. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
569 
Perhaps  when,  if  ever  he  should,  rise  to  the  position  of  commanding  a 
garden  wherein  a  bothy  exists  for  the  young  men,  he  will  have  occasion 
to  study  their  benefit  on  a  scale  which  he  himself  suggests,  but  before  he 
does  so  he  will  probably  have  to  consult  his  employer.  I  have  had  to  do 
this,  and  have  not  always  received  the  reply  I  had  hoped  for. — 
Wiltshire  Gardener. 
AS  there  has  now  been  something  said,  and  ably  said,  upon  this 
question,  according  to  the  different  views  taken  of  it,  I  should  like  to 
again  approach  it  as  far  as  possible  from  neutral  ground.  The  ta»k  is 
not  an  easy  one.  Far  easier  is  it  to  ventilate  one’s  opinion,  be  that  pro 
or  con.,  than  to  eliminate  personal  feeling,  tending,  perhaps,  to  bias 
either  way,  and  view  things  as  they  are,  not  as  they  seem.  Here  I  may 
be  allowed  to  acknowledge  the  force  of  “  G.  H.  H.’s  ”  gently  persuasive 
pen,  almost  tempting  me  to  strike  off  into  the  anecdotal,  which  he  was 
good  enough  to  say  would  prove  interesting.  Whilst  venturing  to  think 
that  this  might  be  the  case,  and  not  wholly  irrelevant  to  the  subject 
under  discussion,  the  temptation  must  at  present  be  resisted.  He — 
“  G.  H.  K.” — concluded  from  a  previous  article  that  I  am  in  favour  of  the 
Saturday  half-holiday.  That  is  so  ;  and  whatever  thoughts  are 
expressed  here  upon  the  matter  let  it 
please  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  is  so  still. 
We  may  well  pause  on  the  threshold  of 
this  broad,  if  not  momentous,  question  to 
examine  its  principle,  for  even  an  unsound 
principle  may  have  an  unassailable  motive. 
It  is,  of  course,  the  “  hours,”  and  not  the 
“  habitations  ”  here  alluded  to.  The  latter 
may  be  dismissed,  for  where  unanimity 
reigns  argument  enters  not.  The  principle 
involved  is  one  so  far  reaching  that  any 
foreshortening  to  the  sole  objective  we 
have  in  view — young  gardeners — must  bar 
the  way  to  its  favourable  consideration. 
This  phase  has  been  shown  before;  yet 
must  it,  I  feel,  never  be  lost  sight  of. 
Taking  it  for  granted  that  the  balance  of 
opinion  admits  this  to  be  the  case,  then  we 
have,  whilst  enlarging  the  question,  a 
broader  basis  to  build  upon,  and  con¬ 
sequently  a  distribution  of  force  not  con¬ 
ducive  to  more  immediate  results.  Yet  it 
appears  to  me  to  be  the  soundest  principle 
of  construction,  yielding  the  greatest  good 
to  the  greatest  number.  In  many  places — 
demesnes  or  estates — so  comprehensive  a 
view  may  lead  to  a  postponement  of  the 
matter,  whereas  if  gardeners’  claims  are 
alone  brought  forward  the  invidious  com¬ 
parisons  arising  from  this  treatment  may 
do  worse,  resulting  in  either  its  total 
abandonment  or,  '  if  initiated,  ultimate 
failure. 
From  a  gardener’s  point  of  view  solely 
the  endeavour  may  be  made  to  see  the 
prospective  good  derivable  from  such  im¬ 
portant  concessions,  supposing  that  these 
were  more  or  less  generally  obtained. 
Allowing  that  our  young  men  will  be 
better  off,  it  is  but  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  eventually,  if  indirectly,  gardening 
itself  will  be  benefited  ;  but  will  this  be 
the  case,  and  what  conditions  of  life  have  produced  the  best  men  ? 
Biographical  sketches  of  our  prominent  gardeners  point  plainly, 
as  a  rule,  to  a  severely  practical  schooling,  to  hardships  endured  in 
early  life,  to  difficulties  overcome  by  persistent  perseverance,  in  short, 
by  that  burning  love  of  the  work  which  cannot  be  quenched  by  a  deluge 
of  disagreeables,  to  a  drilling  which  has  had  the  dual  result  of  placing 
the  best  men  in  the  front  rank,  and  of  weeding  out  the  weaker  brethren 
who  could  not  stand  fire. 
We  cannot  but  note  the  present  overcrowded  state  of  the  profession, 
and  relevant  to  this  phase  may  conclude  that  any  inducements  to 
augment  the  evil  are,  at  least,  undesirable.  We  know  that  the  liberty 
afforded  by  the  Saturday  half-holiday  in  a  well-managed  garden  will  be 
but  a  privilege  previously  earned  or  a  debt  to  be  quickly  cleared  off 
where  arrears  of  work  are  not  tolerated ;  yet  more  youthful  eyes  may 
overlook  this  ;  it  may  but  serve  as  a  lure  for  some  of  our  boys  to 
mistake  their  vocation  in  life  and  add  to  the  congestion.  Unpleasant 
as  this  view  of  the  matter  may  be,  who  will  say,  after  all  is  said,  but 
that  the  rfigime  of  those  old  Spartan  chiefs  we — old  boys — served  under 
in  a  state  of  bondage  was  not  a  capable  method  of  developing  whatever 
latent  good  we  were  possessed  of?  To  illustrate  this  a  personal 
reminiscence  may  be  given.  In  a  certain  garden  the  “habitation”  was 
good,  but  the  “hours”  were  long  and  grinding,  and  certainly  any 
sympathy  the  “head”  had  for  his  young  “hands”  was  effectually 
hidden  under  the  bushel  of  reserve.  Within  a  short  period  two  lads,  at 
least,  summarily  escaped  from  the  yoke,  were  frightened  from  gardening 
for  good  and  all,  one  eventually  becoming  a  china  merchant,  the  other 
a  tobacconist  (successful,  I  hope).  Another  came  on  a  Saturday 
night,  heard  some  tales  told  by  the  bothy  ingle  nook,  and  by  Monday 
morning  was  non  est,  probably  gardening  knew  him  no  more.  Of  the 
many  who  came  and  went  on  very  Bhort  notices  I  need  not  descant,  but 
of  the  comparative  few  who  came  and  put  their  shonlders  to  the  wheel 
more  pleasant  reflections  result.  That  garden  was  called  a  “  killing 
place,”  but  it  killed  nobody.  Our  chief  was  termed  a  “  Tartar,”  even 
worse,  but  he  proved  a  friend  to  those  lads  with  “  grit.” 
Now,  in  this  recent,  and  I  will  not  say  unreasonable,  agitation  there 
are  probably  some  few  old  boys,  like  myself,  who  momentarily  feel  that 
they  were  born  too  soon,  yet,  on  reflection,  l  do  not  know  that  it  is  so. 
We  know  how  quickly  the  bothy  bondage  passed  away,  and  passed  away 
for  ever.  We  survived  it.  Youth  is  wonderfully  elastic,  and  not  easily 
crushed  ;  but  I  am  sure  the  martial  discipline  wa9  never  meant  to  crush, 
it  was  intended  for  our  good  ;  and  to  conclude  this  phase  of  the  question 
I  must  confess  that  possible  benefits  to  gardening  through  concessions  to 
young  gardeners  are  not,  to  me,  clearly  defined  ;  it  is  a  point  upon  which 
difference  of  opinion  will  arise,  but  such  opinion  will,  I  trust,  be  derived 
from  a  comprehensive  view  neither  limited  to  time  or  place.  That  young 
meu  should  have  leisure  for  study  and  for  recreation  all  must  admit,  but 
I  have  yet  to  see  the  “  habitation  ”  so  bad  or  the  “  hours”  so  harassing 
as  to  preclude  a  youth  of  energy  from  the  former  and  finding  the  latter 
— his  recreation — in  the  doing.  William  Cobbett,  a  son  of  the  soil, 
acquired  the  French  language  by  the  flickering  light  of  a  camp  fire  in 
FIG,  98. — IRIS  ROBINSONIA. 
the  woods  of  North  America,  and,  moreover,  there  compiled  his  French 
grammar,  which,  as  a  student’s  manual,  is  not,  I  think,  even  now  excelled 
in  its  perspicuous  treatment. 
There  is  another  phase  of  the  subject  I  should  like  to  express  a 
thought  upon,  that  is  Sunday  duty.  Perhaps  the  hardest  and  longest 
hours  I  ever  spent  was  when  my  “  habitation  ”  was  the  bothy,  and  the 
“  Sunday  on  ”  brought  in  its  train  the  shading,  watering,  syringing,  and 
firing  of  four  men.  How  blessed  were  those  “Sundays  off,”  and  now, 
when  each  Sabbath  finds  me  free  as  air,  untrammelled  by  work  or 
anxiety,  do  thev  ever  seem  quite  so  enjoyable  as  those  “  Sundays  off”  of 
bothy  days  ?  No.  It  is  the  philosophy  of  life  that  the  contiguity  of 
evils  brings  out  so  contradistinctively  its  blessings.  Bear  this  in  mind, 
young  friends,  when  chafing  under  the  bothy  bonds. 
Respecting  the  payment  of  overtime,  it  is  perchance  a  good  thing  in 
its  way.  So  diverse  are  the  circumstances  of  gardens  and  gardeners  that 
even  all  rules  and  regulations  must  perforce  be  of  an  elasticity  to  suit 
them.  Generally  viewed,  I  fail  to  see  how  this  method  of  payment  for 
extra  (?)  duties  or  work  can  result  in  unqualified  good  any  more  than 
that  those  duties  or  work  can  be  confined  within  the  limits  of  stated 
periods.  There  are  few  gardens  in  which  times  of  pressure  have  not 
their  corresponding  periods  of  relief,  and  there  are  but  few  men  who 
rule  who  will  not  do  to  their  young  men  as  they  are  done  by.  The  over¬ 
time  payment  system  is  one  better  suited  to  the  labourer’s  department 
than  to  the  youth  who  is  daily  and  hourly  receiving  his  tuition — who 
aspires  to  a  good  position  in  after  life,  and  must  identify  himself  with 
the  best  interests  of  his  work  unmeasured  by  pecuniary  reward. 
This  view  from  neutral  ground  has,  I  fear,  unwarrantably  encroached 
on  space ;  moreover,  young  readers  will  ere  this  have,  probably, 
concluded  that  any  previous  personal  profession  of  favouring  the 
Saturday  half-holiday  is  pretty  well  stultified  by  it.  Again  may  I 
