222 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
September  3,  1896, 
certain  measure  was  “  impossible  ”  said,  “  Impossible  ?  I  trample 
upon  impossibilities.” 
There  are,  undoubtedly,  some  of  our  boys  in  the  bothy  who 
have  mistaken  their  vocation  in  life,  and  to  such  anything  advanced 
here  will  have  but  little  meaning.  This  is  right  enough.  These 
remarks  are  not  for  them.  No  gardener  would  wish  to  help  them 
further  in  what  must  be  the  greatest  delusion  of  all,  or  attempt  to 
mould  a  character  which  will  not  keep  shape.  They  do  not  like 
their  work,  and  so  far  as  bothy  life  is  concerned  they  mean  to  have 
a  “good  time,”  endeavouring  to  escape  from  orthodox  physical  and 
mental  work  at  each  and  every  opportunity.  Their  influence  is 
contagious,  and  consequently  mischievous  ;  and  where  its  presence 
is  felt  it  would  be  better  for  all  if  it  was  peremptorily  rectified  by 
the  “  head  ”  than  allowed  to  continue. 
Unfortunately,  many  of  us  have  had  experience  of  bullying  in 
our  school  days,  and  though  this  may  not  take  the  more  active  form 
of  terrorism  in  the  bothy,  its  malignant  influence  is  not  less 
apparent.  For  two  years  I  lived  under  its  politest  form,  but  little 
short  of  what  is  now  termed  boycotting,  and  although  no  principles 
were  sacrificed,  for  that  would  mean  the  inevitable  breakdown  to 
all,  it  was  not  good  to  be,  and  to  feel,  alone.  One  alone,  without 
even  a  few  words  of  encouragement  from  my  master,  which  would 
have  considerably  altered  matters.  However,  all  things  come  to 
those  who  wait,  and,  at  the  expiration  of  two  years,  on  leaving,  due 
recognition  came.  I  left  that  bothy  without  regret,  but  conscious 
of  having  gained  a  victory.  Our  master  was  a  good  master,  a 
clever  gardener,  never  interfering  in  non-working  hours,  or  placing 
a  foot  within  the  sacred  precincts  of  bothydom.  That  was  the  one 
thing  needful. 
Two  years  is,  I  think,  the  minimum  time  a  lad  should  serve  in 
the  one  situation,  and,  also,  that  under  ordinary  circumstances  a 
much  longer  term  is  not  advisable.  Undoubtedly  there  are  some 
few  large  establishments  in  which  one  may  be  shifted  from  depart¬ 
ment  to  department  advantageously,  yet  a  keenly  observant  youth 
will  not  fail  to  note  all  that  is  going  on  around  him,  and  it  is  good 
while  the  opportunity  occurs  to  see  as  much  of  the  world  and  other 
men’s  methods  as  possible.  A  rolling  stone,  too,  will  acquire  a 
certain  amount  of  polish  in  its  journeyings,  and,  I  think,  the  youth 
who  is  various-placed  in  widely  divergent  localities  will  be  least 
disposed  to  adopt  the  dialect  of  any  one  of  them  ;  moreover,  he 
will  tone  down  his  own  provincialism  which  may  exist  in  spite  of 
school  grammar.  Admittedly  it  is  a  small  matter,  one  which  may 
never  impress  him  as  of  any  importance,  but  it  must  have  some 
bearing  in  after  life  when  his  duties  lay  with  those  of  refined  and 
educated  tastes,  those  with  whom  he  will  have  to  come  in  contact 
and  be  to  some  extent  associated  with. 
The  greater  danger  lies,  perhaps,  in  becoming  an  annual, 
flitting  from  place  to  place,  therefore  I  would  lay  some  stress  on 
the  advisability  of  taking  two  years  as  a  minimum  for  our  pro¬ 
bationer  in  one  situation.  The  error  more  often  consists  of  staying 
too  short  than  too  long.  “  The  work  is  too  hard,”  “  The  hours 
are  too  long,”  are  excuses  that  serve  to  propel  an  erratic  youth 
from  place  to  place.  Take  the  hardest  place,  the  longest  hours, 
with  the  most  exacting  of  masters,  and  fairly  sum  up  the  amount 
of  leisure  a  two-years  tenancy  of  one  bothy  will  provide,  and  there 
may  be  less  endeavour  to  shunt  its  responsibility  on  to  such  poor 
lines  of  excuse. 
There  comes  a  time  in  the  lives  of  most  lads,  when  by  reason  of 
invidious  comparisons  being  made  by  them  with  youths  of  other 
professions,  they  are  apt  to  feel  a  little  contempt  for  their  calling. 
Greater  facility  is  afforded  for  this  in  the  vicinity  of  lar^e  towns. 
This  false  feeling  does  not  entirely  pr  ceed  from  the  young  men 
whom  it  direccly  concerns,  and  upon  whom  its  baneful  influence  is 
exerted.  Why  any  class  should  be  ashamed  of  its  calling  it  is 
not  easy  to  explain.  To  enable  one  to  do  so  it  would  be  necessary 
to  embrace  a  far  wider  social  field,  in  many  phases  of  which  it  is 
clearly  exemplified.  In  a  sparsely  populated  rural  district,  where 
no  sound  of  the  railway  whistle  was  ever  borne  over  the  breezy 
hills,  and  where  we  of  the  bothy  were  styled  by  the  simple-minded 
country  folk  “the  young  gentlemen  from  the  gardens,”  such 
thoughts,  I  know,  never  entered  our  heads ;  but  in  the  next  remove 
to  the  neighbourhood  of  a  large  manufacturing  centre,  where  we 
were  known  as  “  them  gardeners,”  with  a  derogatory  inflection  on 
the  simple  words,  the  case  was  entirely  different.  On  some  of  our 
most  promising  lads  this  had  a  deleterious  effect,  leading  them  into 
extravagance  of  manners  and  dress  in  their  desire  when  outside  the 
garden  walls  to  be  taken  for  something  else. 
One  lad  had,  somehow,  among  some  casual  acquaintances, 
managed  to  be  taken,  or  rather  mistaken,  for  a  bank  clerk,  and  I 
was  a  witness  to  his  mortification  when  some  of  his  quondam  friends 
on  viewing  the  gardens  found  him  the  spruce  and  dapper,  now 
dirty  and  dilapidated,  washing  pots.  Another,  who  was  supported 
in  his  extravagance  by  well-to-do  friends,  would  not  know  his  own 
comrades  when  walking  out  in  all  his  war-paint.  "What  a  petty, 
miserable  feeling  this  is  !  It  is  not  worthy  of  our  boys  and  their 
calling.  Young  subjects  of  bothydom,  have  nothing  to  do  with  this 
sham  ;  sham  from  head  to  foot  in  shoddy  garments  bedecked  in 
Brummagem  jewelry.  Be  real,  healthy  minded,  as  well  as  sound 
in  body.  Never  mind  pinning  on  the  cuffs,  with  other  discomforts, 
for  other  eyes  which  will  seldom  be  deceived.  If  you  must  have 
friends  outside,  and  they  will  not  take  you  as  you  are,  and  for  what 
you  are,  be  sure  they  are  friends  (?)  you  can  well  do  without. — 
An  Old  Bov. 
(To  be  continued.) 
A  FLORAL  FEAST. 
Such  a  title  as  the  above  sounds  a  trifle  presumptuoss,  and  savours 
somewhat  of  an  immense  flower  show  or  the  Floral  Hall  at  Covent 
Garden  on  a  market  morning.  But  it  is  with  neither  of  these  to  which 
the  following  notes  relate,  but  to  the  spectacle  provided  by  one  firm  of 
seed  merchants.  At  the  recent  Shrewsbury  fSte  one  house  brought  its 
own  tents,  three  in  all,  and  completely  filled  them  with  a  display  the 
magnitude  of  which  visitors  to  the  famous  gala  are  well  acquainted. 
To  the  horticultural  world  to  mention  the  name  of  Sutton  &  Sons  with 
reference  to  this  exhibit  is  now  a  superfluity,  for  it  is  to  their  astonishing 
enterprise  that  we  were  indebted  for  this  treat.  So  superb  were  the 
products  staged  that  it  was  considered  of  sufficient  interest  to  warrant  a 
special  visit  to  Reading  that  a  few  words  regarding  the  things  at  home 
might  be  placed  before  the  readers  of  the  Journal  of  Horticulture,  who 
are  ever  interested  in  the  very  much  up-to-date  doings  of  this  great 
house.  Editorial  permission  having  been  sought  and  obtained,  the 
journey  was  made  on  a  recent  day,  and  what  was  seen  and  something  of 
what  was  thought  is  detailed  in  the  subjoined  paragraphs. 
Before  getting  thorou|;hly  under  weigh  it  would  perhaps  be  advisable 
to  say  that  it  is  not  proposed  to  mention  in  detail  all  that  was  seen, 
for,  of  course,  hundreds  of  readers  will  have  been  to  see  the  stocks  for 
themselves,  and  will  thus  know  as  much  (probably  more)  about  them 
as  the  writer.  Nevertheless,  as  everyone  has  not  been,  because  every¬ 
one  does  not  do  that  which  he  ought  to  do,  the  attempt  will  be  made 
to  be  the  eyes  of  the  unfortunate  ones.  It  were  better,  however,  that 
all  should  see  the  beauty  of  the  display  themselves,  to  judge  with  their 
own  eyes,  and  though  it  may  be  somewhat  late  in  the  day  for  this  jear, 
they  can  make  a  mental  note  of  their  decided  intention  of  going  next 
season  if  all  is  well.  Perhaps  many  will  think  that  an  open  recom¬ 
mendation  to  Buttons’  would  not  be  appreciated  by  the  firm,  but  let 
them  not  be  mistaken,  for  the  hand  of  welcome  is  ever  extended  to  the 
gardener  and  lover  of  gardening  by  the  members  of  the  house  them¬ 
selves,  as  well  as  by  their  qualified  representatives.  If  the  visitor  be 
diffident  in  formulating  an  introduction,  he  can  adopt  that  of  the  scnbe, 
and  say  he  is  a  constant  reader  of  the  Journal,  and  it  will  amply  suffice, 
as  personal  experience  has  proved. 
At  the  outset  a  difficulty  is  met,  and  that  is  to  know  with  which  of 
the  flowers  to  deal  first.  There  are  Begonias  indoors  and  out  of  doors. 
Gloxinias,  with  various  flowers  in  the  nursery  ground  and  at  the  farm 
that  must  have  a  few  words.  Perhaps  no  better  course  can  be  adopted 
than  to  commence  with  the 
Begonias. 
These,  of  all  the  many  summer  flowers  at  the  Portland  Road 
Nurseries,  are  the  most  conspicuous.  Ere  the  door  of  a  h'  use  is  opened 
masses  of  crimson,  of  yellow,  of  scarlet,  of  white,  of  pink,  and  of  orange 
scarlet  greet  the  eye  and  enforce  close  inspection.  Under  the  guidance 
of  Mr.  Leonard  G.  Sutton,  the  chief  of  the  flower  seed  department,  we 
enter  the  house  at  once  and  find  the  display,  beautiful  as  it  was  from 
without,  intensified  when  within.  Briefly,  the  characteristics  of  the 
singles  (for  it  is  at  this  section  we  are  now  looking)  are  dwarfness  and 
sturdiness  of  habit,  handsome  leafage,  profuseness  of  flowering,  and  rich, 
clear,  decided  colours  in  the  blooms.  These  desirable  attributes  are  the 
fruits  of  the  incessant  course  of  hybridisation  to  which  the  plants  have 
been  subjected  for  a  number  of  years,  and  in  the  work  has  been  placed 
the  best  energies  of  men  of  the  ripest  experience,  and  the  goal  has  ever 
been  the  accentuation  of  good  points  and  the  total  elimination  of  bad 
ones.  The  summit  may  not  yet  have  been  reached,  at  any  rate  the  work 
still  goes  on,  and  only  the  hand  of  time  can  show  us  the  results. 
Of  the  si.x  colours  represented  in  this  house  it  would  be  difficult  to 
name  with  certainty  the  best.  In  each  the  flowers  stand  up  well  above 
the  foliage,  and  are  very  symmetrical,  and  of  great  substance.  The 
plants  are  in  5-inch  pots,  and  had  been  raised  from  seeds  sown  in 
February.  So  great  is  the  care  taken  in  saving  the  seeds  that  in  several 
beds  out  of  doors  in  which  the  plants  are  flowering  scarcely  a  “  rogue  ” 
is  to  be  seen,  though  absolutely  no  selection  has  been  made.  No 
higher  recommendation  of  a  strain  of  seeds  could  be  wished  forlihan 
this.  While  the  stock  which  proves  the  adaptability  to  pot  culture  of 
the  Reading  Begonias,  the  rich  display  in  the  outdoor  beds  tells  con¬ 
clusively  that  they  are  equally  suited  to  that  system  of  culture.  The 
condition  of  the  plants  as  regards  leafage  and  flowers  demonstrates  how 
thoroughly  conversant  are  the  growers  with  the  requirements  of  the 
plants. 
In  another  house  we  find  plants  of  the  same  strain,  but  in  this  case 
they  are  just  one  year  older.  The  flowers  of  almost  the  whole  of  these 
had  been  fertilised,  and  it  is  from  them  that  the  stock  of  seeds  will 
bo  saved.  Of  course  they  are  in  larger  pots  than  those  previously 
referred  to,  and  the  plants  are  of  greater  dimensions,  but  the  excellent 
characteristics  are  equally  as  marked  as  in  the  younger  ones*  Besides 
