346 
■  V  r 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
October  8.  )tS6, 
reason  for  burning  ;  but  in  the  state  of  quicklime  it  acts  with 
much  greater  rapidity  than  mild  lime.  When  first  applied  it  at 
onc6  combinei  with  any  free  acid  it  may  find.  The  acid  thus 
neutralised  ii  in  a  sense  removed  out  of  the  way,  and  the  oxygen 
of  the  air  reaches  undecayed  organic  matter,  and  causes  its  more 
rapid  decay  and  consequent  liberation  of  the  plant  food  it  contains. 
Humic,  carbonic,  or  nitric  acids  preserve  organic  matter  from 
waste,  and  hence  such  organic  matter  in  soils  deficient  in  salifiable 
bases  become  plant  food  very  slowly.  But  when  lime,  especially 
quicklime,  is  applied,  these  acids  at  once  become  calcic  salts,  and 
the  work  of  food- preparation  goes  on  rapidly.  ^  Not  only  so,  but 
sour  soils  are  at  once  sweetened,  heavy  soils  lightened,  warmed, 
and  made  earlier.  It  is  even  said  to  materially  forward  the  braird¬ 
ing  of  seeds,  but  whether  wholly  by  direct  action  on  the  seeds 
themselves,  such  as  removing  the  carbonic  dioxide,  or  by  providing 
them  with  a  freer,  drier,  sweeter,  warmer  medium  is  not  clear  ; 
probably  in  both  ways.  .  . 
The  action  of  marl,  chalk,  or  mild  lime  is  very  similar,  only 
slower.  Mild  lime  does  not  act  with  the  same  energy  in  organic 
compounds  as  caustic  lime  ;  hence  it  is  more  suitable  for  soils  poor 
in  humus.  Caustic  lime,  by  acting  rapidly  on  humus  and  other 
vegetable  remains,  may  with  great  advantage  be  applied  to  old 
garden  soil  rich  in  black  mould.  Such  contains  much  plant  food 
in  an  unavailable  condition.  The  application  of  lime  liberates  it, 
and  enables  the  operator  to  do  without  manure  of  any  other  kind 
for  a  time,  while  at  the  same  time  the  soil  is  improved  otherwise  ; 
but  on  very  light  soils,  or  on  virgin  loams  in  which  humus  is  not 
abundantly  present,  quicklime  should  not  be  applied,  or  only 
sparingly,  and  along  with  plenty  of  ordinary  manure,  otherwise  the 
humus  will  be  dissipated,  which  is  what  should  be  guarded  against, 
as  the  presence  of  a  certain  amount  of  humus  is  necessary  for 
fertility.  Heavy  clays  are  much  improved  by  quicklime.  It 
curdles  the  clay  and  renders  it  free  and  open.  On  sour  bog  land 
it  often  works  little  short  of  miracles.  On  these  and  also  on  light 
sands  and  gravels  a  dressing  will  cause  white  Clover  to  appear, 
when  sowing  the  seeds  would  not !  This  would  indicate  that 
on  such  soils  it  might  prove  beneficial  to  Peas  and  Beans. — A.  H. 
MEMORIES  AND  MORALS  OF  BOTHYDOM. 
{Concluded  from  page  296.) 
It  is  now — in  stepping  over  the  frontiers  of  bothydom — that  our 
young  traveller,  if  his  journey  has  been  a  pleasant  and  profitable 
one,  will  make  his  final  adieu  with  just  a  shadow  of  regret.  Eager 
as  may  have  been  the  desire  to  escape  from  it  the  horizon  now  lifts, 
and  responsibility  dawns  upon  his  view.  Bothy  teaching  is  the 
foundation  stone,  if  properly  laid,  upon  which  the  successful 
career  is  to  be  built.  We  leave  the  little  kingdom,  probably,  with 
a  high  character  for  general  knowledge  of  the  art,  perhaps  the 
highest  possible  consistent  with  the  few  short  years  entailed  ;  but 
it  is  here  a  stronger  vision  perceives  the  infinite  ocean  of  knowledge 
^head — infinite,  though  restricted  to  our  own  channel  of  work. 
Looking  as  tar  as  we  can,  and  seeing  farther  now  than  we  have 
^ver  seen  before,  it  is  rather  in  a  spirit  of  humility  than  with  pride 
and  pomp  of  the  new  position  our  young  “  head  ”  enters  the 
gardener’s  house.  Fame  and  honours  may  be  his  in  the  years 
to  come,  or  they  may  not,  but  duty  is  for  all  with  its  certain 
reward. 
Supposing  you  to  ask  what  is  the  most  useful,  the  most  helpful 
thing  to  a  young  man  at  this  stage,  in  addition  to  the  constituents 
of  an  excellent  general  character,  I  should  say  it  is  adaptability  to 
circumstances  ;  and  could  you  analyse  the  character  of  any  of  our 
truly  successful  men  you  would,  I  think,  find  a  large  percentage  of 
this  virtue  revealed.  Especially  is  this  necesiary  to  one  taking  up 
the  position  of  head  gardener,  nor  is  it  wanting  with  othera  who  in 
various  capacities  are  public  aervants.  Many  personal  sacrifices 
have  to  be  made — must  be  made.  Many  a  bothy  lad’s  “  Oh  !  you 
shall  see  what  I  will  do  when  I’m  a  head  gardener  ”  means,  in  that 
sense,  that  we  shall  not  see  it  if  reason  rules  rather  than  inclination. 
Self-control — self-control  (it  ought  to  be  printed  in  letters  of  gold) 
will  fit  a  man  to  serve  and  to  rule,  and  his  service  and  his  govern¬ 
ment  will  be  marked  by  those  high  principles  which  confer  dignity 
and  entail  respect. 
One  could  hardly  over-estimate  the  importance  of  the  first  three 
nr  four  years  to  a  young  head  gardener,  and  there  are,  probably, 
few  of  them  who  are  not  duly  conscious  of  it.  The  mind  is 
cast  in  so  many  moulds  that  it  would  not  be  prudent,  if  possible, 
to  generalise  its  character.  If  variety  is  charming,  then  indi¬ 
viduality  is  the  charm  of  life.  Some  have  that  happy  tact  of 
pursuing  the  path  of  duty  totally  oblivious  of  what  the  world  says, 
and  “  Those  who  are  indifferent  to  public  opinion  are  proof  against 
its  stings.”  Others  hear  and  feel,  and  take  it  as  a  tonic  to  brace 
them  up  in  the  battle  of  life  ;  but  to  vdry  many  indeed  it  is  the 
drop  of  poison  in  the  cup  which  they  drain  to  the  dregs.  Every 
young  “  head  ”  is  anointed  with  more  or  less  criticism  ;  it  is  his 
baptism  into  the  onerous  post,  a  penalty  of  the  new  position.  If 
we  could  apply  unto  ourselves  some  of  that  earlier  experience 
of  our  great  statesmen — the  late  Lord  Beaconsfield,  for  instance— 
and  notice  how  the  dehilt  was  made  under  a  storm  of  hostile 
criticism,  and  note  the  unflinching  courage  with  which  it  wai  met, 
stimulating  to  the  highest  endeavours  where  its  object  was  to  crush, 
and  apply  this  moral  to  our  humbler,  quieter  lives,  then  surely  will 
the  result  be  “  Success.”  You  may  question  the  relevancy  of  these 
morals  to  a  gardener’s  life,  but  they  are  the  essence  of  memories 
of  the  past — my  past,  which,  more  than  probably,  will,  in  some 
measure,  be  the  experience  awaiting  not  a  few  others. 
Good  William  of  Wykeham  said,  “  Manner  makyth  man.”  In 
iti  broad  application  this  text  would  furnish  many  a  sermon  ;  but 
limited  to  the  courtesies  of  life,  which  possibly  comprehend  the 
great  bishop's  moral,  it  is  well  worthy  of  our  present  attention. 
Hitherto  the  “  head  ”  has  acted  as  a  buffer  between  us  and  our 
patrons.  From  what  I  have  seen  in  bothydom  there  has  generally 
been  some  little  anxiety  on  the  part  of  masters  who  serve  families 
of  high  social  rank  that  no  breach  of  etiquette  should  be  com¬ 
mitted  ;  so  much  so,  in  one  particular  instance,  that  it  became  to 
us — of  the  bothy — a  kind  of  unwritten  law  that  on  the  approach  of 
any  members  of  the  family  we  should  run,  and  I  may  add  that 
upon  special  occasions  orders  were  not  wanting  for  ui  to  clean  up 
our  houses  and  clear  out  by  a  given  time.  More  than  one  peculiar 
incident  could  be  given  resulting  from  these  feelings,  which  were 
certainly  wrong,  although  we  were  not  altogether  to  blame  for 
them. 
One  instance,  ludicrous  as  it  appears  now,  had  its  painful  side 
then,  and  pointed  a  moral  never  to  be  forgotten.  We  were  % 
noisy  crew  of  at  least  a  dozen,  returning  from  the  estate  pay  office, 
when  we  were  pleasantly  accosted  by  a  plainly  dressed  lady,  who 
was  answered,  1  am  ashamed  to  say,  in  not  only  a  brusque,  but  the 
curtest  manner  possible — in  fact,  ordinary  civility  was  wanting. 
Why?  maybe  asked.  I  cannot  answer  it,  for  I  am  unable  to 
define  those  peculiar  feelings  of  shyness,  which  with  children,  for 
instance,  when  spoken  to,  causes  them  to  open  their  mouths  and 
stop  them  with  their  finger.  We,  indeed,  were  not  dumb,  but  shy, 
I  suppose,  from  some  faint  suspicion  of  the  rank  of  oar  interrogator. 
The  short  interview  ended  in  a  veritable  stampede  to  our  city  of 
refuge — the  bothy,  a  case  of  same  qui  pent,  and  we  had  no  sooner 
gained  it  than  a  comrade,  who  knew  more  than  we  did  and  had 
run  another  way,  told  us  it  was  the  Duchess  of  - ,  and  that 
we  might  “  look  out.”  Well,  the  sequel  was — she  forgave  but  she 
never  forgot,  as  I  have  too  good  cause  to  remember,  being  told  by 
this  lady  afterwards  that  the  young  men  of  -  gardens  were 
“  the  most  uncouth  and  ill-behaved  she  had  ever  met.”  Perhaps, 
happily  for  me,  circumstances  were  remembered  better  than  faces, 
but  I,  nearly  the  oldest  if  not  the  biggest  bear  of  the  lot,  felt  bad 
at  the  truth.  Had  this  lady  have  said,  at  the  time,  as  much  to  our 
chief  we  might  indeed  have  looked  out ;  as  it  was  I  looked  in,  and 
it  was  a  lesson  for  life. 
This  is  a  subject  I  have  broached  before,  but  neither  talking 
nor  writing  can  define  those  subtle  distinctions  which  divide  civility 
from  servility,  good  manners  from  bad,  for  any  straining  for  effect 
may,  probably  will,  defeat  the  end.  Not  even  the  polished  Earl  of 
Chesterfield’s  advice  to  his  son  expounds  the  genuine  article,  for 
polish  is  but  superficial.  True  politeness  springs  from  a  deep- 
seated  desire  to  render  respect  and  honour  to  whom  it  is  due,  and 
it  is  due  in  degree  to  all  we  come  in  contact  with  ;  it  is  conveyed 
in  a  hundred  ways  that  words  cannot  teach,  and  in  its  bearing  upon 
our  lives  courtesy  may  be  defined  as  the  salt  of  life. 
It  is  a  common  thing,  and  a  right  and  proper  thing,  for  our 
young  “  head  ”  to  make  every  exertion  to  imprint  his  personality 
upon  his  new  charge.  Under  some  circumstances  special  facilities 
are  afforded  for  doing  so  ;  but  in  all  cases  the  anxiety  exists,  and 
in  some  it  is  carried  to  a  fault,  over-anxiety  defeating  its  object. 
A  cursory  glance  is,  mayhap,  sufficient  for  an  intelligent  “  head  ” 
to  roughly  outline  hit  plans — his  plans.  It  will,  I  think,  require 
but  little  reflection,  if  that  is  given,  to  acknowledge  that  it  is  the 
wishes,  the  wants,  the  plans  of  our  employers  that  should  have 
the  primary  consideration,  and  it  should  be  the  gardener’s  first 
duty  to  make  himself  acquainted  with  them.  His  prerogative  it 
is  to  study  the  material  he  has  to  work  with,  and  use  it  to  the  beat 
advantage.  This  in  itself  is  no  light  matter  when  transported  to 
fresh  fields  and  pastures  new.  Old  customs  are  new  to  him  ;  local 
conditions  are,  perhaps,  different  to  any  yet  experienced.  In 
hastening  slowly  to  make  your  mark  in  the  new  position,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  imply  the  advice  of  any  go-easy  methods,  but  con- 
scientioua  workmanship,  rather  than  the  more  showy  superficial 
efforts  of  impatience.  Still  achieving,  still  pursuing,  learn  to 
labour  and  to  wait.” 
It  may  or  may  not  be  expected  of  a  young  “  head  ”  that  he 
