April  17,  1902. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTIGULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
335 
♦Cyclamen,  they  return  home  and  give  the  gardener  a  lively  time  ! 
“Why  can’t  ve  have  these  in  our  garden .P”  is  the  usual  ques¬ 
tion,  quite  regardless  of  time,  place,  and  means,  all  important 
■factors  in  their  production. 
Now,  even  a  small  garden  may  have  some  one  or  two  crops,  or 
^features  of  extra  merit,  but  no  one  garden  that  I  know  of — 
however  large  and  well  supported  by  means  and  money — can 
.have  everything. 
The  gardeners  of  noblemen  and  others  who  possess  several 
..gardens  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  know  well  enough  that 
one  garden  will  produce  some  crops  of  fruit,  vegetables,  or  flowers 
better  than  another,  and  that  everything  depends  as  much,  even 
-if  not  more,  on  soil,  climate,  aspect,  shelter,  or  elevation,  as  it 
does  upon  methods  of  cultivation.  Apart,  however,  from  em- 
.ployers  who  either  know,  or  don’t  know,  there  is  often  a  plurality 
of  employers  to  be  dealt  with,  each  having  a  different  opinion. 
W  e  are  told  by  the  poet  that  “  Birds  in  their  little  nests  agree,” 
but  that  does  not  always  apply  to  the  employer,  his  lady  wife  or 
■daughters,  or  the  steward,  or  ageirt,  or  even  to  her  ungracious 
majesty — the  cook !  It  is  written  that  “  in  a  multitude  of 
councillors  there  is  wisdom,”  but  the  gardener  does  not  often 
find  it  so,  and  is  more  inclined  to  endorse  another  proverb,  which 
says  that  “  too  many  cooks  spoil  the  broth.”  Really  and  truly,  a 
gardener  w’ho  gets  amongst  people  at  cross  purposes  requires  a 
good  deal  of  balance  and  backbone,  and  a  good  temper  to  boot,  in 
order  to  keep  things  going  peaceably.  Some  gardeners  I  know  do 
their  duty,  under  irritating  difficulties  of  this  kind,  so  well  that 
Alley  are  really  worthy  of  promotion  into  the  diplomatic  service  of 
their  country.  The  fact  is  that  many  gardeners  show  quite  as 
much  tact  and  ability  in  managing  discordant  people  as  they  do  in 
Abe  culture  of  good  fruits  and  flowers.  I  am  a  great  admirer  and 
sympathiser  with  the  present  and  the  future  lady  gardeners,  but 
I  pity  them,  when  I  look  round  and  see  what  multifarious  duties 
many  “mere  man”  gardeners  have  to  perform.  Managing  a 
.-garden  and  the  things  it  contains  is  often  a  mere  fraction  of  what 
the  so-called  gardener  has  to  do.  He  is  often  a  bailiff,  and  sees  to 
Abe  home  farm  and  the  cattle,  or  at  times  acts  as  forester,  and 
looks  after  the  wmods  and  the  game,  or  halfe  to  keep  an  eye  on  the 
river  and  deter  poachers  from  lifting  the  salmon.  He  must  be  a 
cattle  doctor,  and  an  engineer  at  times,  levelling,  draining, 
Aaking  out  quantities  and  calculating  the  cost  of  work.  I  know 
at  least  two  most  able  gardeners  near  Dublin,  who  not  onl.v 
manage  good  gardens  and  the  home  farmSj  but  also'  run  the 
electric  light  plant,  and  very  often  adding  with  their  own  hands 
Alie  necessary  connections  and  minor  repairs. 
So  you  see,  the  lady  gardener  will  have  to  learn  and  do  a  good 
■deal  more  than  mere  garden  craft,  or  work  “  amongst  the  nowers,” 
if  she  is  to  succeed ;  for  a  gardener’s  work  is  practically  unlimited, 
and  he  has  to  manage  men  and  women,  and  cattle  or  horses,  and 
macliinery,  and  many  other  things  of  importance,  as  well  as  the 
.garden  alone.  A  gardener  has  tO'  learn  many  things,  but  of  all 
things  he  should  know  something  of  logic,  or  the  science  of  clear 
and  accui’ate  thought.  I  especially  recommend  to  the  rising  race 
of  young  gardeners  the  study  of  Professor  Jevons’  “Primer  of 
Logic,”  and  his  companion  volume  on  “Political  Economy,”  both 
jmblished  at  a  shilling  each,  and  really  invaluable  to  a  young  man. 
To  these  may  be  added  Mr.  John  Wright’s  companion  volume, 
“  A  Primer  of  Horticulture,”  which  deals  with  the  first  principles 
of  gardening  in  a  clear  and  efficient  manner.  Every  gardener 
■should  also  learn  to  draw  anything  to  scale,  and  to  make  a  sketch 
of  things  he  really  wishes  to  remember.  To-  be  able  to  show 
things  by  means  of  a  rough  sketch,  or  by  a  working  drawn  to 
measurement,  is  often  a  great  gain. 
Then  again,  every  gardener  should  have  some  little  speciality 
of  his  own  amongst  plants— something  different  and  distinct  from 
Ahat  in  other  gardens.  He  should  take  up  some  plant,  or  group 
of  plants,  something  preferably  not  attempted  before,  and  try  to 
improve  it  either  for  food  or  for  that  delightful  mental  food  we 
■call  beauty.  He  should  select,  cross-fertilise,  or  hybridise  it  and 
so  do  his  best  to  improve  it  in  every  possible  way.  Look  whac. 
Burpee  and  Eokford  have  done  for  the  Sweet  Pea,  or  Mr.  Engle- 
heart  and  others  for  the  Narcissus,  and  the  Laxton’s,  father  and 
sons,  for  the  culinary  Pea  and  for  the  Strawberry  ;  or,  to  come 
nearer  home,  at  what  Mr.  Campbell,  of  St.  Anne’s,  Clontarf  (seat 
of  Lord  Ardilaun),  has  done  for  the  Chinese'  Primrose,  the 
.Japanese  Anemone,  the  Persian  Cyclamen,  or  the  Carnation. 
Only  want  anything  and  work  for  it,  and  in  the  end  you’re  sure 
to  gain  your  heart’s  desire.  ' 
There  is  an  old  story  of  a  clever  old  gardener  and  florist,  who, 
when  asked  as  to  how  he  grew  his  splendid  productions,  used  to 
say  ;  “  Well !  you  see  in  gardening  it’s  like  this,  everytliing  we  does 
depends  upon  something  else,  and  we  acts  according.”  And  that 
is  perfectly  true.  Sir  Michael  Foster,  M.P.  for  the  London 
Eniversity,  is  a  devoted  amateur  gardener  and  hybridist,  and 
his  maxim  is,  “  All  knowledge  is  good  in  science  or  gardening  if 
rightly  applied,  but  no  knowledge  is  good  if  wrongly  used.” 
“Knowledge  is  power” — knowledge  is  a  pleasure,  and  it  may  be 
profitable  as  well  if  rightly  applied  in  all  our  horticultural 
operations. 
To  young  gardeners  I  would  especially  say.  Don’t  let  long 
■words  baffle  you;  this  is  an  age  when  old  things  are  often  sup¬ 
posed  to  be  dignified  by  new  names.  Science  is  nothing  more  than 
accurate  knowledge,  no  matter  how  acquired.  Biology  is  merely 
the  truth  about  the  life  of  plants  and  animals  and  their  action 
and  reaction  upon  each  other,  and  even  the  great  catchword  of 
our  day.  Evolution,  is  nothing  more  than  the  way  in  which 
things  living  adapt  or  modify  themselves  so  as  to-  take  advantage 
of  things  of  the  past  and  fit  themselves  for  their  present  sur¬ 
roundings  or  environments.  We  are  all  alike  to-day  in  striving 
for  accurate  knowledge  or  the  simple  truth  about  things  living 
or  dead.  In  gardening  as  in  farming,  science  has  become  like  a 
dynamo — the  motive  power.  No  gardener  nowadays  can  afford 
to  proceed  on  the  old  rule  of  thumb  or  stereotyped  methods.  He 
need  not  be  a  scientist  himself,  but  he  must  be  able  to  avail 
himself  of  the  practical  results  obtained  by  the  researches  of  tl  e 
botanist,  the  chemist,  the  meteorologist,  the  entomologist,  and 
others  whose  inquiries  have  a  direct,  bearing  on  the  processes  and 
diseases  of  plant  life.  The  successful  gardener,  like  the  success¬ 
ful  doctor,  is  he  who  is  best  able  to  apply  to  his  own  business  the 
discoveries  that  are  being  made  by  the  great  army  of  accurate 
obseiwers  who  are  labouring  on  his  behalf. 
In  a  former  part  of  this  paper  I  have  shown  that  in  a  pecuniary 
sense,  isolation,  or  a  place  in  the  country,  may  be  beneficial  to 
the  gardener,  but  he  gains  by  isolation  in  other  ways — more 
especially  is  he  free  from  the  constant  dropping  in  of  visitors 
— often  absolute  strangers — who  want  to  cross-question  him  as 
to  some  of  his  products  of  wliich  they  have  read  “  in  the  papers.’” 
Sometimes  they  ask  the  name  of  a  plant  they  saw  at  so-and-so’s, 
which  “  grows  2ft  in  height,  with  green  leaves,  and  bears  bright 
red  flowers.”  It  is  astonishing  how  anxious  are  the  laity  amongst 
gardeners — the  amateurs — “  they  want  to  know  you  know,”  and 
seem  to  think  that  eveiy  professional  gardener  must  possess  some 
secret,  like  the  “wishing  lamp”  or  the  “magic  carpet”  of  the 
“  Arabian  Nights,”  with  which  they  could  work  wonders  in  their 
gardens  if  it  were  only  lent  to  them.  But  to  successful  gardening 
there  is  no  royal  road,  and  the  onlj^  secrets  are  close  observation 
and  practical  experience.  I  don’t  believe  in  chance  or  what  is 
called  “  good  luck ;  ”  there  is  a  reason  for  all  things,  even  though 
it  may  be  unknown  or  invisible  to  us  at  the  time.  And  yet  there 
seems  to  be  better  fortune  for  some  gardeners  than  for  others. 
Some  gardeners  spend  a  large  part  of  their  lifetime  “  out  of 
place,”  while  others  are  rarely  or  never  out  of  a  .situation.  I 
often  pity  our  good  friends,  the  nurserymen,  who  play  a  game 
like  chess  with  human  pawns.  I  mean  those  Avho  keep  a,  register 
of  good  gardeners,  and  do  their  best  to  get  a  good  square  peg 
into  a  good  .square  hole.  Now  and  then,  by  seeming  chance,  a 
“round”  peg  gets  into  a  “square”  hole,  or  vice  versa,  but  all 
of  us  must  admire,  and  feel  grateful  to  those  kind  people  who  do 
their  best  to  supply  good  places  to  good  men.  But  do  what  they 
may,  there  are  still  places  vacant,  and  still  gardeners  out  of 
place,  and  I  would  suggest  to-night  that  a  registry  for  duly 
accredited  gardeners  should  be  kept  and  worked  by  this  associa¬ 
tion,  for  all  men  who  are  Avell  recommended,  but  especially,  of 
course,  for  our  own  members. 
One  of  the  greatest  modern  problems  is  the  cheap  and  rapid 
di.stribution  of  things,  including  both  skilled  labour,  and  garden 
or  other  products- — there  is  ample  produce,  but  we  must  be  con¬ 
tinually  raising  our  cjuality  standards,  and  at  the  same  time  im¬ 
prove  our  means  of  cheap  and  rairid  communication.  The 
organisation  and  registration  of  labour  is  especially  neces.sary  for 
gardeners,  since  so  many  of  them  are  isolated  that  combination  is 
not  easy.  I  do  not  propose  anything  like  a  trade’s  union,  but 
merely  a  central  combination  and  a  system  of  co-operation  for 
their  mutual  good.  It  would  well  repay  the  gardeners  of  Ireland 
to  combine>  and  join  this  association,  and  to  subscribe  sufficient 
to  pay  a  registration  secretary,  who  would  devote  his  time  e,n;l 
ability  to  look  after  their  best  interests  in  every  possible  way. 
But  when  all  is  said  and  done,  the  gardener  has  really  much  to 
be  thankful  for.  I  believe,  with  Ruskin  and  Kropotkin,  that 
you  can’t  make  the  best  and  most  beautiful  of  things  in  a  smoky 
town — and  to  the  gardener  this  must  always  be  impossible.  Every 
good  gardener  takes  a  great  and  just  pride  in  his  work,  and  in 
most  cases  he  ought  to  feel  grateful  that  his  rvork  is  carried  on 
in  pleasant  places,  and  amid  healthy  and  beautiful  surrouridiugs. 
His  work  is  his  very  own,  and  he  is  right  to  feel  proud  of  it. 
In  the  making  of  many  things,  the  “  division  of  labour”  prin¬ 
ciples  of  Aclam  Smith,  robs  the  workman  of  any  consolation  or 
proper  pride  in  Iris  work.  He  is  not  an  individual,  but  merely 
part  of  a  system,  or  of  a  machine.  He  may  be  paid  good  wages 
for  making  the  tenth  paiA  of  a  needle,  the  fifteenth  part  .f  a 
bicycle,  a  watch,  or  a  sewing  machine,  but  some  large  firm  gets 
“  most  ”  of  tlie  profit  and  “  all  ”  the  credit  of  having  made  a 
good  thing.  This  is  modem  industrial  slavery,  from  which  ihe 
gardener  is  for  the  most  part  free.  Now  that  we  have  an 
Agricultural  and  Teclmical  Department  here  in  Ireland,  I  hope 
that  amongst  other  things  it  will  do  much  to  avoid  too  much 
centralisation  of  industries  in  towns,  and  revive  local  and  village 
industries,  and  that  the  old  time  emulation  in  good  work  will  be 
re-establishecl,  on  or  in  connection  with  the  land  in  this  country. 
The  revival  of  village  industries  and  the  cheapening  of  railway 
and  other  transit  charges  for  raw  materials  and  finished  products, 
■  ht,  I  belieye,  not  only  relieve  the  congestion  of  half  our  totallv 
