454 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
May  22,  1902. 
Bothies^  Moral  Nuisances. 
Ho  !  ho !  ’tis  a  man  o’  Kent  who  speaks. — Anonymoug. 
The  modest  request  of  “  H.  R.,  Kent,”  in  the  circumstances 
and  limited  space  for  such  matters,  may  probably  be  better 
answered  by  asking  a  few  questions;  (1)  Is  the  bothy  a  place  in 
which  you  would  have  your  son  to  get  the  rudiments  of  his 
future  character  laid  down?  (2)  Could  you  ever  bring  yourself 
to  consider  the  bothy  your  home?  (3)  Have  you  had  the  mis¬ 
fortune  of  being  laid  low  on  the  inhospitable  bed  of  the  bothy? 
(4)  Did  you  not  consider  it  but  a  miserable  substitute  for  that 
other  thing  which  the  Briton  adores  next  to  his  God — “  Home, 
sweet  home”?  (5)  Is  it  not  selfish,  and  perhaps  cruel,  for  head 
gardeners  to  lend  their  influence  in  upholding  a  system  which, 
at  best,  is  but  a  miserable  apology  for  economy?  (6)  Why 
should  assistant  gardeners  not  take  their  stand  on  the  same 
platform  as  other  tradesmen,  and  not  be  trammelled  with 
emoluments  wdiich  but  ill  make  up,  as  alleged,  for  the  difference 
of  their  respective  salaries?  (7)  Do  you  consider  it  honest  to 
take  the  advantage  of  young  beardless  lads  for  the  gratification 
of  your  employer,  who  may  or  may  not  care  for  you  or  them 
more  than  to  see  that  his  place  is  well  kept  for  next  to  nothing? 
(8)  Do  you  believe  that  the  bothy  and  its  perquisites  fully  com¬ 
pensate  for  the  difference  of  salai’ies  of  gardeners  and  other 
skilled  labour?  (9)  Is  it  not  the  fact  that  the  intelligent  youkb 
who  previously  could  be  found  in  the  art  give  it  now  a  wide 
offing,  and  why  ?  And,  lastly,  I  think  if  these  questions  are 
honestly  considered,  there  shall  be  enough  reason  to  anathe¬ 
matise  the  bothy  a  “  moral  nuisance,”  without  invoking 
“  Crabbe  ”  to  go  into  the  interior  to  describe  what  exists  there. 
Possibly  you  may  be  aware  of  “  Cobbett’s  ”  estimation  of  the 
system  as  affecting  Scotland.  “Better,”  he  says,  “the  fire 
raisings  of  Kent  than  the  bothy  system  of  Scotland.”  This  is 
black  enougli,  I  admit,  but  wliile  the  fire  raisings  would  only  be 
temporary  he  could  see  the  baneful  effects  of  the  other  would 
be  indefinite. — C.  H.  S. 
Points  aBoat  Celery. 
The  very  able  article  on  the  above  by  your  correspondent 
Mr.  J.  Wright,  on  page  381,  May  1,  contains  a  paragraph  of 
very  great  importance  to  the  gardener  who  is  expected  to  have 
a  good  supply  of  Celery.  He  sa3's;  “  Bew’are  of  strong  doses 
of  liquid  manure,  as  this  is  a  prolific  cause  of  hollow,  pithy 
stems.”  This  advice,  no  doubt,  may  be  good  in  more  ways 
than  one,  but  to  my  mind  it  is  npt  sufficiently  clear.  I  do  not 
think  that  manure,  either  as  a  liquid  or  in  the  trenches,  has 
much  (if  anything)  to  do  with  this  great  fault  in  Celery 
grovdli.  If  that  were  so  I  should  not  have  much  to  fear,  not 
having  a  great  quantity  at  my  command.  However,  I  am  sure 
that  these  hollow  stems  are  not  always  caused  by  over-feeding. 
I  have  seen  Celery  grown  in  a  variety  of  ways,  and  my 
experience  differs  -  perhaps  from  a  few,  for  when  growing 
Celery  for  exhibition  (at  which  time  it  was  most  liberally 
treated)  we  had  less  of  these  hollow  stems  than  we  have  been 
having  since  the  trenches  have  only  received  a  third  of  the 
manure  and  no  liquid  nourishment  at  all,  its  place  being  taken 
by  the  use  of  the  hose  pipe.  For  a  long  time  I  have  had  an 
Mea  that  these  faulty  plants  could  be  detected  in  an  early  stage 
if  carefully  examined,  say  at  planting  time.  But  through 
stress  of  work  I  never  found  it  convenient  to  take  part  in  the 
planting  myself  until  last  year,  when  I  assisted  in  planting 
the  main  crop,  and  in  doing  so  I  carefully  examined  each  plant, 
and,  to  my  great  satisfaction,  I  was  able  to  detect  a  good 
number  of  what  I  was  sure  were  hollow-stemmed  plants.  The 
result  was  very  satisfactory,  as  we  did  not  suffer  nearly  so 
bad  as  we  had  done  the  previous  year.  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
however,  this  was  not  the  case  with  our  early  supply.  This 
close  examination  did  not  take  place,  the  result  being  a  great 
quantity  of  worthless  stuff.  Of  course,  they  were  detected 
long  before  they  were  ready  for  use  by  the  well-known  method 
of  pressing  the  leafstalk  between  the  finger  and  thumb,  and 
only  for  appearance  sake  they  were  allowed  to  remain  until 
lifted  for  use.  This,  I  think,  is  sufficient  proof  that  these 
hollow-stemmed  plants  are  not  caused  by  manure  alone.  But, 
whatever  is  the  cause,  I  am  sure  I  will  not  be  the  only  one  who 
will  be  pleased  if,  through  the  pages  of  the  Journal,  a  remedy 
can  be  enunciated  to  ensure  our  having  plenty  of  this  very 
important  vegetable  in  the  best  of  condition. — S.  E.  H., 
Birkenhead. 
Leaf  Curl  in  Peaches. 
Will  “  J.  W.”  kindly  state  what  is  the  proper  strength 
of  Bordeaux  mixture  for  Peach  and  Nectarine  trees? 
— Inexper  ienced  . 
Fruit  Production. 
“  H.  D.”  supposes  the  case  of  six  or  seven  million  bushels 
of  English  Apples  taking  the  place  of  the  foreign  "supply.  But 
this  could  only  happen  through  our  underselling  the  American, 
French,  and  Belgian  exporters.  This  is  just  my  point,  which 
“  H.  D.”  fails  to  see,  and,  in  what  he  objects  to  as  a  “  mixture.' 
I  pointed  out  that  precisely  the  same  argument  as  his,  but  in 
reference  to  butter  and  eggs,  was  used  by  many  writers.  I 
showed  how  foolish  it  was  to  tell  farmers  that  they  should  try 
to  keep  out  the  foreign  supplies  of  eggs,  which  come  here  at 
18  to  20  per  shilling,  and  it  seems  to  me  as  hopeless  to  drive 
foreign  Apples  out  of  the  country.  Before  we  can  do  that  we 
must  keep  our  markets  so  glutted  all  through  the  season  as  they 
usually  are  already  in  September  and  October  that  it  will  not 
pay  foreigners  to  send  us  any.  We  have  done  the  trick  nearly 
this  season  with  late  Potatoes,  but  how?  By  so  glutting  the 
markets  that  prices  on  the  farm  have  been  30s.  per  ton,  or  less, 
in  many  places. — Observer. 
- - 
The  Bothy  Plan. 
Kindly  allow  me  to  say  that  I  think  the  letter  of  “  Mac, 
Edinburgh,”  on  page  433,  the  most  practical  of  all  those  which 
.  have  appeared  on  the  bothy  question  up  to  this  present  date. 
He  is  quite  right — every  young  man  should  have  a  room  to 
himself,  a  place  where  he  can  be  alone  if  he  requires  it.  This 
could  he  managed,  without  much  expense,  on  the  cubicle 
system.  And  then,  again,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  over¬ 
estimate  the  importance  of  good  lavatory  accommodation  and 
a  bath.  Where  there  is  much  stoking  of  fires  young  men  get 
very  dirty,  and  any  head  gardener  who  has  been  “  through  the 
mill  ”  knows  what  a  luxury  a  warm  bath  is  on  coming  off  duty. 
Another  very  necessary  thing  is  a  plentiful  supply  of  clean 
linen— sheets,  pillow-cases,  towels,  &c.  The  writer  was  once 
in  a  bothy  in  Yorkshire  where  one  of  these  latter  articles  was 
allowed  per  week  to  be  shared  by  three  young  men!  And  this, 
too,  in  a  nobleman’s  garden  which  cost  £1,000  a  year  to 
maintain.  I  am  writing  from  the  North  of  Scotland,  where 
I  am  sorry  to  say  the  bothy  accommodation  is  of  a  very  poor 
order,  and  where,  as  a  rule,  the  young  men  have  to  attend  to 
the  bothy  themselves.  This  is  a  bad  arrangement  in '  every 
way — bad  for  the  men,  bad  for  the  garden,  and  bad  for  the 
bothy.  I  consider  “  H.  R.’s”  suggestion  of  a  hot  water-heated 
bothy  a  very  bad  one.  Besides  being  dingy  and  cheerless  in 
the  extreme,  it  would  be  very  unhealthy.  The  chimney  acts 
as  a  good  ventilator,  especially  when  the  fire  is  lighted. 
Most  young  men,  moreover,  have  enough  of  hot  water-heated 
structures  in  the  daytime— at  any  rate,  those  of  them  who 
work  under  glass. — A  Northern  Gardener. 
- - 
Gardeners’  Education. 
It  is  now  rather  more  than  a  year  since  j'ou  kindly  inserted  a 
few  lines  from  my  pen  regarding  the  above  subject.  Some  very 
sarcastic  criticisms  were  made  on  it,  but  somehow  I  did  not 
reply.  Another  education  champion  (Mr.  W.  H.  Divers,  page 
303)  has  come  forward  with  his  views,  so  please  grant  me  a- 
corner  for  a  few  lines  in  answer  to  this.  Your  correspondent 
fears,  quite  rightly,  that  gardeners  devote  too  little  time  to  im¬ 
proving  their  minds.  Further  on  he  suggests  that  botanising, 
studying  the  growth  and  measurement  of  trees  studying  insects, 
photography,  geometry,  chemistry,  &c.,  would  be  of  great  ser¬ 
vice  to  them  ;  but  why  stop  at  this,  dear  young  brother?  Names 
of  plants  and  meanings  of  words  are  as  useful  as  anything,  so 
don’t  forget  Latin,  Greek,  German,  French,  Italian,  Japanese, 
and  so  on,  ad  infinitum.  Then,  when  you  have  mastered  all 
those,  there  are  geology,  pneumatics,  hydraulics,  electricity, 
astronomy,  geography,  histo^,  book-keeping,  and  many  more 
could  be  added  if  the  mind  is  still  hungi-y,  which  would  be  of 
immense  service  to  you.  By  the  time  you  liave  learned  all  those 
in  your  spare  time,  I  have  no  doubt  you  will  be  qualified  to 
manage  one  of  the  many  fine  gardens  in  the  oounti^.  Now,  if 
you  have  independent  means,  you  can  afford  to  wait  for  a  few 
years  till  a  vacancy  occurs;  if  not,  any  of  our  leading  nursery¬ 
men  will,- after- you  have  filled  in  their  “character”  papers, 
possibly  favour  you  with  a  livelihood.  You  will  get  15s.  per 
week  of  sixty  hours’  hard  manual  labour,  in  company  with  an 
exceedingly  edifying  class.  Whatever  circumstances  you  are  in 
after  a  period,  the  duration  of  which  will  depend  on  your  luck. 
