June  5,  1902. 
JOURXAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  -AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
495 
Gardeners’  Education. 
In  reply  to  your  correspondent,  page  4G8,  re  “Gardeners’ 
Jlducation,”  may  I  be  allow  ed  to  say  that  I  am  not  at  all  ashamed 
ot  my  name,  but  I  ha'te  divers  reasons  for  withholding  it.  I  do 
not  see  that  the  omission  is  any  injustice  whatever  to  your  cor¬ 
respondent.  Surely  lie  attaches  too  much  importance  to  a  trifle. 
VVe  are  not  discussing  each  other  or  our  names.  I  shall  be  sorry 
if  such  a  detail  prevents  Mr.  Divers  from  advancing  the  cause  of 
education.  How  best  to  do  .so  i.s,  disturbing  the  minds  of  many 
eminent  meil  at.  the  pre.sent  moment,  and  possibly  he  may  add 
lustre  to  that  distinguished  body.  Personally,  I  shall  be  content 
if,  m  my  own  sphere  of  life,  my  humble  opinion  wull  help  to 
counteract  the  influence  that  gardeners  of  iirofessicnal  high 
standing  undoubtedly  have,  wdio  buoy  the  youth  of  gardening 
w’itli  the  vain  hope  that  if  they  dabble  in  half  a  dozen  sciences 
they  are  on  the  high  road  to  a  first-class  position.  I  have  no 
patience  whatever  with  the  armchair  critics,  who  are  always 
showing  us  the  way ;  and  what  is  more  exasperating  than  to  be 
reproached  for  your  non-success  by  tho.se  who  are,  as  likely  as 
not,  indebted  to  Providence  alone  for  their  own. ^  To  say  that 
knowdedge  of  any  kind  wull  be  of  service  is  merely  indulging  in 
idle  platitude.  Everybody  know’s  it.  To  succeed,  the  young 
man  must  concentrate  his  energy  on  the  all-important  points 
concerning  his  vocation.  Efficiency  must  be  his  war  cry,  and  he 
ought  to  be  as  skilled  in  the  diplomatic  art  as  the  late  Li  Hung 
Chang,  and  trust  to  Providence.  In  his  self-studies,  however, 
he  would  do  w^ell  to  remember  the  following  lines — 
’Tig  not  to  know  of  thin<rs  remote,  of  things  obscure  and  subtle ;  but  to  know 
That  which  lies  in  thy  daily  path  through  life,  is  the  prime  wisdom. 
I  need  .say  no  more  than  to  expre.ss  the  hope  that  your  cor¬ 
respondent  will  overlook  the  triviality  he  mentioned,  and  give  the 
Journal  of  Horticulture  readers  seme  sound,  sensible,  and  solid 
advice. — Domestic  Wobkixg  Gardener. 
I  trust  that  the  very  interesting  correspondence  started  by 
a  “Domestic  Working  Gardener”  may  not  degenerate  into  a 
perscnal  passage  of  arms  between  him  and  Mr.  Diver.s,  which 
seeius  not  improbable,  judging  from  the  latter’s  note  on  page  468. 
I  think,  by  the  way,  Mr.  Divers  is  unreasonable  in  expecting  a 
“Domestic  Working  Gardener”  to  sign  his  name  to  his  next 
communication.  When  cue  is  rvriting  an  article  which  consists 
for  the  most  part  of  vapid  moralisings  and  milk-and-water  plati¬ 
tudes,  and  which,  moreover,  is  of  the  “See-wdiat-a-good-boy-am-  , ” 
order,  one  may  safelj'  do  this  ;  but  I  think  even  Mr.  Divers  him¬ 
self  would  hesitate  to  append  his  name  to  a  communication  of 
the  nature  of  that  sent  by  a  “  Domestic  Working  Gardener.”  Mr. 
Diver.s  may  re.st  assured  that  our  friend  the  Editor' 'will  not 
publish  any  communication  from  anonymous  corre.spondents.  It 
inay  be  that  a  “Domestic  Working  Gardener”  rather  overstates 
his  case  ;  but,  as  you  very  justly  say  in  your  editorial  note,  much  of 
what  he  says  is  true,  and  this,  I  feel  sure,  is  the  opinion  of 
90  per  cent,  of  the  gardeners  of  the  United  Kingdom.  There 
is  no  fear  cf  there  being  a  .scarcity  of  good  men  for  good  places  ; 
in  fact,  one  has  only  to  look  at  the  advertiseinents  in  thp  garden¬ 
ing  journals  to  .see  that  the  supply  is' more  than  equal  to  the 
demand.  As  a  consequence,  many  a  good  gardener  has,  by  sheer 
force  of  circum.stances,  to  take  a  iilace  below'  his’ capabilities. 
Gardeners,  as  a  class,  are  very  miserably  paid  (it  frequently 
happens  that  the  principal  footman  has  a  better  salary),  and  yet 
there  are  those  who  per.si.st  in  writing  of  the  gardener’s  life  as 
a  positive  El  Dorado.  What  a  pitiable  state  of  affairs  that  so 
niany  gardeners  who  in  tlieir  day  have  held  good  places  should 
iii  their  old  age  have  to  depend  almost,  if  not  entirely,  upon 
charity  for  their  daily  bread.  I  hope  we  may  have  a  very 
interesting  discussion,  and  that  writers  will  keep  to  the  main 
.subject,  without  indulging  in  personalities  or  drawing  upon  their 
personal  experiences  overmuch. — A  Northern  Gardener. 
Coronation  Tree  Planting. 
Space  limitations  forbid  the  publishing  in  extenso  of  our  cor- 
respondent’.s  .seasonable  letter.  He  refers  to  the  article  under 
the  above  title  published  on  page  301,  April  3,  and  differs  from 
the  w'riter  of  it,  who  de.sired  Coronation  tree-planters  to  set  about 
the  operation  at  once,  instead  of  waiting  till  mid-June.  He  con¬ 
tinues:  “I  cannot  see  where  the  danger  lies  in  planting  trees  at 
that  date.  If  I  had  tree  planting  to  do  I  would  select  that  date, 
and  would  be  certain  that  they  wotild  live  and  grow'.  "When  such 
trees  as  Hollies,  Tews,  Cedars,  Pines,  and  all  evergreens  are 
started  into  grow'th  they  can  be  .safely  planted.  I  remember 
Messrs.  Dicksons,  of  Chester,  stating  in  an  article  on  the  traii.s- 
planting  of  Araucaria  imbricata,  that  they  delayed  the  trams- 
Temple  Show :  Mr.  Leopold  de  Rothschild’s  Pot  Cherries  (sec  page  492). 
