428 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
May  23,  1901. 
Fraternal  criticism,  like  brotherly  love,  is,  as  a  rule,  generously 
disposed  towards  the  man  severely  handicapped — handicapped  by 
circumstances  beyond  his  control  ;  and  here  the  whole  matter  might 
be  summarily  dismissed  if  one  could  ignore  the  fact  that  the  unfortunate 
ones  too  often  handicap  themselves.  As  a  case  in  point  to  illustrate 
what  our  text  aims  at,  from  a  collective  view  of  many  gardens,  to 
obviate  invidious  comparison,  more  cr  less  blighted  by  poverty,  one 
shows  the  retrograde  movement  more  pronounced  in  the  glass 
department  than  elsewhere.  Formerly  noted  for  its  extensive 
collection  and  high-class  culture  of  stove  plants,  there  is  no 
diminution  of  the  numbers  grown  ;  in  fact  the  reverse  obtains,  for 
the  houses  are  packed  with  a  miscellaneous  assortment,  for  which  the 
lads  in  charge  have,  as  their  chief  will  tell  you,  “  only  half  enough 
time  for  properly  attending  to  them,  though  they  work  like  blacks.” 
The  dual  assertion  is  heartily  endorsed,  for  “the  lads,”  although  left 
pretty  much  to  themselves,  are  invariably  found  fighting  the  work 
shorn  of  all  those  cumbrous  contrivances  in  the  shape  of  coats, 
collars,  and  ties,  which  adorn  the  young  fellows  whose  lot  is  cast  in 
mor9  pleasant  places.  In  this  case  (common  enough)  two-thirds  of 
the  plants  grown  would  find  a  fitting  place  on  the  rubbish  beat , 
to  which  they  might  be  immediately  relegated,  thus  reducing  the 
work  by  half,  to  the  distinct  advantage  of  all  concerned.  As  it  is, 
mealy  bug  runs  rampant  through  the  impoverished  and  overcrowded 
plauts. 
Apropos  of  mealy  bug  and  oth.  r  expensive  pests,  which  are 
serious  factors  in  the  economic  woiking  of  a  garden,  a  struggling  but 
energetic  nurseryman  once  said,  when  complimented  on  the  freedom 
of  his  grounds  from  weeds,  “  My  dear  sir,  weeds  fire  too  costly  for 
me  to  grow ;  I’m  a  poor  man  and  can’t  afford  to  have  them.”  So 
with  stove  plants  and  all  the  disgusting  parasites  they  are  heir  to. 
What  patience  tolerates,  perseverance  can  overcome.  Impossible,  may 
be  said,  and  has  been  said,  but  it  is  an  impossible  which  has  no  place 
in  high-class  gardeDii  g.  There  is  no  satisfaction  in  fighting  unless 
the  end  is  within  measurable  distance.  Fight  by  all  means,  but  by 
all  means  fight  to  a  finish.  It  is  not  an  uncommon  occurrence  to  find 
in  kitchen  gardens  unnecessary  quantities  of  particular  vegetables 
grown,  much  of  which  eventually  goes  to  the  rubbish  heap.  Oa  one 
occasion  when  visiting  a  garden  at  this  season  of  the  year,  a  couple  of 
men  were  busy  clearing  out  the  root  house,  and  our  gardening  guide 
proudly  pointed  to  the  visible  tokens  of  bis  fertile  soil,  superabundant 
crops,  and  cultural  skill.  “It’s  the  same  every  season,”  he  said. 
What  a  leakage  of  force,  one  thought,  laid  in  every  barrowload  tha' 
was  being  trundled  out.  In  fact  as  much  was  hinted  at.  No  ! 
Vegetable  growing  was  this  gardener’s  Jorte ,  he  liked  to  see  good 
croj  s  even  if  they  were  not  wanted,  and  this  in  spite  of  growls  both 
loud  and  deep  anent  his  reduced  staff,  which  was  only  too  evident  in 
other  directions.  This  particularly  good  vegetable  grower  resented 
the  hint  thrown  out.  Well, 
’Tis  best  sometimes  your  censure  to  restrain, 
i  And  charitably  let  the  dull  be  vain. 
Where  the  surplus  of  a  garden  can  be  disposed  of  at  a  profit, 
circumstances  of  course  alter  cases,  and  of  course,  too,  a  prudent  man 
will  always  provide  for  a  margin  ;  but  where  that  margin  adds 
50  per  cent,  to  his  labours  and  yields  but  little  more  than  the 
gratification  of  a  whim,  that  also  is  too  costly  for  the  man  who  cannot 
afford  it. 
There  are  but  few  gardens  worked  under  the  high  pressure  of  low 
circumstances,  in  which  a  waste  of  foice  in  one  or  other  direction  is 
not  noticeable  ;  and  in  seme  of  them  the  spurious  reasoning  deduced 
from  the  very  doubtful  benefits  conferred  by  those  who  make  two 
blades  of  grass  to  grow  in  the  place  of  one  appears  to  generate  as  well 
as  maintain  most  of  the  evils  of  which  an  impoverished  garden  is  heir 
to.  To  have  or  not  to  have  what  is  actually  superfluous,  absorbing 
time  and  labour,  and  detrimental  to  what  is  essentially  necessary  and 
vitally  important,  is  really  the  question.  One  pleasing  example  at, 
least  can  be  pointed  to,  in  which  quality  has  not  been  sacrificed  to  an 
inordinate  desire  for  quantity.  When  it  was  found  that  a  large 
collection  of  stove  and  greenhouse  plants  were  likely  to  deteriorate 
into  that  heterogeneous  mass  of  dirty  impoverished  plants  which  marks 
the  reign  of  poverty,  nothing  was  kept  that  was  not  really  worth 
keeping,  or  for  which  there  was  not  time  for  proper  attention  to  bo 
given.  The  man  at  the  helm  of  the  undermanned  ship  shortened  sail, 
and  wisely  steered  on  true  economic  lines.  It  now  seems,  indeed,  to 
be  his  fixed  principle  that  what  is  worth  doing  at  all  is  worth  doing 
well,  and  what  cannot  be  done  well  is  better  done  without,  hence  high- 
class  gardening  has  never  bten  shunted  by  adverse  circumstances  on 
to  the  poor  lines  of  mediocrity. 
Eigid  rules  or  hard  and  fast  lines  cannot,  however,  either  goyeifi 
or  control  gardeners  and  gardening  of  whatever  degree.  There  is 
nothing,  could  be  nothing,  advanced  here  that  is  not  open  to  argument, 
but  more  than  possible  there  may  be  truths  for  those  who  are  open  to- 
conviction.  All  lies  “  in  the  application  of  it,”  as  Captain  Cuttle 
would  say.  Adaptability  is  the  secret  of  success  in  all  grades  of 
gardening.  Much  might  be  done  by  masters  in  assisting  struggling, 
but  faithful  and  conscientious  servants — gardeners.-  One,  in  fact,  has 
done  much  to  ease  the  pinching  shoe  by  allowing  his  head  gardener  to- 
expend  the  reduced  amount  he  allows  for  financing  the  garden  entirely 
at  his  own  discretion.  Needless  to  say,  a  minute  account  of  all  monies 
disbursed  is  always  ready  lor  the  master’s  eye,  but  beyond  that  the 
yearly  allowance  is  solely  in  the  gardener’s  hands  to  do  as  he  thinks 
best  with ;  and  there  is  no  man  but  the  gardener  who  really  knows, 
knowing  what  he  has,  how  to  make  the  most  of  what  is  at  his  disposal,. 
This  man  is  a  first-class  gardener,  as  many  struggling  men  are,  and 
has  full  faith  in  his  own  powers  to  do  the  best  possible  with  what  is 
at  his  command,  and  if  more  employers  would  recognise  this  it  would 
be  to  their  distinct  advantage. 
To  know  the  worst  is  an  incentive  to  doing  the  best.  It  is; 
sometimes  a  gardener’s  misfortune,  but  not  his  fault,  that  motives  are 
misunderstood.  Would  that  our  masters  could  peep  behind  the  scenes- 
and  see  things  as  they  are,  not  as  they  seem.  The  writer  once  heard 
a  gentleman  remark  that  the  greed  of  gardeners  was  proverbia',  yet  it 
is  not  an  uncommon  thing  for  a  man  who  has  hitherto  been  up-to-date 
endeavouring  *o  keep  so  by  surreptitious  purchases,  paid  for  out  of  his 
own  pocket.  Greed  it  may  be,  but  surely  it  is  the  most  unselfish  form 
of  it  possible.  There  are  two  sides  to  the  whole  question,  as  there  are, 
indeed,  to  most  questions — the  master’s  side  and  the  man’s  side,  a» 
well  as  various  angles  from  which  both  are  disposed  to  look  at  it,  but 
a  combined  view,  focussed  by  common  sense,  should  throw  a  better 
light  on  the  main  object. — K.,  Dublin. 
- - 
I 
Book  Notice. 
Thompson’s  Gardener’s  Assistant.* 
The  subscribers  to  this  revised  work  must  be  more  and  more 
satisfied  as  each  part  is  issued  and  placed  before  them.  The  third 
division,  completing  volume  i.,  was  published  recently.  It  is  mainly 
devoted  to  the  details  of  pure,  practical  gardening,  as  distinct  from  the 
scientific  sections  that  have  formed  the  substance  of  what  appears  in 
the  forerunning  volumes.  We  feel  that  it  is  impossible  to  do  full  justice 
to  the  merits  of  the  part  now  before  us.  Regarded  first  as  a  work  of 
guidance  to  the  practice  of  all-gardening,  that  is,  every  phase  of  the 
art,  the  trained,  professional  practitioner  could  not  possibly  demand  a 
work  of  clearer  or  fuller  exposition,  nor  could  he  wish  for  a  brighter 
method  of  general  arrangement.  Greenhouse  and  stove  plants,  Orchids, 
Ferns,  Palms,  and  Cycads,  succulent  plants,  hardy  herbaceous  and 
bulbous  subjects,  together  with  trees  and  shrubs;  and  such  gardening 
operations  as  spring,  summer,  carpet,  sub-tropical,  and  winter  bedding, 
each  receive  a  full  explanatory  chapter.  Where  an  apt  illustration  has 
been  deemed  to  be  of  use  and  effective,  that  illustration  is  duly 
provided.  In  this  respect  the  volume  is  almost  equal  to  the  most 
elaborate  publications  of  recent  times.  With  a  few  exceptions,  each  cf 
the  240  pages  comprising  the  issue  bear  attractive  plates,  though 
perhaps  the  exact  value  of  the  illustrations  may  not  in  every  case  be 
conveyed  to  the  reader  from  the  absence  of  any  scale  on  which  to  base 
comparisons.  A  considerable  amount  of  value  and  interest  attaches  to 
the  concise  informative  notes  that  describe  what  species  have  been  used 
as  breeders  to  furnish  the  marvellous  variety  that  characterises  many 
genera  of  the  most  esteemed  garden  plants. 
The  article  on  Roses  will  be  found  especially  interesting,  while  the 
splendid  genus  Narcissus  has  been  delineated  by  one  who  is  second  to 
none  in  his  love  for,  and  knowledge  of,  this  beautiful  seotion  of  spring 
flowering  bulbous  plants.  And  so  with  Hippeastrums,  Chrysanthemums, 
Pelargoniums,  Cinerarias,  and  such  others,  devotees  and  enthusiasts  will 
find  much  to  gratify  them  ;  and  young  craftsmen,  besides  the  cultural 
details,  will  gain  knowledge  on  matters  of  relationship  that  probably 
they  had  no  previous  conception  of.  Such  recent  plant  novelties  as 
Colens  thrysoideus,  Hidalgoa  Wercklei,  Cyclamen  latifolium  Papilio, 
Nepenthes  Tiveyi,  and  a  great  many  other  subjects  are  illustrated  and 
described.  The  work,  indeed,  proves  itself  to  be  entirely  remodelled  and 
brought  up  to  date.  Three  coloured  plates  appear  in  part  iii.  At  the 
price  of  8s.  a  part,  the  work  is  remarkably  cheap.  The  arrangement 
we  have  referred  to  as  very  satisfactory,  and  both  paper  and  printing — 
which  add  or  detract  so  much  to,  or  from,  the  pleasure  of  books — -is  of 
the  highest  class.  Mr.  Watson  as  editor  certainly  deserves  success,  and 
we  think  is  pretty  certain  to  achieve  it.  No  gardeners’  bothy  or  library 
is  complete  without  “The  Gardener’s  Assistant.” 
*  “  The. Gardener’s  Assistant,”  '^practical  and  scientific  exposition  of  the 
art'  of  gardening-  in  all  its  branches,  by  Robert  Thompson  ;  new 
edition,  edited  by  William  Watson.  Divisonal,  vol.  iii.  London:  The 
Gresham  Publishing  Company. 
