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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
November  6,  1E02 — 
A  Sore  Point. 
I  want,  with  your  permission,  to  tell  a  little  story  which 
many  a  gardener,  I  am  perfectly  certain,  could  match.  For 
good  reasons  the  hero  of  the  story  is  chosen  from  the  lowest 
ranks  of  the  profession,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  more  gene¬ 
rally  known  in  the  locality  as  the  “  Minister’s  man  ”  than  as  a 
gardener.  His  duties  include  the  care  of  a  cow,  poultry, 
pony,  bicycles,  heating  the  church  in  w-inter,  and  cooling  it 
in  summer,  running  messages,  taking  charge  of  the  parish 
when  the  minister,  poor  man !  has  recourse  to  Aix-les-Bains 
or  to  Strathpeffer,  or  maybe  to  the  links  of  Macrahamish  or 
St.  Andrews.  That  the  charge  is  no  sinecure  either,  a  short 
conversation  we  had  together  one  day  we  foregathered  will 
prove.  After  mutual  greetings  he  apologised  for  being 
unable  to  return  and  show  me  the  manse  garden.  “  The 
minister’s  away,”  he  exclaimed,  “  and  I’m  gaun  yont  bye  to 
Maister  Johnston’s  aboot  a  marriage  the  mom’s  night,  and 
about  twae  corps  I’ve  lying  in  the  parish  ;  and  the  coals  are 
coming  in  the  morn !”  These  and  other  matters  we  philoso¬ 
phically  endured  as  evils  that  must  be  tholed,  and  though 
James  is  to  everybody  else  a  kind  of  all-round  factotum,  in 
his  own  eyes  he  is  strictly  a  gardener.  He  visits  all  the 
gardens  in  the  vicinity,  and  within  easy  reach,  and  his 
holiday  would  be  sadly  incomplete  if  some  strange  garden 
were  not  inspected  before  its  conclusion.  His  reports  of 
these  inspections  are  marked  by  exceeding  terseness,  and 
though  hardly  fit  for  the  horticultural  Press,  to  those 
acquainted  with  his  definitions  they  are  charmingly  com¬ 
plete.  If  the  garden  honoured  by  a  visit  is  described  as 
“  no  bad,  but  a  wheen  weeds  about,”  we  gather  that  things 
generally  are  scarcely  satisfactory.  “  A  fine  place  yon,  but 
I’ve  seen  maybe  better  Roses,”  conveys  the  idea  of  an  ex¬ 
cellent  garden,  but  with  no  half-dozen  Roses  quite  so  fine  as 
the  best  of  his  own  growing.  Satisfaction  without  alloy  is 
expressed  in  some  such  terms  as  these  :  “  Man,  ye  should 
see  So-and-so  ;  a  grawnd  place  ;  beats  me  wi’  Strawberries, 
and  no  far  ahint  wi’  Leeks,  and  I’m  no  sure  but  he  has  me 
wi’  Ingins !” 
James,  moreover,  affects  a  proprietary  air  where  the 
garden  is  concerned,  which  he  seldom  does  in  the  case  of  the 
other  multifarious  duties  that  engage  his  attention.  Truth 
to  say,  he  has  practically  made  the  garden  what  it  is,  and 
so  closely  does  he  feel  the  tie  between  it  and  himself,  that 
instead  of  inviting  his  friends  to  inspect  his  garden,  he 
attacks  them  with  the  formula,  “  Come  away  in  and  tell  us 
how  I’m  looking  ”  ;  while,  should  the  visitor  unduly  delay- 
giving  expression  to  his  opinion,  he  is  quickly  reminded  by 
the  query,  “  Weel,  what  d’ye  think  of  me  1  My  Carcases 
(Cactus  Dahlias  '?)  are  no  just  the  thing,  and  no  doubt  ye’ve 
seen  finer  grossers  ;  but  I  was  thinking  I  might  ha’  been 
waur!”  As  I  had  good  reason  to  know  that  James  was 
trusted  by  his  master  and  mistress,  what  was  my  dismay 
to  be  consulted  by  him  on  so  serious  a  question  as  the 
resignation  of  his  many  offices?  No  longer  young,  it  was  a 
question  with  him  almost  of  existence,  but  he  had  w-orked 
himself  into  a  condition  of  body  and  mind  that  rendered  his 
life  quite  miserable.  And  what,  think  you,  it  was  about? 
Simply  that  he  believed  his  services  were  no  longer  accept¬ 
able.  In  one  or  two  things  his  master  had  given  him  the 
impression  that  he  was  not  pleased.  He  came  less  into  the 
garden,  and  left  him  unnoticed,  when  formerly  he  was  always 
consulting  him  about  some  little  thing.  Matters  that 
hitherto  would  have  passed  unheeded  now  became  confirma¬ 
tions,  strong  as  proofs  of  holy  writ,  that  his  employer  had 
grown  tired  of  him.  A  talk  over  his  troubles  left  him 
c nu ■  ci  nothinS  hastily,  and  very  soon  he  knew  that 
all  his  fears  were  groundless.  I  moreover  took  occasion  to 
throw  out  a  feeler  when  next  I  met  his  master,  with  the  result 
that  the  servant  was  declared  an  invaluable  one,  and,  indeed, 
had  come  to  be  looked  on  more  as  a  friend  than  a  mere 
servant. 
The  super-sensitiveness  of  which  the  above  is  an  instance 
is  by  no  means  rare  among  gardeners,  and  there  is  good 
reason  for  thinking  it  is  at  the  bottom  of  much  of  the 
changeableness  so  sadly  apparent  in  the  character  of  many 
gardeners.  I  could  multiply  instances  ;  I  have  felt  in 
exactly  the  same  way  myself,  and  I  have  had  men  under  me 
who  somehow  had  caught  the  idea  that  their  services  were 
no  longer  wanted,  without  any  shadow  of  reason  in  fact. 
Sometimes,  no  doubt,  employers  have  themselves  to  blame, 
and  not  so  long  ago  I  was  pleased  to  be  able  to  secure, 
another  situation  for  a  thoroughly  good  man  who  found  it 
intolerable  to  serve  his  then  master  ;  yet,  when  he  resigned 
his  situation,  the  employer  was  astonished  that  he  was  not 
pleased  with  his  place,  himself  being  absolutely  satisfied 
with  his  gardener ! 
This  brings  us  face  to  face  with  what  may  well  be  called 
the  personal  equation  in  gardening.  Some  employers  make 
much  of  their  gardeners  ;  others  pay  little  attention  to 
them.  A  personal  friend  has  told  me  so  long  a  period  as  nine 
years  had  passed  without  his  meeting  or  speaking  to  his 
employer.  Many  men  would  have  accepted  this  as  a  hint  to 
quit  when  no  such  thing  was  intended.  It  is,  I  confess,  an 
extreme  case,  but  it  serves  to  emphasise  what  I  want  to 
impress  on  those  who  may  think  they  are  being  treated 
coldly,  that  they  may  not  make  too  much  of  a  small  matter. 
Occasionally,  too,  the  temperaments  of  employer  and 
employed  are  so  essentially  at  variance  that,  much  as  a 
master  may  value  the  gardener  from  a  professional  point  of 
view,  he  does  not  take  to  him  as  a  friend  ;  but  it  will  be  as 
hard,  and,  I  believe,  also  an  uncommon  case,  if  some  of  the 
family  do  not  come  into  close  relations  with  him.  There  is 
a  class  of  employers,  too,  that  treat  all  their  servants  with 
the  greatest  urbanity,  while  they  are  as  yet  new  to  the  place 
and  their  duties,  and  who  by-and-by  subside  into  habits  that 
what  I  may  call  thin-skinned  people  find  it  very  hard  to 
endure.  The  only  antidote  is  to  thicken  one’s  epidermis, 
so  that  blow  hot,  blow  cold,  a  conscientious  fulfilling  of 
duties  is  sufficient  to  throw  off  any  condition  of  social 
atmosphere.  It  is  unnecessary  to  enlarge  on  a  subject  so 
very  extensive  in  its  purview.  Enough  to  say  that  the 
custom  of  making  rods  for  one’s  own  back  out  of  nothing  is 
one  to  be  greatly  deprecated,  because  it  produces,  perhaps, 
a  more  severe  chastisement  than  real  fault  finding,  and  it 
has  a  tendency  to  lead  to  ruptures  entirely  of  one’s  own  pro¬ 
duction,  and  fatal  to  any  little  success  in  life  it  might  be 
possible  to  secure. — Tatler. 
- (.#n - 
Tomatoes  in  Trenches. 
The  method  of  growing  outdoor  Tomatoes  in  trenches  used 
to  be  practised  by  Mr.  J.  Forbes,  when  at  Dover  House,  Roe- 
hampton,  Middlesex.  On  a  sheltered  plot  of  ground,  sharply 
sloping  to  the  south,  a  trench  was  dug  about  4ft  wide,  and  strong 
Tomato  plants  were  placed  in  suitable  soil  at  the  proper  time 
in  May.  The  trench  was  covered  with  open  latticework,  through 
which  the  plants  grew,  and  were  trained  down  to  it,  and  fruits 
w-ere  thus  obtained  in, abundance  during  the  summer.  We  bring 
up  the  matter  now,  in  order  that  a  place  may  be  marked  out  for 
a  trial  of  this  plan  next  spring. 
Tomatoes  in  Trenches. 
