Sir, - Will you allow me space in your magazine, the 'Gardener,' to say a few words respecting the young man's difficulties 1 At page 276 I have read F. W. B.'s remarks, headed 'A Word to Young Gardeners,' and I think some of F. W. B.'s remarks are very good; but he tells us at page 277 that he first started as "crockboy," his wages being 6s. per week, 2s. of which he paid to the head-gardener and 1s. for lodgings. F. W. B. does not mention if he boarded him, which I shall suppose he did, as he would only have 3s. per week to live upon. How can a head-gardener take from one that is under him 2s. per week to teach a young man 1 If this were carried out to a great extent, I think it would be one of the worst of a young man's difficulties that he would have to put up with. F. W. B. tells us that some people object to a young man paying a premium. I certainly must hold with that, because I think that if a head-gardener did his duty to a young man, he certainly would not want a premium from him when he has such low wages. I have at this present time a young man under me of the age of fifteen, but I should not take a premium from him; and my employer would think that I was not doing my duty if I took from him 2s. per week for what I should call teaching a young man.

It is very true that there are too many of those come-day-go-day sort of men, which makes it bad for others; but I do not see why a young man cannot take an interest in gardening without paying a premium. To turn out a young man in the world, and see him get on, I think creditable to the head-gardener. But if a young man has to pay for it - I should say dearly - I do not see that he is beholden to the head-gardener. I cannot draw to a close without thanking the Editor for the many kind hints he has given us these last three years, and I do hope this magazine will soon be widely known.

Respect for the Under-Gardener.

[We fear the kindness of our correspondent's disposition has led him to take a one-sided view of this question. He must look at it from a purely commercial point, and he will see that the apprentice gardener, like every other apprentice, must in the outset of his career cause a considerable deal of trouble to his instructor, and that such instruction is to him of substantial value, and that he ought not to object to pay for it. The apprentice gardener gets off much easier in this respect than any other we know anything of. In nearly every other trade or profession high premiums have to be paid, either in cash-down, or, what is the same thing in the end, unpaid labour, sometimes for two and even four years; and well would it be for gardeners as a class if the same regulations were applied in their case. To have a thorough knowledge of horticulture requires as good mental powers, as elaborate study and instruction, and as close application as it does to be a physician; and who in his senses would ask a medical practitioner to take a young lad of fifteen and make a doctor of him, give his board and 4s. per week, and expect no premium from him, while his services in return would be the washing of bottles or the running of messages for some years? The real fact is, that the position gardeners occupy is vastly inferior to what it would otherwise have been had rigid rules existed to prevent the introduction into their ranks of men assuming the name of gardener, but having no more right to it than a working navvy has to call himself a civil engineer.

The employers of gardeners suffer more from this than legitimate gardeners themselves do. They too often look at the matter thus: They know that a man called a bricklayer can generally lay bricks, a carpenter can make a door or a window, and a gardener aught to be able to manage a garden; and when they meet with one who has managed to get a high recommendation from some person who is probably no judge of what a gardener should be, and who is willing to take £40 or £50 a-year, is it to be wondered at that they object to pay £80 or £100, though in the great majority of cases they had better have engaged the man at £40 and kept him idle, and paid a proper gardener in addition? We are quite aware, while saying this, that there are many excellent gardeners who, from the force of adverse circumstances, are compelled to take little more than labourers' wages. This is the fruit of allowing every ignorant boy who can get work in a garden to call himself at the end of three or four years a gardener.

We have been led into these remarks by an extensive acquaintance with the evils we have referred to. Ed].