Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-13
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES 3. TRAcEwELL.

Recently we quoted in this column
| the old saying, that one Is either a fool
or his own physician by the time he
| is 80.
There is a similar maxim, to the ef-
feet that by the time man is so he
Is either drunkard or gardener.
| So let us all hasten to become gar
denersl
r Time flies on apace, and every Spring
| calls with new allure. The older we
get the more beautiful Spring seems
| The happy thing is that one may in
| dulge in gardening without being very
much of a gardener, after all.
! The dub golfer feels his inexperience
| acutely, and hastens to correct it, often
to the extent of shattered nerves.
The gardener, on the ether hand,
! cares little or nothing about his ex-
| pertness, or lack Of the same.
We have never heard any one who
worked with the soil speak a word of
comparison between him and others;
not one ever seemed aware OF the fact
that his gardening abilities surpassed
those of his neighbor.
* X
This, it seems, is one of the happiest
characteristics of the gardener, that
he is real brother to all other gar
deners.
Musicians are VIGOROUSLY jealous,
even of the beginner, especially when
the latter begins to show signs of
genuine talent.
Writers conceal their jealousy better
but down in their hearts they are arr
fists, and suffer from the same short
comings They most often show their
envy by refusing to read the works of
their fellows, or at most skiYnming
/ fhr61lOh ho cfi
The gardener, almost alone of
workers, knows no professional jealousy
but hastens at all tirNts to give freely
of such experience as has come to him.
We have talked to many eminent
horticulturists, some Of them famous,
whose names are known around the
world, whose articles appear in more
than one language.
In almost every instance we have
found these experts to be "as simple as
an old SHOE" as the country expression
has it.
If one stops to contemplate the theory
and practice of gardening, there is every
reason why this supreme lack of Snob-
bishness should exist
In the first place, the gardener, of
whatever degree or pretension, is work.
ing with the soil, long held to be the
universal mother of us all
The dearest and tenderest words of
our common heritage point out in no
uncertain terms that we are born of
the earth, and to the earth we shall
return.
Earth is the plainest, commonest
thing We possess together. The discov-
cries of modern science show marvel
ously well the vast dependence of the
l1frv - 49,
slight layer of detritus which clothes
the vast inner hulk Of the earth.
We move on a shell of earth, and live
bathed in a stratum of air, one of the
marvellous provisions for our main
tenance, and without these two could
not exist for a day, and in all proba-
bility would never have got foothold
at all.
When we dig in the earth. therefore.
even in the most amateurish spirit, we
are dealing with a fundamental, and
something Of this fact strikes home
TO our consciousness.
Just how aware the gardener viii be
Of this bond will depend. of course, upon
his awareness of himself and the things
about him.
But every one feels it. Even yonder
inarticulate old fellow, who perhaps
cannot read or write, grasps something
Of the spirit Of the ages when he puts
in his onion "sets" and plows up the
ground.
He knows wherewith he Is working
quite as well as the eminent professor
who has just got back from some far
country with quantity of new plants
unknown here.
This eminent professor, who had been
decorated for his achievements, would
be the first to admit his essential kin