parish, and had a thorough commercial training in the offices
at Prestongrange. He afterwards joined his father at Wallyford
Gardens, taking part in the same commercial walk of life as
he now pursues with such marked success.
The old style of gardening was much too slow for John Gillies,
and one day, in the absence of his superiors, he got hold
of a horse and plough and had the ground thoroughly and quickly
turned over, but only to get severely rebuked on their return
for his pains, for " who in all the world ever heard
of cabbage seed being sowed on ploughed land?" This was
no whim of the Wallyford folks; it had ever been a recognised
rule that the spade, and not the plough, was the gardener's
soil disturber. But the rule had been broken, and as it did
not prove a failure, the spade since then has very often given
place to the plough.
Mr Gillies was not long under the above jurisdiction, till,
borrowing a piece of land, he tried a little " seed sowing
" and " plant cultivation " on his own behalf.
His success proved great, and he began to cut out a line for
himself.
On launching out, he found with bitterness of spirit that
the Scottish parsley markets were entirely " held up"
by English growers, and the Scottish marketmen had simply
to stand aside till their rivals were cleared out. This state
of affairs he set about to combat. Thus he reasoned: If men
can grow parsley hundreds of miles away, and send it here
in paying quantities, surely I, being upon the ground, may
do the same. It need only be added, that now the native growers
do not hold a secondary place in the Scottish parsley markets.
This grower has been very much interviewed of late by newspaper
correspondents and others, and his praise has been sung all
over the land. Among other reports, the North British Agriculturist
says: " Some twelve years ago Mr Gillies made a new
departure in cabbage and leek plant growing. Now his trade
has developed to such an extent that upwards of one and a
half million of cabbage plants have been turned out by him
in a single day, while as many leek plants were being turned
put now by him in one day as were turned out by him during
the first five years of costly endeavours to form a trade
connection.
" In 1899 he offered the Highland and Agricultural Society
, £100 to be given in prizes for the best crops of cabbages
grown in plots throughout the kingdom, and further supplemented
this with a sum of £10 for the best essay on the "
Cabbage as a Field Crop. " The latter was taken in hand
at once, and the former was ultimately taken up by the ' Scottish
National Fat Stock Club, ' to be given in prizes for samples
of cabbage shown at their annual prize show, this being considered
an easier process than adjudicating upon 'plots' throughout
the kingdom. Out of this £100 the 'Fat Stock Club' procured
two very handsome cups at a cost of £20 and, £30
each, while the overplus of cash was assigned, part to be
presented with each cup, and the balance for less successful
competitors. "
Later on the N. B. A. gave a "snapshot, "
entitled "Despatching the Prize Winners, " in reference
to the cups, etc., offered. There were about one hundred women
and girls on the field when the " snap shot" was
taken, pulling and bundling plants for the market. This brought
the Edinburgh evening papers on the scene, and they gave not
only glowing accounts of the plant trade as pursued in the
district, but of the benefits derivable by all who pleased
to avail themselves of the steady employment brought to their
doors.
A Dundee weekly followed with facts and figures, holding out
that this grower had been for some years past recognised as
the largest plant grower in Great Britain. The Scottish
Farmer, giving a very fine photographic likeness of Mr
Gillies, says " it is now an accepted fact that the quantities
of leek and cabbage plants grown in the Musselburgh, Levenhall,
Pinkie, and Prestonpans districts, are considerably greater
than the combined outputs of all the farmers and gardeners
in all the other parts of Scotland. " It further added
that his trade had bounded up last season fully ten million
of plants in excess of the previous season.
Mr Gillies has of late years been very often called upon to
arbitrate in "market gardening disputes" Some of
these have been very large cases, but his decisions, in every
instance, have been tempered with such apparent fairness that
no appeal has ever been raised against them.
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