It must be admitted that one of the great drawbacks to gardening and weeding is the state into which the hands and fingers get. Unfortunately, one's hands belong not only to oneself, but to the family, who do not scruple to tell the gardening amateur that her appearance is 'revolting.' Constant washing and always keeping them smooth and soft by a never-failing use of vaseline-or, still better, a mixture of glycerine and starch, kept ready on the washstand to use after washing and before drying the hands-are the best remedies I know. Old dog-skin or old kid gloves are better for weeding than the so-called gardening gloves; and for many purposes the wash-leather housemaid's glove, sold at any village shop, is invaluable. Good gardeners tell you never to cut flowers except with a sharp knife. This is good advice for shrubs or pot-plants, the clean cut being better for the plants; but I advise that the knife should be on a steel chain a foot or so long, with a good pair of garden hook-shaped scissors at the other end-for the cutting of annuals or lately planted plants with a knife, in light soil, is very much to be avoided. The smallest pull loosens the roots, and immediate death, in hot weather, is the result. Another advantage of knife and scissors together on the chain is that they are more easy to find when mislaid, or lost in the warm and bushy heart of some plant.