1869.] ON THEORETICAL INSTRUCTION. 127 



riglit place ; for, as lie said, he had many advantages, and was in the 

 best situations. The second type is the riglit man in the wrong place ; 

 for truly in his case we see the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties : 

 work, work, work night and day among pots and pans — a mill-horse 

 life ; and yet it is said he was woefully deficient in scientific lore. 

 How could he be otherwise ? Is it, or any learning, acquired by 

 intuition 1 To mention any learning in such circumstances is but a 

 sham. As well try to teach the last-mentioned quadruped dialectics. 

 To use the words of "W.," how far a change of circumstances, situ- 

 ations, and training might have benefited both men, it is not for 

 me to say. But while I believe, and have attempted to prove, that 

 theoretical training is neither useful nor of primary importance to a 

 young gardener, I hold as firmly, on the other hand, that ignorance is 

 a depravation, and the want of systematic training an anomaly ; for no 

 man, as the old adage says, was ever born with a trade in his mouth. 

 Therefore instinct, intuition, have as little to do in this case as science 

 could have to do in the other. 



As, then, we utterly disclaim all power to make, and, I fear, to trans- 

 form, we must take the raw material (as " W." calls it) just as we find 

 it. And if by ordinary means and common appliances we cannot 

 turn out the superfine, perhaps we may get the home-spun — both are 

 useful ; and, owing to market prices, there is as likely to be a glut of 

 the former as the latter : be this as it may, we must be regulated by 

 the laws of supply and demand. But to drop metaphor. If three 

 years' apprenticeship does not fit a young man to acquit himself among 

 his fellow- workmen, there is a fault somewhere. Either the master is 

 unfit to teach, or neglects his duty to his apprentice ; or the apprentice 

 is unfit to receive, or neglects the instruction given. But if the master 

 be fit, and does not neglect his duty, then the fault is not his ; there- 

 fore it must be the apprentice that is in fault. He ought to try some- 

 thing else. A man may fail in one branch of knowledge, and excel in 

 another. Drummond would never have been a gardener, because the 

 plainest directions appeared to go in at one ear and out at the other. 

 But he mastered the science of botany, and left his name in living 

 characters upon its pages. A. W. 



[We are highly pleased to find that this important subject, the education of 

 young gardeners, is attracting the attention it deserves. When our correspon- 

 dents have given us their views, we shall have much pleasure in giving our own 

 ideas of the matter, founded as they are on rather extensive experience — having 

 passed some three hundred young gardeners through our hands, some of them 

 highly educated, others not able to spell many of the commonest English words. 

 —Ed.] 



