412 THE GARDENER. [Sept. 



Most young gardeners require a great deal of pumping out, as masters 

 find to their cost in temper and patience. At any rate, like the soldier 

 in the awkward squad, he requires his hands, legs, and eyes discip- 

 lined in the garden. This discipline must embrace a pretty exten- 

 sive range of subjects, — levelling of ground, planting, training; in 

 fact, everything which demands skilled labour. This, we take it, is 

 a very important part of a gardener's education indeed, seeing that it 

 is essentially a practical profession, like surgery. All the very best 

 generals, from Frederick the Great downwards, have been stern discip- 

 linarians. We must learn to obey before we can command. The 

 mental part of the gardener's education seems, however, to mono- 

 polise attention at present, as if that were the great want of the 

 class. We do not think the mental ability of the profession is at all 

 retrograding as compared with its practical efficiency. We have a 

 great army and navy fit for any practical undertaking, but we do not 

 hear of many great admirals or generals. Gardening is not in that 

 position ; we have abundance of great generals. We do not, however, 

 mean in the least to underrate the importance for all gardeners of a 

 well-disciplined mind, and it well stored with all sorts of useful in- 

 formation bearing on the subject; indeed, such is necessary to every 

 one who would rise above mere routine. The amount of education 

 the gardener requires to begin with, and how it is to be acquired, 

 seems to be the vexed point. Much preliminary learning does not 

 seem at all necessary — a little learning in this case might be a trouble- 

 some if not a dangerous thing ; and yet we are told that if gardening 

 is to be maintained at all, the rising generation ought to be acquainted 

 with all the ologies — indeed, most of the sciences which end with y. 

 In the view of a large amount of work with a minimum of hands, if 

 we were asked to disestablish our present rather unscientific though 

 generally industrious staff, and accept a batch of those young philoso- 

 phers in their stead, we own we should dread the result. In addition to 

 the training which our future gardener receives at home, the school ac- 

 complishments of reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic must of course be given ; 

 and let me say that the young man who can really read well, write well, 

 and is master of the fundamentals of arithmetic, has accomplished a very 

 great deal — indeed, we do not hesitate to say that he has accomplished 

 all that is necessary at school in view of his prospects as a gardener. 

 His practical education must begin early. I repeat, it is no small 

 matter to be able to read. Thousands of grown-up people fancy they 

 can read the Bible, but they cannot. Many young men read through 

 useful books, and after all they are not read ; they must mark, learn, 

 and inwardly digest what is read. Some scientific books are often read 

 just as a pastime, as we would a novel; indeed, many are written 



