1869.] THE EDUCATION QUESTION. 413 



simply as sensational science. It is certain that the man who cannot 

 read well can never write well. We do not refer to mere handwriting, 

 although to be a good penman is an excellent acquirement, but to 

 the manner and matter written. The man who knows his own lan- 

 guage well can never make many grammatical mistakes. Many a gar- 

 dener has been able to overcome otherwise insurmountable difficulties 

 by being able to lay those difficulties succinctly, forcibly, and clearly 

 before his employer in writing. A man's letter is a pretty good gauge 

 of his mind. We are sorry to say that we have received letters from 

 head-gardeners of which we were heartily ashamed, insomuch that we 

 felt degraded that such men should be chosen to occupy the same pro- 

 fessional platform. Handwriting may be like the address of Tony 

 Lumpkin's letter ; but as the same authority sagely remarked that the 

 inside always contained the cream of the correspondence, we would 

 forgive the crabbed penmanship if the matter make us respect the 

 writer. 



We have said that the gardener must begin early the practical 

 branch of his education ; therefore he has no time to spare, even if it 

 were expedient, in view of his future prospects, to pursue an advanced 

 course of school education. Young men, as a rule, cannot be grounded 

 in the sciences before being turned into the garden ; but if that were 

 practicable, we think physical geography of the first importance, meteor- 

 ology and vegetable physiology to some extent. But we open a dan- 

 gerous prospect for our argument. Those sciences are mines of know- 

 ledge for him; with perseverance, energy, and the mental tools with which 

 nature and the schoolmaster have provided him, he will have abundance 

 of opportunity for picking out and storing his mind with a whole 

 cyclopaedia of information. We have said the young man does not 

 require to be a ready-made philosopher before entering the garden. 

 George Stephenson was only a pit-boy, and so was George Elliot of the 

 present day ; and all our best living gardeners, we venture to say, 

 started early to work in the garden. The very perseverance and 

 energy which enable the young man to educate himself -udll secure 

 his success in future life. It is that sort of energy which will triumph 

 over the innumerable petty difficulties which are incessantly besetting 

 the gardener's operations. 



There is one aspect of education which seems to be overlooked, and 

 which is of much importance to the gardener, seeing that he has 

 to come mucli into contact with people of taste, and that is the edu- 

 cation of the manners : this alone is education among certain classes. 

 While decision of character should be cultivated in the forming and 

 carrying out of plans of operation, nothing is more offensive in a 

 servant than over-confidence and arrogance : deference should at all 



