1870.] THE EDUCATION OF GARDENERS. 217 



the raw material confided to them. I found many difficulties in my way. The 

 first of these was the want of that which " One in Despair " appears to think " is 

 rather a drawback than otherwise to many gardeners " — namely, education. With 

 the assistance of my master and mates in the bothy, I tried for a time to go through 

 a course of lessons on elementary Structural Botany and Vegetable Physiology ; 

 but my early education had been such that I found myself unable to cope with the 

 technical terms that came in my way. I therefore got disheartened, and ultimately 

 gave up the lessons. Should the author of the paper headed " On Theoretical 

 Instruction," in the ' Gardener' for March of last year, chance to see this con- 

 fession, he will doubtless take it as a proof that "speculative knowledge is use- 

 less in learning the trade of a gardener." It may be so, if he intends all young 

 gardeners to begin as I did, without the means, as I may say, of attaining such 

 knowledge. Does this correspondent mean to say that it would be profitable for 

 young gardeners to "exercise their hands," to the exclusion of exercising their 

 brains at the same time 1 The man who could do this for one year of his appren- 

 ticeship, much less for three years, may " despair" of ever becoming a gardener. 

 Some time after I had served my apprenticeship, I had to go back and attempt 

 again the studies I had given up — namely, Structural Botany and Vegetable Phy- 

 siology — simply because I could not get on without them. Now I maintain, had 

 I mastered these partly, and been made to understand a little more fully the 

 theory, along with the practice, of Horticulture, whilst I was serving my appren- 

 ticeship, I should have been a little, if not a long way, further up the " tree of 

 knowledge " than I am at the present time. As to the prospect of finding myself 

 in a better worldly position, I cannot say much — but 



" A man's a man for a' that." 



My experience clearly says to all my younger brother gardeners, Never be found 



" Misspending all your precious hours, — 

 Thy glox-ious youthful prime. " 



There is one branch of education which, to some men, has no more claim on 

 the gardener's attention than has Greek or Hebrew — namely, Drawing. Yet I 

 consider it of great importance to a gardener, when he comes to take the man- 

 agement of a gentleman's establishment, and has other men to set to work. In 

 the first place, he can have things much more to his own mind when he can pro- 

 duce his own plans on paper. Secondly, a glance at a well-wrought-out plan will 

 at once give his employer an idea of what is wanted, and at the same time inspire 

 him with confidence in its successful accomplishment. And, thirdly, to be able 

 to work out a geometrical flower-garden plan on paper is to be able to lay it down 

 correctly on a grass lawn, if need be. An employer must find it very inconven- 

 ient indeed to have to get some one, other than his gardener, to furnish him with 

 a plan, if one be required. And still more provoking is it, if he finds his gardener 

 cannot put them into execution, when obtained, without blundering over them. 

 I was rather surprised to find the head man of a considerable establishment 

 working out alterations on a large scale without any plans at all. The work 

 might have been done in half the time had the ground been previously looked 

 over, calculations made, and plans furnished. In one case, about 50 cart-loads 

 of soil had to be moved a second time ; in another, the verges of a walk 

 were laid three times before the curve could be got to suit the eye of the director. 

 These were big blunders ; little ones are met with much more frequently. A 

 gardener's life comprises much planning, and he ought to be able to execute as 

 well as plan. 



