April 5, 1913 



HOBTICULTUEB 



515 



EDUCATION FOR GARDENERS AND FLORISTS 



An address delivered before the Gardeners' and Florists' Club of Boston, Nov. 12, 1912, by Prof. E. 



Amherst. 



A. White, 



The American people have now 

 reached a point where they are de- 

 manding vocational education for their 

 children. We hear it along all lines, 

 and the trend seems to be in the right 

 direction. Education today is very dif- 

 ferent from what it was in my boyhood 

 days and as I hear the young people 

 preparing their lessons it seems to me 

 that my own school days would have 

 been brightened and my interest in- 

 tensified if I could have been given 

 similar methods. Education is not now 

 given in the abstract. It is concrete, 

 precise and along those definite lines 

 which touch the pupil's lives closely. 

 In all of the larger cities technical 

 high schools and manual training 

 schools are established to teach boys 

 and girls those subjects which have a 

 vital bearing on their lite work. The 

 day of the American apprentice is rap- 

 idly passing and the broadly educated 

 skilled mechanic is the consequence. 



The average American farmer of the 

 last century would be considered to- 

 day the uneducated man. As a rule he 

 attended school in his boyhood and 



young manhood long enough to obtain 

 a fair knowledge of the three "R's" but 

 it was not considered essential that he 

 become proficient in the higher 

 branches of learning in order to suc- 

 cessfully till the soil. Doubtless this 

 was true and many of our ancestors 

 were able to derive a good living from 

 the farm. Times have changed, how- 

 ever; population has increased, com- 

 petition has increased and discoveries 

 have been made in all branches of 

 science. The farmer of fifty years ago 

 would find himself incapable of com- 

 peting with the methods demanded in 

 scientific agriculture of today. The 

 farmers of the present have been 

 quick to appreciate the need of educa- 

 tion along scientific lines and the agri- 

 cultural colleges have larger enroll- 

 ments than ever in their history. 



But education along agricultural 

 lines for the farmers' boys is not now 

 confined to the curricula of agricul- 

 tural colleges. Students of education 

 have come to realize that there is a 

 demand and a need for instruction 

 along these lines for the boy and girl 

 who cannot go to college and who can 

 spend but the minimum amount of 

 time in high school. Therefore instead 

 of teaching the so-called higher 



branches of learning in rural high 

 schools, distinctly agricultural topics 

 have been inserted in the curricula of 

 many of these schools which have al- 

 ready given splendid results. 



But what of the need of better edu- 

 cational facilities for the boys and 

 young men who are to become the 

 American florists of the future? Let 

 us take a brief glance at the history of 

 the industry. It has been hardly sev- 

 enty-five years since the business be- 

 gan to assume any considerable Im- 

 portance in the United States and it 

 has been only within very recent years 

 that the industry has developed along 

 broad business principles. The day of 

 the general commercial grower is pass- 

 ing and the specialist is the prominent 

 florist of today. The owner of large 

 enterprises, or manager of the same, 

 however, must not be limited to a 

 specialty, but must have a broad gen- 

 eral knowledge of all branches of the 

 industry. Competition was never 

 greater than at the present time, the 

 margin of profits has decreased and 

 the business now demands men trained 

 to the fullest extent of their intellec- 

 tual ability. 



As in general farming the flower 

 growers are coming slowly to realize 

 that theirs is a distinct profession, as 

 definite and important as the profes- 



AT THE- 



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