Education for Young Private Gardeners 



By Edward A. White, Professor of Floriculture, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass. 



The American people have now reached a point where 

 they are demanding vocational education for their chil- 

 dren. ^\'e 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 schooldays would have been bright- 

 ened and m\- interest intensified 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 pupils' 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 life 

 work. The day of the American apprentice is rapidl}' 

 passing and the broadly educated skilled mechanic is 

 the result. 



The average American farmer of the last century wa;- 

 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 con- 

 sidered essential that he become proficient in the higher 

 branches of learning in order to 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, 

 however ; population has increased ; competition has in- 

 creased and discoveries have been made in all branches 

 of science. The farmer of fifty years ago would find 

 himself incompetent to compete with the methods de- 

 manded in scientific agriculture of today. The farmers 

 of the present have been quick to appreciate the need of 

 education along scientific lines and the agricultural col- 

 leges have larger enrollments than ever in their history. 



But mechanic arts and general agriculture are not the 

 only branches in which there has come to be a call for 

 better educational training. 



Within the last ten years country life in America has 

 been the slogan. The development of trolley systems 

 and rapid transportation into the suburbs has made coun- 

 try life possible for a large number of city business men. 

 In some sections the decadence of agricultural condition.^ 

 has thrown large areas of land on the market at a com- 

 paratively low figure and keen business men have seized 

 the opportunity to buy these tracts for their country 

 homes. Consequently there is an increasing demana 

 yearly for superintendents of these estates. 



There is a need today for men better trained in the 

 gardening profession. This training must of necessity 

 be along broad lines for the man who superintends j 

 private estate must have a vast store of information and 

 the ability to use this to the best advantage. 



The owner of the private estate has come to feel the 

 necessity of having the broadly trained man to superin- 

 tend the work of his estate. In no place in .America can 

 the young man of today who is looking forward to a 

 life of service in the gardening profession get a better 

 training than in the agricultural colleges of the United 

 States. IMuch is said in favor of the apprentice system 

 practised so generally in Europe, but our .\merican con- 

 ditions are quite different, and while men trained in that 

 country and under that system have rendered valuable 

 service in American horticulture, the time seems to have 

 come when .Vmerica can train her own sons for this 

 work, better even than they could be trained abroad. 



The majority of owners of estates enjov the associa- 

 tions of the cultured man. Most agricultural colleges 



emphasize this culture in the early courses of the cur- 

 riculum and the man is well equipped in his knowledge 

 of literature, history and the like. It is true that these 

 subjects are not absolutely essential for a gardener's suc- 

 cess, but they go far in broadening his influence in the 

 horticultural world. He becomes a more fluent speakci" 

 in agricultural and horticultural meetings and most own- 

 ers of private estates take pride in employing men with 

 this ability. 



PROF. EDW.M<D A. WHITE. 



It is sometimes difticult to make young men understand 

 the need of agricultural and horticultural training along 

 many lines. This is an age of specialization, but the 

 private estate is no place for the specialist. The super- 

 intendent may have his so-called "hobby" and this may 

 legitimately take the form of special breeds of poultry, 

 ponies, orchids, dairy cows or the like, but the young 

 man who is to superintend a private estate must lay his 

 foundation along the many branches of agricultural and 

 horticultural work. Eirst of all he must have a love for 

 the work. Then with his cultural education, already 

 spoken. of, he must combine a thorough knowledge of 

 dairying, field crops, and general farm practices, veg- 

 etable growin-::. trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and 

 the general culture of fruits and cut flowers, both under 

 glass and outdoors. He nnist know the principles of 

 bee keeping, the insects which are lieneficial to plant life 

 and those which destrov it. the fungus diseases among 

 jjlants and their preventions, as well as the diseases which 

 prey on animal life. He must also be a good financier, 

 for no owner of a private estate takes the interest in a 

 losing proposition which he does in a paying one. The 

 maiorit\- •■'' '"'" fnined in agricultural colleges learn 



