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HORTICULTURE 



April 28, 1917 



THE YOUNG GARDENER 



An Address Before the Lenox Horticultural Society. By John Johnstone. 



Young men — the enviable and uni- 

 versal reputation established by some 

 ot the older members of this Lenox 

 Horticultural Society is ot more than 

 passing interest. Just after locating 

 in Pittsfield last fall I wrote an old 

 boss in England to the effect that I 

 had now settled in Berkshire County, 

 Mass, He replied to my letter as 

 follows: "The names Berkshires and 

 Lenox are familiar to me as being as- 

 sociated with horticultural giants. Is 

 this the same Berkshire you wrote of. 

 It must be." He thus put the question 

 and himself answered in the affirma- 

 tive. Here then is it exemplified that 

 Lenox is no strange name to gar- 

 deners across the briny, and here too 

 will the young man find an opportunity 

 for development such as few other dis- 

 tricts present. I would not, however, 

 lead anyone to assume that the fact of 

 his having worked in any one or 

 more of these gardens guaranteed effic- 

 iency. Such influence, in British 

 gardens, possesses material advantages. 

 There, a young fellow's capabilities 

 are estimated by the amount of in- 

 fluential power at his command, rather 

 than by his knowledge of the craft. 

 In democratic America men in our pro- 

 fession rest on their merit, and right 

 here, I repeat, is an environment of 

 unbounded opportunity for any young 

 man to learn advanced gardening and 

 the rudiments of estate management. 

 Men of the rising generation, in my 

 opinion, are sometimes prone to await 

 the magic impulse ot what might be 

 called "luck," Having become special- 

 ists in one branch perhaps, and this 

 usually under glass, we patiently, and 

 with complacency rest our oars on the 

 precedent that a knowledge ot 'mums, 

 or roses, or carnations are tlie neces- 

 sary and absolute qualifications of an 

 up-to-date gardener. Unfortunately 

 the head men in their endeavor to pro- 

 cure efficient help encourage this atti- 

 tude to some extent. Almost invari- 

 ably in filling a berth they give prefer- 

 ence to the young man who previously 

 held a similar position. Thus instead 

 of helping the rising generation to be- 

 come proficient all-round gardeners, 

 they do in some measure promote an 

 undesirable state of affairs. Neverthe- 

 less, there are few head men who 

 would deny an ambitious and conscien- 

 tious young man an opportunity tor de- 

 velopment. So that reducing the ques- 

 tion to a normal basis it must be ad- 

 mitted that the whole situation is in 

 the hands of the individual most con- 

 cerned — the young gardener. 



Let me then, young friends, em- 

 phasize the fact that just as the 

 strength of a chain lies in its weakest 

 link, so a man's character, his general 

 knowledge and initistive power are 

 judged by the weakest points. If then 

 we choose to hibernate in the green- 

 houses as horticulturists, alone, be- 

 coming oblivious to the three co-ordi- 

 inate branches of horticulture, pomol- 

 ogy, vegetable culture and landscape 

 gardening, we naturally fail as prac- 

 tical gardeners. By landscape garden- 



ing I mean more particularly the plan- 

 ning and planting of herbaceous 

 borders, shrubberies and the like, as 

 to perspective and the employment of 

 suitable varieties. These are subjects 

 worthy ot our attention, and if circum- 

 stances for the time being prevent our 

 gaining practical knowledge, nothing 

 liinders us from taking a lively inter- 

 est in outdoor gardening and of at 

 least becoming fairly conversant on 

 matters pertaining to this department. 

 However, one ounce of practice is 

 worth a pound of theory and I, there- 

 fore, advocate practical treatment of 

 the subject. Forget the greenhouse 

 for a year or two during your career 

 as an assistant. We put millstones 

 about our necks when we confine our 

 energies to one branch of gardening, 



"The "chip" of conceit will some- 

 times lodge on the shoulder of the 

 young grower whose chrysanthemums, 

 roses, or carnations win honor for his 

 chief at the local show. Young fellows 

 often overlook the fact that previously, 

 maybe for years and years, this same 

 head gardener has won for himself 

 similar honors and is, therefore, 

 justifiably entitled to his enviable 

 reputation. We know of some old so- 

 and-so happily situated and who. in 

 our estimation, knoweth not the first 

 thing about potting a chrysanthemum! 

 Thus, unbridled, our ideas flaunt. How 

 easy to overlook the fact that this 

 same old so-and-so has years ago out- 

 grown, so to speak, elementary gar- 

 dening, and is now responsible for re- 

 sults of an order practically unknown 

 to us of less ripe experience. That 

 which is often uppermost in a young 

 gardener's mind might be less inter- 

 esting to the head man, and probably 

 remote in the mind of an employer. 

 Satisfied that we must now get out of 

 the rut, our best intentions will stag- 

 ger if they do not entirely succumb to 

 an illusory dread of ridicule. We seem 

 to be endowed with a natural timidity 

 when confronted by an edifying propo- 

 silion, and quite heedless of the old 

 saying, "He who tears ridicule is at 

 the mercy of every fool," 



Nothing would give me greater joy 

 tlian to have at these meetings each 

 young member voluntarily give of his 

 experience something to stimulate en- 

 thusiasm and evoke criticism. There 

 is nothing derogatory in being criti- 

 cised. Take notice, those who expose 

 themselves to and can merit criticism 

 are generally doing something of the 

 worth while order. Let us then revo- 

 lutionize our standard of preparedness. 

 Apathy on our part cannot be too 

 strongly condemned, and while the rut 

 is hard to steer clear of, well directed 

 energy will pull us through. 



Don't forget that some of the old 

 school hail fi'om Missouri and my ad- 

 vice just now is that "when you feel 

 in earnest seize the very minute; it 

 there's anything you can do, or think 

 you can, begin it," 



Not all young men lack the incentive 

 but oh! so many hate to get busy. 



A PROGRESSIVE MASSACHUSETTS 

 INSTITUTION. 



The Essex County Agricultural 

 School finished its class room work 

 April 18. This early date is in re- 

 sponse to the "Increase the Agricul- 

 tural Production" campaign and also 

 is along the line of progress towards 

 the time when Agricultural Schools 

 and Colleges will be in session during 

 the growing season when live material 

 is available for the study of such sub- 

 jects as Botany and Entomology and 

 horticultural and agricultural opera- 

 tions are in progress. The student of 

 these subjects should vacation when 

 Mother Nature vacations — in the 

 winter. 



The school was not established as a 

 stepping stone to a college agricultural 

 education, although it may be so used 

 but gives an opportunity to obtain a 

 vocation High School education. True 

 to the vocational idea, that is getting 

 practical experience at the same time 

 as learning from books and lectures the 

 students carry on at their homes or 

 at the school such projects as market 

 gardening, poultry raising, fruit grow- 

 ing, floriculture, etc., or get experience 

 at nurseries, private estates, market 

 gardens, poultry, dairy or fruit farms 

 and greenhouse establishments. 



This school is in session twelve 

 mouths ot the year, the instructors 

 supervising the projects during the 

 summer and the students checking up 

 by practical experience the book 

 knowledge gained during the winter. 



Horticulture is represented on the 

 school faculty by the following in- 

 structors: Frank H. Wilson (Mass, 

 Agri, College), formerly at N, H, State 

 College, and with Thomas Roland of 

 Nahant, instructor of Floriculture and 

 Botany; Ellwood Allen, M, A. C, in 

 charge of Landscape Gardening; Loth- 

 rop Davenport, instructor in Fruit 

 Growing; James Salter, a well known 

 North Shore gardener, and Robert A. 

 Mitchell are responsible for Vegetable 

 Gardening. 



CLUB AND SOCIETY NOTES. 



The following officers were installed 

 at the annual meeting of the Florists' 

 Association of Buffalo held in Kast- 

 ings hall on the evening of April 17. 

 President, Henry H. Fibers; vice- 

 president, Mark Palmer; secretary, 

 William Legg; financial secretary, 

 Oliver Kliugemeier; treasurer, Edward 

 Stroh; directors, W. J. Palmer, W. H. 

 Fiss and Louis Neubeck. 



At the monthly meeting of the Stam- 

 ford Horticultural Society last Friday 

 evening eight new members were 

 added. Alexander Geddes read a paper 

 on "The Culture of Vegetables," which 

 .gave some very timely pointers to the 

 numerous amateur gardeners present. 

 Cultural certificates were awarded to 

 Mr, Biscke for collection of French 

 hydrangeas, and A, Wynn for antirr- 

 hinums. J. D, Foster received high 

 commendation for Spiraea rubens, and 

 thanks were extended to A, Geddes for 

 carnations and Gerbera Jamesoni and 

 to A, Pederson for Yarrawa sweet 

 peas, 



F, S. H.\RTWRiGHT, Cor, Secy. 



