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GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



Teach Horticulture To Foster Love for Plants^ 



p. M. KOSTER 



SLOA\'LY and surely a taste is developing in America 

 for plants and flowers, a love for horticulture. I 

 have seen great changes in the twenty-five years I 

 have been coming to this country. I think that is our 

 duty to further and to foster the love for plants here. 

 We must have something in the future to which to devote 

 our time. More and more the people are working 

 fewer hours. We must tr\- to give them something other 

 than a desire to attend the movies and to speed along the 

 roads at the rate of fifty miles an hour. This can only 

 be done by educating them to love plants. Allow me to 

 point out to you what other countries are doing, in order 

 to give the necessarv horticultural instruction and educa- 

 tion. Naturally. I am speaking about Holland, the coun- 

 tr\' with which T am most acquainted. 



In the first place, there is elementary horticultural 

 training in the Winter courses, for which the state gives 

 a subsidy. Each course extends over two Winter sem- 

 esters. The teaching is done by the state school teachers, 

 who have acquired the necessary qualifications; qualified 

 practical gardeners are also employed to do the teaching. 

 Students may enter every two years and must not be 

 under fifteen years of age. The course comprises : The 

 elements of natural science, including plant diseases and 

 jrests : manures, soils, treatment and improvement of the 

 ground : fruit culture, vegetable and flower culture, 

 arboriculture and horticultural drawing. As far as pos- 

 sible, the instruction is adapted to the requirements of the 

 particular kind of gardening in the location. 



Secondary training in horticulture is given in five horti- 

 cultural Winter colleges. One is in Aalsmeer, flowers ; 

 one in Boskoop, nurseries ; another at Lisse, bulbs ; at 

 Naaldwyk, fruit ; at Hoorn, vegetables, and at the Horti- 

 cultural College at Frederiksoord. The object of these 

 colleges is to give the necessary horticultural education 

 to young gardeners, florists, nurserymen, etc. The schools 

 are divided into two classes and the period of instruction 

 covers two Winter semesters, from October to April. 

 In the Summer months these young men work with their 

 various employers ; this way almost everybody can aft'ord 

 to attend these colleges. 



Higher horticultural education is given in the High 

 School for Agriculture, Horticulture and Forestry, at 

 W'ageningen. This is a three-year course and embraces 

 jihysics, meteorology, plant physiology, mineralogy and 

 soils, chemistr\- and agricultural chemistry, botanical 

 terminology, tetany, drawing, surveying, arboriculture, 

 fruit growing, vegetable and flower culture, civil law and 

 practical work. 



Besides all this valuable knowledge, foreign languages 

 are taught, which is a great assistance to our horticultural 

 education, as it enables us to read horticultural papers 

 in foreign languages. It also prepares the young men 

 for their extensive travels in foreign countries, where 

 they generally go after learning their trade at home. 



It is not only in Holland that this horticultural educa- 

 tion is given ; it is the same in England, Germany, licl- 

 gium and France. 



That sometimes the knowledge of a foreign language 

 is directly responsible for horticultural gains is illustrated 

 by the way Koster's Blue Spruce was found. 



My father, who was the great, great-grandson of a nur- 

 seryman, soon understood that in order to make Boskoop a 

 horticultural center, we did need a larger area than Hol- 

 land to sell our products, and father did all he could to 



•A talk given bcfoTC the Philadelphia Florists* Club. 



induce the government to devote time and money to 

 horticulture and to the, teaching of foreign languages. 

 He himself had acquired, through self-study, a consider- 

 able knowledge of English, French and German. One 

 da\-, reading in the Rcvitc Horticolc, father saw a descrip- 

 tion of the beautiful Blue Spruces of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and read that the botanical garden at Zurich had 

 received seeds of some of the finest specimens. Immedi- 

 ately father wrote for some seeds, received some and one 

 of the seedlings was the Blue Spruce which now is univer- 

 sally known as Koster's Blue. If father had not been 

 able to read French, would the plant have come to life? 

 Would others have seen the great beauty of this plant 

 and would it have been propagated? 



This is not the only instance ; other plants have been 

 described in foreign papers and propagated. These, 

 otherwise, would have disappeared unnoticed. 



In the schools a spirit of competition in growing flow- 

 ers is created and the schools have many expositions of 

 flowering plants, which imbue the youngsters with a love 

 for plants and flowers. Who is able to grow the best? 

 Imagine the pride of a little girl from poor parents bring- 

 ing in a beautiful plant and winning first prize! 



I think it is our duty to help develop this love for flow- 

 ers and plants, and show each and all people what can be 

 done with flowers and how they make our life richer, 

 how trees and shrubbery make our homes more attractive. 



Conditions have already very much improved since I 

 came to this country first. But we are not doing enough. 

 Let our horticultural associations get busy and our 

 women's clubs. Let them create funds to appoint — let 

 me call them horticultural preachers, who, armed with a 

 great love for plants and with lantern slides, go out and 

 show the people (not the upper 400) what can be accom- 

 plished with little expense and labor ; show them how 

 the board fences must be replaced by well kept hedges, 

 how a, few cliiubing roses will improve the appearance 

 of their homes, how a few beds of inexpensive bulbs, 

 some perennials, will make their homes attractive, and 

 then — watch how their surroundings will make for a 

 happier life. 



We must awaken the vast nuiltitudes to the realiza- 

 tion of the needs of plants and shrubs and flowers ; we 

 must create in the minds of all a desire to improve them- 

 selves, their properties, their communities. This cannot 

 be done by lectures before horticultural clubs and .socie- 

 ties ; those present there do not need to be awakened. It 

 is the daily paper, the small local paper which must take 

 this task to heart. 



r)ne of the saddest features of the lack of horticultural 

 training is the condition the trees are in, lining the streets 

 in the cities. The authorities in charge evidently do not 

 see the need of pruning when the trees are young, and 

 many trees could still be saved if they were treated right. 

 If I compare the almost loving care which is bestowed 

 on trees in European cities, how they are Summcr-jiruncd' 

 and Winter-iiruned until such time that they can take 

 care of themselves, I feel really sorry for their .Xmcrican 

 brothers and sisters, which, once planted, do not get any 

 care thereafter. Many of vou have seen the i)eautil'ul 

 Elms lining the streets in Holland, the Linden in iieiiin. 

 the Planes in London, the Horse-che.stnuts in Paris, all 

 well shaped, symmetrical trees, with stems the same 

 height, forming beautiful avenues, a sight to Ix-hold. 



Now, what is the remedy for all this? Horticultural 

 (Couliiiucd oil /'iT.t.'r 1.^) 



