no 



IRISH GARDENING 



The Education of a Gardener.* 



MR. W. HALES, A.L.S., read a paper on this 

 subject. He stated that our present system 

 was more or less a system of "drift." That 

 such asystem— or rather want of system — had produced 

 many excellent gardeners was freely acknowledged, 

 and was clearly shown in the magnificent exhibition ; 

 and when one pondered over the training these men 

 had received, the thought naturally arose, how were 

 we to improve upon the methods employed ? 



The work of a gardener covered such a number ot 

 different branches that the education which a gardener 

 should receive must of necessity be a subject upon which 

 there were many diverse opinions. There could, how- 

 ever, be no two opinions but that the boy who wished 

 to make gardening his life's work should receive while 

 at school as full a general education as the circum- 

 stances allowed ; and if it were pi'ssible for him to 

 continue his studies up to the age of sixteen or seven- 

 teen years at a good secondary school, where he would 

 receive an additional training in those sciences which 

 would ultimatel}' have a direct bearing upon his profes- 

 sion, such as geology, botany, chemistry, and land 

 surveying, he would be possessed of an asset which 

 would undoubtedly be of value to him in his future work. 



Two years spent in acquiring the sound elementary 

 details of his work would be ample to fit an intelligent 

 and capable boy for the more important duties of a 

 journeyman, and he must then realise that the future 

 success or failure of his life as a gardener would largely 

 depend upon himself, in the use he made of the many 

 and varied opportunities of acquiring knowledge which 

 occurred in his daily woi k. Neither should he forget 

 to use every endeavour to further improve his general 

 knowledge of those subjects which have a direct bearing 

 upon his profession, since it is at this period of his life 

 that his mind is most receptive to new facts and ideas, 

 and his memory most retentive. The young journeyman 

 should never forget that the cardinal point in his early 

 training must be centred upon making himself proficient 

 in the actual manual part of his work. Other subjects 

 should be studied in the way of "intellectual amuse- 

 ment " rather than as things which must be acquired at 

 this stage. Further pursuit of these subjects should be 

 reserved for the later stages of his training, when he 

 would be likely to have a clearer idea of what he desired 

 lo do. 



The young gardener should acquire earl}- the habit of 

 observation of the objects of his daily work ; and having 

 observed, he should try and discover for himself the 

 reasons for what he has seen. 



His watchword must always be, "Keep your eyes 

 open to things which want attention," and never do 

 things in a mechanical manner. He laboured this point 

 a little because, having h.id a fairly wide experience of 

 men, he knew only too well how common it was for 

 them to get into a mechanical way of doing work. 

 They would go through a house of plants for watering, 

 and never see the plant which needed watering most; 

 or they failed to notice the first sign ot distress from 



* From a paper read at the Conference at the Inteviialional Horticiil- 

 tunil Exhibition. 



insect pests, such as thrlps and red spider, until a great 

 deal of damage had been done. 



If the journe\'man could spend part of his training in 

 a good Continental nursery or public garden, he would 

 be still further equipped, as here, besides his purel}' 

 horticultural training, he would also have the advantage 

 of acquiring a knowledge of the langUcige of the 

 country, which would be of much value to him in after 

 years. 



He ventured to suggest that this was a subject that 

 conference might well consider, and determine whether 

 some sort of organised exchange system between young 

 gardeners of this country and Continental countries 

 could not be instituted, on somewhat similar lines to 

 those which at present existed for elementary school 

 teachers between this country and France. 



What many of them would like to see grow out of this 

 conference was some definite co-ordinated system of 

 educational teaching designed for the mnn who w-as 

 making gardening his profession. The system should 

 ensure that the j'oung gardener would finally be able lo 

 pass through a period of training in the higher branches 

 of his profession, so as to be able to compete more 

 successfully with the purely college-trained theory men, 

 who, it had to be admitted, were often preferred for 

 positions before the purely practical men because of 

 their supposed superior scientific equipment. 



Some sy><tem of training should be organised so as to 

 make it possible that a thorough blending of the two 

 types would result, and then horticulture would stand to 

 gain untold advantages. 



The pure scientist often had to lament his non- 

 acquaintance with practice, as was the case with 

 Darwin, who said that every botanist should have spent 

 pai'l of his training as a gardener. 



Since horticulture was of such vast importance to the 

 people of this country, was it too much to ask that the 

 Government should render financial assistance, in the 

 way of bursaries and scholarships, to help forward this 

 scheme for the better education of gardeners? Surelj- 

 not ! And one ventured to hope that something of a 

 definite nature in this respect might be the outcome of 

 that great conference. 



i^f 5^* e^^ 



Tm; Woolly .Aphis. 



A SHARP look out should be kept for this pest on 

 apple trees ; old trees when afFectedshould be brushed 

 with paraffin and the younger ones with methylated 

 spirits. 



A very go^id mixture to use, known as Nessler's 

 Mixtuie, is made as follows: — i part of soft soap is 

 completely dissolved in 13 parts of warm water, and lo 

 the solution, when cool, add 2 parts of fusel oil (aniyl 

 alcohol) and 4 parts of spirits of wine. This mixture 

 has the peculiarity that each drop spreads at once 

 whether the surface be dry or wet, so that it penetrates 

 and kills the .\phid.-c which are concealed. .Shake the 

 solution well before using. 



The .\phid,f met with in summer arc females, fertile 

 without pairing ; when full grown they bring forth 30 

 or more living youni;, and it is said to be possible for the 

 descendants of a single aphis to amount to millions in 

 a year. 



