i8q8. 



• ' • GARDENING. 



137 



attached by Continental authorities to 

 the subject of educating youths in the 

 principles and practice of land cultivation 

 can be adduced than the action of the 

 French Government. We are told there 

 are 2S.000 schools in France with gar- 

 dens attached to them. The theory of 

 horticulture is taught in these schools, 

 and practiced in thegardens. This is done 

 to some extent in England, and especially 

 perhaps in Surrey, but what emphasizes 

 the importance of such teaching as enter- 

 tained by our neighbors across the Chan- 

 nel is the decision of the French Minister 

 of Agriculture to greatly increase the 

 number of school gardens; and it is more- 

 over now made iniDerative that masters 

 ot elementary schools in rural districts of 

 France must be capable of giving prac- 

 tical instruction in the cultivation of the 

 soil. This has been the case in Switzer- 

 land for many years, and an intelligent 

 Swiss gardener, practicing with much 

 success in England, ascribes the prevail- 

 ing thrift and contentment of his working 

 compatriots mainlv to the rational sys- 

 tem of teaching indicated. In Surrey 

 there are schoolmasters who, chiefly 

 through the facilities which have been 

 afforded them by the County Council, 

 have made themselves competent to teach 

 both the principles and practice of horti- 

 culture in its essentially useful aspects, 

 and are in fact doing so both in continua- 

 tion schools and gardens. 



A fact mav now be stated which is not 

 perhaps generally known — namely, that 

 — if France is in advance of England in 

 teaching gardening to small children, 

 Surrey is in advanceof France in teaching 

 it to strong youths. If these youths had 

 shared in the advantages of horticultural 

 lessons in elementary schools and plots, 

 the} - would have been less strange to, 

 because better prepared for. the sterner 

 and more substantial work in the contin- 

 uation gardens. This is clear from the 

 work of the school boys who (under the 

 Education Department) are taught by 

 the side of older youths, as at Hale. East 

 Farnham, Banstead, Caterham, Burgh 

 Heath, or wherever two sets of gardens 

 are provided. It is, however, all the 

 same true that 200 Surrey youths, with- 

 out any such preparation, have acquitted 

 themselves most creditably. The work 

 of not a few is surprisingly good, while of 

 some it must rank as of the highest excel- 

 lence — far better than that which the 

 fathers of most of them show in their gar- 

 dens or allotments. 



When the character and methods of 

 teaching practical gardening to youths 

 whose school term has expired, as well as 

 to adults in Surrev. was explained to 

 Mons. Henri de Yilmorin, he was de- 

 lighted, observing that there was no such 

 teaching to those classes of the commu- 

 nity in France, as he was sure there 

 ought to be. Good as the teaching may 

 be in, and in connection with day schools, 

 it ceases too soon, or just at the time 

 when the youths gain strength enough 

 for effective work, and whose minds are 

 sufficiently developed to comprehend the 

 teaching imparted, and to appreciate its 

 present and prospective usefulness. Thus 

 they do not do everything "Better in 

 France" than is done in England, and 

 there is no reason why the soil ot this 

 country should not be made quite as pro- 

 ductive as that of any other nation in 

 Eurone. 



It has been stated in a previous report 

 that the value of the produce grown on a 

 number of the one-rod continuation school 

 plots of Surrey, worked entirely by youths 

 under instructions, exceeded an average 

 of ten shillings. This statement took 



some persons by surprise, but it was all 

 the same absolutely correct; and one of 

 the youths working in Reigate center 

 realized fifteen shillings from his plot last 

 vear, including prizes for good work and 

 from produce sold — the sales representing 

 only a portion of the produce grown. 

 This is not intended to suggest or imply 

 that all the land in the county, or the 

 kingdom, should be put under this form 

 of cultivation, or anything so chimerical; 

 but it is intended to show that vast quan- 

 tities of land already under spade culture, 

 as in the gardens of the operative classes 

 and allotments, might be made to yield 

 twice the amount of food by thorough 

 cultivation; and moreover this remark, 

 with the truth it embodies, is applicable 

 to land generally. 



It is not necessary to go beyond the 

 plots themselves forexamples which prove 

 beyond all possible doubt the signal 

 power of cultivation in increasing the 

 productiveness of the land. In some 

 groups of gardens all the plots are excel- 

 lent, and in man} - creditable; but in others 

 there are striking disparities — full crops, 

 half crops, quarter crops, and crops not 

 worthy of the name, or, to refer to them 

 by valuation, plots ranging in value from 

 ten shillings actually down to two-pence. 

 Yet the land in each group is exactly the 

 same, the manure and seeds provided for 

 all are identical, and all the plots in each 

 center obviously subjected to the same 

 weather influences. Two things, and 

 two alone, account for the difference: 

 namely, sound diligent work, with knowl- 

 edge on the one hand; negligent or slip- 

 shod work on the other. 



There has been a greater advance in 

 the character of the work during the pres- 

 ent year than has ever been previously 

 recorded. In several gardens it has 

 exceeded anticipations, and, so far as is 

 known, is unparalleled. This is largely 

 due to a spirit of emulation that has been 

 incited, and to the commendable pride 

 which many workers take in their plots. 

 They have striven assiduously, and are 

 entitled to a full measure of praise; but at 

 the same time it must be admitted that 

 the weather has. on the whole, been 

 decidedly more favorable to the progress 

 of crops than that of previous years, or, 

 in other words, the same advance could 

 not have been made had the drought been 

 as serious and prolonged as in 1S95 and 

 1896; still, let the weather be what it 

 may, the best and most diligent workers 

 achieve the best results, and this, to a 

 large extent, irrespective of the nature of 

 the soil. This, indeed, is the most impor- 

 tant fact that has been established by this 

 systematically -conducted, carefully -in- 

 spected and registered work. 



A similar opportunity has never before 

 been afforded as in these^ three hundred 

 and sixty- nine small gardens in Surrey 

 for proving to demonstration that the 

 greatest of all factors in obtaining a max- 

 imum amount of useful produce from the 

 soil is sound, intelligent, persevering work, 

 or doing what requires to be done in the 

 right manner and at the proper time. 

 Many of the youthful workers have done 

 all that could be reasonably expected, as 

 have their teachers, and only under the 

 influence of a very favorable season indeed 

 can the best of the present year's work be 

 excelled. — Gardeners' Magazine. 



H M DUNLAP. 



Massachusetts Horticultural Soci- 

 ety. — At the exhibition of this societv on 

 January 8, Mr. J. E. Rothwell was 

 awarded a silver medal for a plant of the 

 rare Odoatoghssum Vuylsteckeaaum. 



WORKERS IN HORTICULTURE. |. 



Herewith we present to our readers the 

 portrait of President-elect Dunlap of the 

 Illinois State Horticultural Society. Mr. 

 Dunlap has been engaged in practical hor- 

 ticulture all his life. Born in Leyden 

 township, Cook countv, Illinois, Novem- 

 ber 14, 1853, his father, M. L. Dunlap, 

 ("Rural" of the Tribune until his deathin 

 1875), moved to a farm in Champaign 

 county in 1856, and it is on this farm 

 that Mr. Dunlap still lives. Graduating 

 from the University of Illinois, he has 

 since lived upon the farm, and succeeded 

 A. C. Hammond as secretarv of the State 

 Horticultural Society in 1S93. Elected 

 to the state senate in 1892 and re-elected 

 in 1896, he has given close attention to 

 the interests of Illinois horticulturists, 

 and was properly rewarded by election to 

 the presidency of the state society at its 

 annual convention, held in Springfield, 

 HI., last month. Mr. Dunlap is much 

 interested in all departments of horticult- 

 ure and believes that Illinois will soon 

 take its proper place as the first apple- 

 producing state in the union. 



Fruits and Vegetables. 



MARKET MUSHROOMS. 

 For those who purchase their mush- 

 rooms, says Professor Colville, instead of 

 gathering them for themselves, the judg- 

 ment of the colored market women that 

 a particular species is edible I consider as 

 sale a guide as the decision of the highest 

 botanical authority, not because their 

 knowledge of mushrooms is extensive but 

 because they are thoroughly familiar with 

 the two or three edible species they han- 

 dle and know them as certainly from 

 poisonous kinds as they know persim- 

 mons from crab apples or opossums from 

 rabbits. The colored women shun all 

 other kinds of fungi, whether the poisonous 

 or not, with a half superstitious dread. 

 This statement is made because the im- 

 pression has been created that the poison- 

 ous mushrooms connected with the recent 

 fatal case were on public sale in the street 

 market. They were not on sale, but were 

 brought in from Virginia by a country- 

 man who was delivering them, somewhat 



