THE 



AMERICAN 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE. 



APRIL, 1835. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. On the Professional Education of Gardeners. By Grant 

 Thorburn, Esq., New York. 



By education is generally understood that portion of knowledge 

 which is obtained at schools ; but we shall here use the term in a 

 somewhat more extended sense, and consider it as the means which, 

 may be employed, to render men competent for performing the part 

 which they undertake to ])erform in life, with increased satisfaction 

 to themselves, and to their employers. Education may thus be con- 

 sidered, as extending to every thing which operates on the body or 

 mind, from the earliest period of our existence, to the final extinc- 

 tion of life. With this object in view, we shall consider, in succes- 

 sion, the professional, intellectual, religious, physical, and economi- 

 cal education of gardeners, — previously submitting some general 

 remarks. 



The knowledge of languages, history, geography, arts, sciences, 

 and literature, which a gardener, daily occupied with his profession, 

 may acquire, provided he begins at the commencement of his ap- 

 prenticeship, and continues to employ his leisure hours in reading, 

 till he is twenty-one, or twenty-six years of age, is, by no means in- 

 considerable ; not that he can or needs to become learned ; but, if 

 desirous, he may become generally intelligent, render himself fit, as 

 far as conversation is concerned, for good society ; prove instructive 

 and entertaining to others by his conversation, and provide a reserve 

 fund of enjoyment for himself, by laying up a store of ideas for re- 

 flection in misfortune, disease, or old age. 



The grand drawback to every kind of improvement is the com- 

 mon and degrading idea, that certain things are beyond our reach ; 

 whereas, every thing is attainable by tlie employment of means, and 



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