National and Educational Interests. 137 



''President Jordan sees two general ways of elevating the 

 garden and the gardener. Cities are growing, and the coun- 

 try is taking on a better life. Gardening is adapted to all con- 

 ditions, ' and it is committed to our hands to extend our parks 

 and boulevards far into the country until city is linked to city, 

 and the most rural districts will feel the vitalizing forces of 

 plants and flowers.' Those who are benefitted by institutions 

 of learning ' are very few compared with the great mass of 

 people that frequent our parks and public grounds to take ob- 

 ject-lessons, where young and old, rich and poor, learned and 

 illiterate meet on one common level to drink in nature's best 

 gifts to man.' Yet in the educational institutions a higher 

 and more symmetrical culture can be attained. President 

 Jordan again calls the attention of the societ}^ to the impor- 

 tance of some school or college training for the florist. 

 'Science shows us how the things we have to deal with in our 

 homeliest toil connect us (if we but understand the linking) 

 to what is most elevating in man's thoughts and hopes. It 

 helps supply that food for the mind, without which we starve 

 in drudgery, but by the strength of which we rise to a higher 

 plane of life ' 



''The education problem has long been a vexed question 

 among the florists, and there is yet no appearance of a solu- 

 tion of it. Members are divided b}^ conflicting aims, and 

 there has been no one with a practicable and clear-cut propo- 

 sition who could lead the organization to any definite action. 

 Many are making the vital mistake of supposing that the first 

 requisite in a florists' school is a corps of florists to direct it. 

 The first requisite in any school is men who can teach. When 

 it so happens that the teacher is also a successful grower, the 

 highest ideal is attained. But the first requirement of any 

 man who imparts instruction is ability to fire the enthusiasm of 

 his students. So it often happens that the most successful 

 teachers are distanced by their pupils. President Jordan 

 thinks that wealthy men could be induced to endow florists' 

 schools, and no doubt the}^ will do so as soon as they feel as- 

 sured that a sufficient demannd and interest exists. The be- 

 quest of the late Henry Shaw, of St. Louis, is an example 

 worthy of emulation. But some of the land-grant colleges 

 would no doubt take up this work actively if the florists should 



