1136 STATISTICS OF GARDENING. PART IV. 



SECT. II. Of the Professional Education of Gardeners. 



7724. In order that a jrrofessional man should excel as such, every other acquirement 

 must be kept subservient to that of his profession. No branch of knowledge should be 

 pursued to any extent, that either of itself, or by the habits of thinking to which it gives 

 rise, tends to divert the mind from the main object of pursuit. Something, it is true, is 

 due to relaxation in every species of acquirement ; but judicious relaxation only serves to 

 whet the appetite for the vigorous pursuit of the main object. By the professional edu- 

 cation of gardeners, we mean that direction of their faculties by which they will best ac- 

 quire the science and manual operations of gardening : and we shall suppose the young 

 man to be instructed, to have no other scholastic education than some knowledge of 

 arithmetic, and the first problems of geometry and land-surveying. The sort of garden 

 which ought to be the scene of the days of apprenticeship should, if it can be so foreseen 

 and arranged, be that which the learner is ultimately intended to possess or manage. As 

 the great majority of young men who learn this art, are intended for serving-gardeners to 

 private families ; a private garden, where every department is respectably conducted, is 

 the best to begin with. Here, or in any other garden in which he may be placed, he will 

 have to learn the names of things, their uses in gardening, how to use them in the 

 best manner singly, and how to combine their use in performing the different operations 

 of gardening. 



7725. The grand foundation for every kind of acquirement, is the cultivation of the facul- 

 ties of attention and memory. Unless we pay attention to what is addressed to us, whether 

 by the eye or the ear, it is impossible we can remember, because the sight or sound has 

 made no impression on the memory, and without memory, there can be no knowledge. 



7726. Many pass through life without seeing or hearing anything but what immediately concerns their avo- 

 cations. It is a common thing for a person to walk out and return without being able to describe, or even 

 mention, any one thing he has seen ; or to read a newspaper without being able to tell what he has read, 

 farther than to give some vague idea of the subject All this is the result of neglecting to rouse and exert 

 the faculty of attention ; or of limiting our attention to one single object or class of objects. One of the 

 first things, therefore, that a young man should dp, is to cultivate the faculty of attention, which he may 

 do every hour of the day, by first looking at an object, and then shutting his eyes and trying whether he 

 recollects its magnitude, form, color, &c. ; whether he would know it when he saw it again, and by what 

 mark or marks he would know it or describe it When he goes from one part of the garden to another, or 

 is on a walk or journey, let him pay that degree of attention to everything he sees and hears, which will 

 enable him to give some account of them when returned from his walk or journey ; and let him try next 

 day, or some days afterwards, if he can recollect what he had seen then, or at any particular time and 

 place. 



7727. The attention must be exercised systematically, in order not only to impress the memory, and enable 

 the observer or hearer to recollect objects, but to describe them. A thing or a discourse must be attended 

 to, not only as a whole, but as a composition of\parts ; and these parts must be considered not only as to 

 their qualities of dimension, color, consistency, &c., but as to their relative situation and position. 



7728. To be able to give an account of a town or village, for example, the first thing is to get a general idea 

 of the outline of its ground-plan, which may be done by looking from a church-tower or adjoining hill ; 

 next, its relative situation to surrounding objects ; as what hills, or woods, or waters join it, and in what 

 quarters ; next, the direction of the leading street or streets must be noticed ; then the intersecting or se- 

 condary streets ; the principal public buildings ; the principal private ones ; where the lowest houses and 

 narrowest streets are situated j and what is the character of the greater number of houses composing the 

 whole assemblage. 



7729. To be able to recal to mind or to describe the figure of any person before us for the first time, it is 

 necessary to attend to height, either absolute, by estimation in feet and inches ; or comparatively with our 

 own, or that of any other person or object present at the time; to figure or shape generally, as whether 

 tending to excellence or defect ; then to hands and feet, gait, manner, &c. ; and, above all, to the form or 

 outline of the countenance, the complexion, and other details of the face. One untutored person looking 

 at another with a view to recollect or describe him, would only stare ; but an attentive and systematic ob- 

 server would survey both the party generally and in detail, and in such an order as would readily occur to 

 the mind on reflection. He would not, for example, after estimating the height, proceed next to the color 

 of the eyebrows, but would take the breadth and shape, as more congenial to the accustomed train of ideas. 

 The young gardener will apply these hints to recollection of parks, pleasure-grounds, walled gardens, hot- 

 houses, and also to the study and recollection of individual plants. 



7730. To be able to recollect and relate written or oral discourses, the same general principles will apply ; 

 the first thing is to attend to the object in view, and next to the order or form in which the whole is pro- 

 posed to be treated of or delivered ; lastly, to the manner in which the details are filled up. 



7731. The study of natural history and drawing are well adapted for improving the faculties of attention 

 and memory. The former by its systematic arrangement, and the precision of its details, tends to habits of 

 order, accuracy, and distinctness, and to the ready discrimination and recollection of single or na- 

 tural objects : the latter contributes to the same end, and also to the recollection of objects in groups or 

 combinations. Hence, the importance of a gardener's attending to botany, zoology, and drawing, even 

 with a view to general improvement, independently of their special utility in his profession. 



7732. The recollection of names and numbers is a more mechanical process than the re- 

 collection of objects. Names are either descriptive, that is, when they consist of a word, 

 or are composed of words which describe something of the object to which they are ap- 

 plied, as Longtown or Hillhouse ; or they are arbitrary, meaning nothing, or nothing 

 now known or definable, as William, Thomas, &c. The first are of easy recollection, 

 because, even though the object may never have been seen, its image may be presented to 

 the imagination by the name, as a town of great length, and a house on a hill top ; the 

 second are only to be recollected by seeing the objects to which they are applied, and 

 then associating in the mind the name with the thing ; or by seeing the description or 

 portraiture of the objects, and associating the name with these ; or by finding a resem- 



