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December 5, 1012. 



The Florists' Review 



21 



^3 



EDUCATION FOR i^ 

 <^ YOUNG FLORISTS 



T has been hardly seventy-five 

 years since the florists' busi- 

 ness began to assume any con- 

 siderable importance in the 

 United States and it has been 

 only within recent years that the in- 

 dustry has developed along broad busi- 

 ness principles. Th6 day of the general 

 commercial grower is passing and the 

 specialist is the prominent florist of 

 today. , The owner of large enterprises 

 or the'managers of the same, however, 

 must not be limited to a specialty, but 

 must have a broad general knowledge 

 of all branches of the industry. Com- 

 petition was never greater than at the 

 present time, the margin of profits has 

 decreased and the business now de- 

 mands men trained t6 the fullest ex- 

 tent of their intellectual ability. 



As in general farming, the flower 

 growers are coming slowly to realize 

 that theirs is a distinct profession, as 

 definite and important as the profes- 

 sion of medicine or law. The business 

 world demands "captains of industry" 

 to conduct large operations. These men 

 are of necessity broadly educated. 

 Many of our florists ' establishments are 

 passirig from the "small mill" stage 

 into the huge factory, with its many de- 

 partments of specialized labor. The flo- 

 rist of the future must be the pro- 

 gressive man, the educated man, who 

 can supervise and direct these large 

 enterprises. 



The Demand for Training. 



While it is true that many men de- 

 velop an aptitude for business without 

 special training, history has shown that 

 those most successful are the educated 

 men. Many times this education has 

 been self-acquired and has come after 

 long years of patient labor, but it has 

 nevertheless been essential for the suc- 

 cess of the individual. 



Frequently it is said that there are 

 no good American florists. The men 

 who have been the most successful have 

 received their preparation through a 

 period of apprenticeship and training 

 in England, Germany or some other 

 European country. I do not in the 

 least question the splendid impetus 

 these men have given the industry and 

 the skill which they have shown, but I 

 think that the time has come when 

 the sons of these men and the sons of 

 American-born florists and others should 

 have even better educational facilities 

 and training in this country than can 

 be obtained abroad. 



America boasts of her splendid edu- 

 cational systems, and it is true that 

 along many lines there are no better 

 methods of teaching in the world than 

 are found in our public and private 

 schools and colleges. There has been an 

 effort to furnish those branches in the 

 curricula of educational institution^ 

 which meet a demand. That there are 

 not better schools in which to train 

 gardeners and florists seems to be not 

 .so much the fault of the institutions 



An abstract of an address before the Gardeners' 

 and Florists' Club of Boston, November 19, 1912, 

 by Prof. E. A. White, of Amherst, Mass. 



as the fault of the people. We have 

 not made the demand for vocational 

 training for our sons aloirj; this line 

 of work. 



To become a specialist one must be 

 trained in some definite branch of eplant 

 growing, so that he knows more about 

 that particular crop and can produce 

 better results in its culture than can 

 anyone else. However, there is a dan- 

 ger and a real danger that our garden- 

 ers and florists become too narrow in 

 their knowledge of plant life through 

 intense specialization. 



Training the Specialist. 



While, as has been said, the specialist 

 is the important grower of the present 

 period, there is now and probably al- 

 ways will be a class of men who do a 

 wholesale and retail business and whose 

 trade demands that they grow a mis- 

 cellaneous collection of plants. Those 

 doing the largest amount of business 

 either in a wholesale or retail capacity 

 will have their work so thoroughly or- 

 ganized that there will be a series of 

 important sections with the special 

 grower in charge of each section. The 

 owner himself, however, cannot afford 

 to be ignorant of how the different de- 

 partments should be run, or to be de- 

 pendent upon his grower for his in- 

 formation. His education and experi- 

 ence must of necessity have been broad 

 in order to successfully manage the 

 business. The man who personally con- 

 structs his own range, arranges th^ 

 heating system, propagates and grows 

 his miscellaneous crops and markets the 

 same successfully must of necessity be 

 a man with a well developed intellect 

 in order to come out ahead in the com- 

 petition in the business world. 



So we see that it is not sufficient, 

 therefore, that we have onr schools of 

 general horticulture, although these are 

 necessary for the training of the best 

 e<iuipped all-round men; it is not suffi- 

 cient that we have our divisions of 

 these horticultural schools into depart- 

 ments of floriculture, market gardening, 

 and the like, although they are essen- 

 tial for training general growers. There 

 is a need in America today for definite 

 and extended courses in the growing of 

 conservatory plants for the young man 

 who is to make the culture of these 

 his life work; special courses in rose 

 growing, carnation growing, orchid 

 growing and the like, also courses in 

 the culture of outdoor trees, shrubs and 

 herbaceous perennials. In other words, 

 we should train specialists as well as 

 general growers. 



In this connection it may be said 

 that the best training for a specialist 

 comes through his practical experience 

 in the rang^. Much is said in favor of 

 the apprentice system practiced in the 

 older countries and I do not question 

 the value o^ ^s system for those coun- 



tries, but American conditions are dif- 

 ferent. There is no question in my 

 mind but what the best material out of 

 which to develop educated plant grow- 

 ers and specialists for the United States 

 comes from those young men who have 

 been brought up in the actual work of 

 the range. However, a better knowl- 

 edge of science is developing daily and 

 these young men must be brought into 

 intimate touch, not alone with the ordi- 

 nary details of the growing of plants, 

 but they must know the principles 

 which underlie the process of plant 

 breeding; they must know of the micro- 

 organisms at work in the soil and the 

 various chemical actions which are go- 

 ing on in the soil and which add to its 

 fertility and productiveness; they must 

 know the nature of the various insects 

 and diseases which prey on plant life, 

 in order that they -may successfully 

 combat these enemies. Therefore, while 

 the physical environment of the plant 

 has much to do with its growth and de- 

 velopment, a knowledge of these factors 

 alone is not sufficient if one is to be- 

 come a specialist. 



Present Available Cou ses. 



In the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College, two years of the four required 

 are devoted to cultural and funda- 

 mental studies. There are few definite- 

 ly agricultural or horticultural studies 

 before the junior year. The men then 

 elect their major subject and the in- 

 structor in charge of the course in 

 which they elect their major work acts 

 as an adviser regarding correlated sub- 

 jects which should be studied. In this 

 way the student gets a well-balanced 

 course. As an example, he elects flori- 

 culture as his major and his adviser 

 requires that he also take courses in 

 plant pathology, entomology, plant ma- 

 terials, soils and fertilizers or chem- 

 istry. Each of these courses is given 

 by a man with special training, which 

 fits him for his work. In this way the 

 man graduates with a general knowl- 

 edge of all branches of floriculture. If 

 he has had several years of practical 

 work in a range of greenhouses before 

 taking his college course he derives bet- 

 ter results. 



While this course turns out men well 

 equipped in fundamental studies and in 

 general principles of floricultural 

 knowledge, it does not, of course, turn 

 out specialists. Neither does it turn 

 out men who have mastered all the de- 

 tails of the practical work. It does, 

 however, equip men with a splendid 

 foundation on which to build a strong 

 life of service in the business. If the 

 men are to become specialists, this spe- 

 cialization must come later by concen- 

 tration on some one branch of the in- 

 dustry and a determination to master 

 that branch in all its details. 



This may be brought about partly by 

 a period of practical work on the spe- 

 cial branch in some large range where 

 the specialty is grown to its best per- 

 fection, but it seems to me that the 



