Self-.Educg.tion of Gardeners. 225 



years before even moderate crops could be raised. These facts may be 

 relied on, and they are of very considerable importance both to the gardener 

 and the agronome. It is but doing the former class justice to state, that 

 most of them use ashes only for the purpose of making a flooring for set- 

 ting out plants in pots ; such a flooring being found inimical both to worms 

 and the roots of plants ; and therefore preventing the former from getting 

 into the pots, and the latter, at least of most sorts, from getting out of them. 

 Still we should be glad of information on the subject of cinders or coal 

 ashes as a manure or as a poison. 



Mi/dew on Peaches and Nectarines. An experienced gardener informs us, 

 that he finds those peaches most subject to mildew which have no glands 

 at the base of their leaves ; and those least subject to mildew which have 

 globose glands. The first class, according to Mr Geo. Lindley's arrange- 

 ment, contains sixty sorts, including theNewington, Nobless, Royal George, 

 and Red Magdalen Peaches, and the Newington, Elruge, and Princess Royal 

 Nectarines. The second class contains several sorts, including the Early 

 Galande, Marlborough, Kensington, Bellegarde,theTeton de Venus, and the 

 Pitmaston Orange Nectarine. Mr. Lindley's third class of Peaches and 

 Nectarines have reniform glands, and these are said not to be so subject to 

 the mildew as the sorts with glandless leaves, but rather more so than those 

 with globose glands. This class contains numerous sorts, and includes the 

 Apricot Peach, Nutmeg, Incomparable, and Chancellor Peaches; and the 

 Roman, Fairchilds, Aromatic, and Violet Nectarines. If the above theory 

 as to mildew be correct, it will afford an important guide to gardeners who 

 are in possession of Mr. Lindley's arrangement, and which they will find 

 in our forthcoming Hortus Britannicus. 



Art. X. Self-Education of Gardeners. 



The spirit of education is the prevailing characteristic of the present times. 

 Not to speak of the extraordinary efforts making in Britain for the educa- 

 tion of the lower classes, and the better education of those who are, or ought 

 to be, above them ; this spirit of instruction is proportion ably abroad all 

 over the Continent, and with the exception of China, perhaps throughout 

 the world. In France the Lancasterian system has been developed by 

 Lasteyrie, and would have been generally introduced, but for the opposition 

 of the clergy. So extraordinary was the spirit of education in Spain, that 

 the late Cortes predetermined by law, that after a certain number of years, 

 no person whatever should be competent to undertake a public situation, 

 however low, and whether local or general, unless he could read, write, and 

 cast accounts. Unfortunately the re-establishment of the ancient religion 

 has put an end to that law for the present ; but it will be remembered at a 

 future period. In Germany, Denmark, and Sweden, parochial schools, 

 much on the same plan as those of Scotland, have been in existence since 

 the time of the reformation. There, as here, this system has recently been 

 improved on, and infant schools for children from two to five years, and 

 working schools for girls and lads from five years and upwards, have been 

 established in various places. In these last, every description of domestic 

 employment is taught to girls ; and of country work, the commoner me- 

 chanical trades, and, to a certain extent, military exercise, to boys. Some 

 account of the schools of this description in the kingdom of Hanover will 

 be found in Hodgkins' Travels in Germany (8vo. 1819), and in the Encyclo- 

 paedia of Agriculture (§ 581.): and the Swiss schools of the same description 

 will be found described in Sismondi's Switzerland. Even in Russia the Lan- 

 casterian system has been introduced ; and the subject has not been lost 

 sight of by the Greeks and Ionians, notwithstanding their present troubles. 

 In North America education is as much prized as in Britain, or Germany : 



