6 1 Scientific Examination of Gardeners. 



Art. II. The scientific Examination of Gardeners. 



A GRAND step has been taken by the London Horticultural Society for the 

 promotion of gardening, and one from which may be dated a new era in the 

 art. It is proposed by the Garden Committee of the Society to receive no 

 gardeners for permanent employment in the gardens who cannot produce 

 satisfactory evidence that they have received a certain degree of preliminary 

 education ; and, after any one has been admitted, he cannot be recommended 

 to any place as a gardener, until he shall have undergone an examination on 

 what may be called horticultural science, and received a certificate, a copy of 

 which will be recorded in a book kept for the purpose. We cannot suffi- 

 ciently express the high opinion which we entertain of the good that will result 

 from this determination of the Society. Hitherto, a young gardener, who has 

 studied, and understands, the science of his art, has not had a fair chance; 

 because another, with not half his knowledge, but more favoured by fortune 

 and accident, may have been apprenticed, and worked as journeyman, at places 

 of greater celebrity ; and the head gardeners at such places generally taking 

 apprentice or journeyman fees, they consequently feel bound to recommend 

 their pupils, whether they particularly .'deserve it or not; and they, of course, 

 are much more likely to succeed in getting places, than those who have been 

 apprentices or journeymen in places less celebrated, and who depend solely, 

 or chiefly, on their own merits. Another good effect of this examination 

 system, will be, that young men of industry in acquiring knowledge will be duly 

 appreciated by their employers ; while those who have no natural talent for 

 acquiring a knowledge of the science of their profession will be induced to re- 

 linquish it, and adopt some other for which they are better adapted by nature. 

 Or, if they do not adopt another, they will be considered as belonging to a 

 secondary grade in the profession, and fit only for secondary places. In this 

 way, the profession will be weeded out, as it were, and those which remain will 

 constitute a body of men who will attain that rank in the scale of intellect 

 which, though long deserved by many individuals among them, has not hitherto 

 been obtained by the profession generally. 



We have said above that this determination of the Horticultural Society 

 will form the commencement of a new era in gardening ; but still more 

 effectually will it create a new era among gardeners, by distinguishing and. 

 elevating all those that are really worthy of the name : and this will lead 

 to their being more suitably paid, and more respectfully treated by their 

 employers, than many of them are at present. 



The circumstance of a certain preliminary education being necessary before 

 the parents of any young man can even hope that he will ever attain to the 

 situation of head gardener, will do an immense deal of good, by showing the 

 advantages of school education to young persons generally ; and, with other 

 causes now in operation, it will contribute towards that most desirable result, 

 the establishment of a national system of education, at the expense of all, and 

 for the benefit of all. 



We hope all other Horticultural Societies, who have gardens and scientific 

 secretaries, or curators, will institute preliminary regulations of a similar kind; 

 for, though a certificate from a provincial institution can never rank with one 

 from the Metropolitan Society, yet it will be of some value, and tend to en- 

 hance the worth of that obtained from the Metropolitan Society. We hope, 

 also, that young men, in every part of the country, who are in their apprentice- 

 ship, or who are working as journeymen, will prepare themselves for examina- 

 tion by the London Horticultural Society ; and will be sufficiently ambitious, 

 not to desire to fill a place till they have proved that, as far as respects the 

 science of their art, they are properly qualified for it. 



The books that we would recommend for perusal to a young man desirous 

 ofpreparing himself are, all Dr. Lindley's works; more especially, his Outlines 

 of Botany, Outlines of Horticulture, and his Introductions to Botamj, to the 

 Natural Sijstem, and his Ladies' Botany (which, we are happy to say, has 



