

June 15, 1912.] 



THE GARDENERS CHRONICLE. 



399 







journeyman should never forgot that the cardinal 

 point in his early training must be centred upon 

 making himself proficient in the actual manual 

 part of his work. Other subjects should be 

 studied in the way of " intellectual amuse- 

 ment" rather than as things whit h must be 

 acquired at this stage. Further pursuit of these 

 subjects should be reserved for the later stages of 

 his training, when his would be likely to have a 

 clearer idea of what he desired to do. 



The young gardener should acquire early the 

 habit of observation o£ the objects of his daily 

 work; and having observed, he should try and 

 discover for himself the reason* for what he has 

 seen. 



His watchword must always be, " Keep your 

 eyes open to things which want attention/' and 

 never do things in a mechanical manner. He 

 laboured this 



nt a utile because, having ha 



fairly-wide experience of men, he knew only too 

 well how common it was for them to get into a 

 mechanical way of doing work. They would go 

 through a house of plants for watering, and never 

 see the plant which m-oded watering most; or 

 they failed to notice the first sign of distress from 

 insect pests, such as thrips and red spider, until 

 a great deal of damag. had been done. 



If the journeyman could spend part of his 

 training in a good Continental nursery or public 

 garden, he would be still further equipped, as 



here, beside 



horticult 



he would also have the advantage of acquiring a 

 knowledge of the language of the country, which 

 would be of much value to hi in in after years. 



He ventured to suggest that this was a subject 

 that conference miVht well a sider, and deter- 

 mine whether some sort of organised exchange 

 system between young gardeners of this country 

 and Continental countries could not be instituted, 

 on somewhat similar lines to those which at 

 present existed for elementary school teachers 

 between this country and France. 



What many of them would like to see grow 

 out of this conference was some definite co- 

 ordinated Bystem of educational teaching de- 

 signed for the man who was making gardening 

 his profession. The system should ensure that 

 the young gardener woold finally be able to pass 

 through a period of training in the higher 

 branches of his profession, so as to be able to 

 compete more successfully with the purely col- 

 lege-trained theory men, who, il had to be ad- 

 mitted, were often preferred for positions before 

 the Durely practical men because of their sup- 

 posed superior scientific equipment. 



Some system of training should be organised 

 so as to make it possible that a thorough blend- 

 ing of the two types would result, and tin horti- 

 culture would stand to gain untold advantages. 



The pure scientist often had to lament his 



non-acquaintance with practice, as was the case 



with Iiarwin, who said that every botanist 



should have spent part of his training as' a gar- 

 dener. 



Since horticulture was of fuch vast importance 



to the people of this country, was it too much to 

 ask that the Government should render financial 

 assistance, is the way of bursaries and scholar- 

 ships, to help forward this scheme for the better 

 education of gard< rs? Surely not! And one 

 ventured to hope that something of a definite 

 nature in this respect might be the outcome of 

 that great conference. 



HORTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN 



BELGIUM, 



Professor A. Buyssens, of Vilvorde, Belgium, 

 who contributed a paper on this subject, eaid 

 that, amongst their elementary echools, some had 

 Horticulture on their programmes, but there was 

 no general organisation. Private enterprise 

 PUyed a very small part in (he Belgian organisa- 

 tion of education, as the people were accustomed 

 to re, . e everything from the Government. The 

 public lectures responded to real needs. They 

 were well frequented by numbers of the profes- 

 sion; but elementary education ought to be ex- 

 tendi I, a n , | elementary classes and evening 

 •'"irses ought to be m eased. Formerly, prac- 

 tical education was directed towards private gar- 



noructtltnre, Admission of students was made 



very easy by all the schools; an el. ienta> edu- 

 cation ,,niy wai nec#islirv and „ mediocre 



«Kmii.dge was often sufficient The me lary 



schools were professional; but in view of the 

 continually-increasing development of Belgian 



♦ i? ¥* e * the y re q uir ed special schools for 

 the different horticultural professions, and a high 

 school to educate leaders. ~" 



xhib 



present being considered. 



The question was at 



The Discussion. 



tu 1 ? the di * CU8sion > the Rev. J. Bernard Hall, 

 M.A., secretary of the North of England Horti- 

 cultural Society, said, as regarded the school gar- 

 dens, they were still largely experimental, every- 

 thing depending on the master. If the master 

 was a born gardener, he would cultivate habits 

 of method, develop habits of tidiness in tools 

 and culture, and sometimes, perhaps, answer 

 satisfactorily the questions of lads and girls. 

 Ihe Bame remarks applied to secondary schools; 

 but here elementary microscopic work might be 

 profitably taken up, also the rudiments of botany. 

 It seemed desirable to aim at only a foundation 

 of eeneral, useful knowledge. No attempt 

 should be made at special technical instruction 

 in horticulture. He would leave the Board of 

 Education with the oversight of primary and 

 secondary schools with one suggestion, and that 

 was that they should bring before local education 

 authorities the desirability of allowing gar- 

 deners' mutual improvement societies the free 

 use of schools for their winter sessions of lec- 

 tures and meetings. As regarded the work of 

 the Board of Agriculture, there was need for a 

 forward movement. There should be three 

 grades of horticultural specialists, viz., (1) a 

 central body of staff experts, under the direct 

 control of the head of a special horticultural 

 department; (2) an organised body of experi- 

 mental instructors living at fixed centres ; (3) an 

 organised body of itinerant lecturing instructors. 

 County council instructors should be encouraged 

 to attend special fortnightly courses at Kew or 

 elsewhere, so that they might qualify for the 

 higher positions and better pay of experimental 

 instructors. County council instructors would 

 then not feel as if they had entered a cul-de-sac, 

 but rather feel as if they had placed their feet 

 on the first rung of a ladder which, if it did not 

 lead to Paradise, would, at any rate, lead to pro- 

 motion. The result would be a consolidated, 

 logical system of horticultural education, and 

 this without any revolutionising financial altera- 

 tions or disturbance of work already being 

 carried on. 



Prof. J. B. Farmer, F.R.S., Professor of 

 Botany, Imperial College of Science and Techno 

 logy, South Kensington, eaid he was gratified 

 that there was a consensus of opinion as to the 

 importance of preliminary practical work in the 

 garden. 



Miss Pollard, Swanley Horticultural College, 

 laid special stress on the training of women hor- 

 ticulturists. No one should be alarmed that they 

 were going t<> put out the ;nen. There was no 

 fear of collision. Many of the women went to 

 Stanley, not with the idea of taking up private 

 gardenin but of becoming teachers in hools 

 and public institutions. A woman could not take 

 the place of any single-handed gardener, because 

 there were many things she could not do. Women 

 were not meant to take the heavier posts, but to 

 help men with their braine. 



Mr. Macoun, Ottawa, spoke of horticulture in 

 Canada, which was not so advanced there as they 

 would like. All the same, they had made some 

 advance, and were working more rapidly as time 

 went on. Horticultural education til Canada was 

 very much what it was in the United States of 

 America. They had, for instance, agricultural 

 colleges, where they had a four years course in 

 agriculture and horticulture combined. In some 

 colleges there was only a two-years course, so 

 that a learner would be able to complete a four 

 years course in two places. These colleges were 

 affiliated to the universities and they conferred 

 degrees. Then they had men who, after a few 

 years course in agriculture and horticulture, 

 went to the provinces to disseminate instruction 

 throughout the counties. There were experi- 

 mental stations from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 



which were controlled by the Dominion Govern- 

 ment, in the province of Ontario there were 60 

 horl ultural societies j those were supported by 

 the provinces, and they got a small ant from 



th< provincial <*<>v eminent ba^ed on membership 

 and the amount of the work done. These socie- 



tions. There was 



one thing lacking : they so far had no means by 

 which gardeners might be trained, and they had 

 to take English and Continental gardeners. Gar- 

 deners who had been taught the general prin- 

 ciples of horticulture were the more successful. 

 There should be theoretical and practical train- 

 ^ ing. Certainly practical training should pre- 

 * dominate, but theoretical training would enable 

 a man to adjust his work to climatic conditions. 



Professor Ainsworth Davis, Principal of the 

 Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, agreed 

 as to the importance of elementary training, but 

 such education— good, bad or indifferent^-largely 

 depended on the teacher. What was wanted was 

 compulsory further education in this country- 

 education ad hoc— and that should be associated 

 with legislation, by which the hours of labour 

 might be limited in the case of the boy who got 

 that further education. 



Professor Bay ley Balfour, F.R.S., Director of 

 the Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh, said there 

 was one point in particular in connection with 

 the education of gardeners which was commonly 

 overlooked. People sometimes asked him if he 

 could supply gardeners who specialised — for in- 

 stance, who knew anything about land surveving 

 and mensuration, or whether they could keep 

 books properly. ^ There was no doubt that the 

 scientific education of the gardener began with 

 a knowledge of plants. He was sorry that, in this 

 country, horticulture did not derive the benefit 

 that might be expected from the men they 

 turned out, because moet of these men were 

 now diverted to America. He also laid strees 

 on proper scientific education, which enabled a 

 man to bring his thoughts to bear on the obser- 

 vations he made, and to consider botany and the 

 study of plants in their relationship to their 

 surroundings. 



Mr. R. J. Frogbrook, the superintendent of 

 the Parks Department, Leyton, suggested that 

 young beginners, starting life, say, at 14, and 

 desiring to obtain an entrance with a view to 

 beginning a gardening career, should be able 

 to approach public bodies throughout the coun- 

 try with the suggestion that they would grant 

 facilities. He did not know anywhere through- 

 out the country where such a suggestion had been 

 carried out. Such young men should be en- 

 couraged, and the result would be most beneficial. 

 He thought the public bodies had not been ap- 

 proached up to the present time, and probably 

 it was a point which had escaped notice. 



Mr. J. W. Bamber, Lecturer in Horticulture 

 and Nature Study to the Hertfordshire County 

 Council, said he thought a three years course of 

 training was little enough for a good grounding, 

 but rather questioned the advisabilitv of four 

 years. There was much to learn in gardening and 

 horticulture in general, and if they were to go in 

 for land surveying and other matters he did not 

 know where they were going to stop. What was 

 needed in their work was standard ieation. The 

 matter was one of such national importance that 

 he thought the Board of Education might 

 consider the advisability of drawing up a syllabus 

 in horticulture. 



Mr. J. C. Newsham, Farm School, Old Basing, 

 thought care should be taken not to overtrain 

 men who were to occupy in gardens much the 

 position of the labourer. It would lead to a 

 great amount of dissatisfaction, as it would 

 always be a question of the amount of remunera- 

 tion they were going to receive owing to the 

 elaborate system of education they had to go 

 through. In the near future horticulturists 

 should work for a diploma, as farmers, agricul- 

 tural and dairying students did. 



Dr. A. B. Rendle, F.R.S., British Museum, 

 moved with pleasure a vote of thanks to the 

 readers of papers, as he was one who had suffered 

 periodically from the jobbing gardener. He was 

 not quite clear whether Professor Balfour ex- 

 pected all gardeners to be acquainted with land 

 surveying and mensuration, and that reminded 

 him of a friend who, when he was seeking a 

 post as teacher of chemistry, was asked whether 

 he could ako teach divinitv. 



Mr. Berry, East of Scotland Agricultural Col- 

 lege, seconded, and « w>re*aed the belief that 

 much acb age would be gai? J by the 

 con fere i ire. 



