790 
sssistant-tenohers i in elementary schools. After 
r and getting up 
certificates gran 
These certificates entitled the possessors to hold 
classes, give lectures, and earn government 
Many of the students were 
were at once supposed to 
grants on their own account 
Surely cottage gardening is not to be taught in 
this way. One may as well try to teac 
without leather, or carpentry without 
tools, as gardening without the soil and implements 
to work it with, No! the South Kensington Depart- 
ment has done good work in Science and Art. 
The material was present, the apparatus, the teachers, 
but in agricul- 
‘done towards teaching rudimentary agriculture, or 
cottage gardening, rie a tithe of the thousands of 
pounds already exp had been employed in 
promoting real ee on the land itself. 
It is gratifying to observe the interest taken in 
technical education by many of the County Councils. 
Here again. however, there is a danger t that the so- 
called “technical education” will coasist merely of talk 
about it. If here and there, about each county, a 
plot of land adjoining the school-building could be 
‘cultivated under a thoroughly practical teacher, a 
mising might be made, If the 
could not only talk sensibly of the matter, but give 
practical instraction in gardening, and explain, in 
an intelligent way, the properties of the soil, the 
chemistry of air and water, the necessity for cultiva- 
tiov, and the essential conditions of healthy plant 
life? 
One hears on all sides that cuckoo-cry of “ back 
to the land.” For most farm-labourers who leave 
their cottage homes to crowd into the towns, I fear 
there is no way back. But when once the farm- 
labourer has discovered the pleasure and profit to be 
derived from skilfal and thorough cultivation of a 
cottage garden, be will erty little further induce- 
ment to remain on the lan 
I had the oer of Mei lately, to the 
fourth lecture of a i 
culture.” It was feat in a Bedfordshire village 
(Turvey), uader the auspices of the Bedford County 
Council. The lecturer, Mr. Norman Evans, was 
evidently acquainted with the practice as well as the 
theory of gardening, and was prepared to demon- 
strate when required to do so by his hearers. It 
was a small audience—scarcely more than a dozen 
but they were 2 anxious to learn, paid 
interesting kion with reference to gardening 
as a sik however, chat the little bill 
is to ba regretted that lectures of the 
„take on.” Except for re rose would-be-learners 
present, the lectures had no interest; and, as, a rule, 
better the lecturer ey m latent suspicion is 
aroused as to his actual knowledge and ability. 
No! let the County neils start here and there 
a school garden, and and there a model cottage 
garden and allotment, and will be a quickly 
nen gp pirane. 85 poe ie 2 in the 
of imp 
ts 
loze by is a row of a dozen cottages, and the first 
three are 3 * under-gardenere, who vie with 
each other in and bright colours Lea the 
spring — pet seu of closely-kept turf, 
THE GARDENERS’ 
was followed by ate Boies tufts of them by 
the walk; then came a host of golden Daffodils,” 
of Alyssum 4 Aap 185 and a 
Now come the great 
deep crimson blooms of the Pxony. 
Allow me briefly to recapitulate the outlines of a 
scheme put 5 ba years a in 8 columns of 
an evening pape Echo above the pen - name of 
„Luke Ellis.“ Tt Teledu that tte ps: a of what 
was called Elementary Agriculture,” should be of a 
practical nature. The subject cannot be taught 
effectively from text- dot and vivd voce lessons. 
The material ee be present, the implements and 
the living plan 
There are an least two systems which might be 
adopted in the hopes of what may be called the 
“School Garden ”:—I. Work in common under a 
eee or teacher the plan followed in 
. Work on 
plot. The latter system is far preferable. 
The land should be rent free, and the implements 
provided free of charge. The garden should be 
regarded as an open-air class-room. te work must 
be done under the superintendence a properly- 
qualified teacher, who would decide Poet ele 
fruit, or flowers might be grown, and the area allotted 
to each. The crop should be the absolute property 
of the tenant, whether for home consumption or sale, 
as he thinks fit 
Perhaps, however, an extract from the late Mr. 
Jenkin’s report to the Royal Commission on technical 
instruction will enable the reader to have an idea as 
to the plan suggested for adoption in rural schools. 
It is taken from a pamphlet (now out of print) 
entitled The School Garden: a means of technica 
ucation for the farm labou: Each school in a 
rural district should have, as conveniently accessible 
as possible, a plot o d 1 ugh to allow 
very boy over a args faci (say 9) a a plot of from 
— to five poles The size of the plot 
would, of conme 3 3 the area at disposal, 
upon t and quality of the soil, and also 
a rowed the ial ability, intelligence, and industry 
of the t 
Half FR os plot might be reserved for cereals, 
roots, or vegetables commonly grown in the neigh- 
bourhood, the remaining half should be divided into 
two equal parts, one of them to be treated as an 
experimental garden, in which the efficacy of manures 
and the qualities of new vegetables might be tested, 
The Se fourth might be cropped according to 
the taste of the tenant. 
anced accounts of the time, labour and money 
expended should be kept, and a diary in which the 
various operations should be noted. This should 
be called for and examined by Her Majesty’s 
Inspector on his visits to the school. 
I glance, in IR = at _ direct 
advantages that would accrue from practical and 
perimental teaching of 9 — ocg in rural 
= 
hools :— 
1, It would convinca the workman’s son that his 
er ee ee N. land demands the exercise of 
2. It mp An him from an one ag 
with the use i hanier a ary garden implement 
It would open up to him a profitable, Sateen 
and pain akakaa field of observation an 
study in o pe th and development 5 aa et 
and also history of insect, bird and beas 
in the bid ality 
Bat most of all, it would give an impetus to gar- 
deni ing 
d importance to the labourer’s occupation which 
it seems to lack. T. W., H. 
ORCHIDS OF THE SHAN 
ATES, 
Tuere are Orchids of sorts to be met with all the 
way up to Fort Stedman, the smal r species of Bal- 
bophyllam and Cirropetalum creeping along the 
CHRONICLE. 
o make its home on hills o a certain i 
only. In a break in a pa of hi ge k it 
isolated peaks, high and precipitous, f been | 
_ Europeans, and it is mers that it grows. aioe place 
out with Shans, and o u ch nether C. 
they, by looking at is hill, will tell you d not, If it 
[June 29, 1895, 
trunks and branches of trees, and on the rocks along 
biu 
seen; but it is not along the road that a alle 
can be made. 
Fort Stedman is built on the eastern shore of | 
Like Iale (pronounced Ia-lay), and it is within 
thirty to fifty miles of this lake, north and south, 
east and west, where most of the Orchids mentioned l 
below are to be found in plenty, and where all but 
two or three are found. 
The climate is temperate, the height above sea- 
level from 4000 to 
ranges from 80° Fahr. in 
few degrees sed Ey ate in the winter, 
aunnal rain-fall rom o 60 inches, distributed 
principally in the 5 —— fe May to November; but 
showers may also ba expected from January to Ap ril. 
The frosts do not penetrate below the surface, and 
are frequent between the middle of December and 
beginning of March. There are heavy dews in the 
winter months, D »cember especially. 
Most of the Dendrobiums are met with i 
water below, a constant moist 
I have seen it under these conditions over 5000 feet 
e also seen Vanda 
the same habit ab V. cœru 3 l 
also to be found here. There are Oak 
woods on the road from Fort Stedman to Taunggyis, 
Salween 
edium Parishii grows in big clusters i 
middle and isis branc 
ocks, ander af 
"bat not on lo 
2 
hills in loam. 
Cypripedium Charleswor 
twenty-five m 
to 
Lake 
thii was discovered by m 
mile 
gathered in quite an oe 
north-east of the lake, — 
the place in which it wae ovate td è 
toes 
ibis will be fund ¢ there o 
t will be in large vasa and a 
ferent shape or formation. It g 
on the west and north-west slop 
the base or to . east, 
roots cling to the rocks w 
and the — plants could dew 4 
with a owth 
cutting through the roots Ragen! gri aden 
knife, As a rule, there i an 
around, but I have seen plante gore i 
crevices of the bare rock. It grows d e 
level than hr bellatulum; but on one e alt 
think I sa ©. eee and ak robin 
o vin 10 ok T 
D on anA sn and be e with 8 en 
