2l6 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 273. 



propagating, etc., both by word and example. The 

 young gardener was promoted to a higher class of work 

 as soon as he had mastered the first elements of his 

 profession, till he was pronounced fit for filling a responsi- 

 ble situation, and to become in his turn the teacher of a new 

 generation of gardeners. This system still prevails to a 

 large extent, and it must be candidly admitted that, even 

 in France, the greatest number of gardeners of the present 

 day never had any other tuition. Only it is now eligible 

 for any young man who thirsts after some share of more 

 scientific and systematic knowledge of the profession to 

 obtain it at a trifling expense and with very little loss of 

 time. 



Although it is very far from my thoughts to disparage in 

 any way the practical tuition and experience which must be 

 always at the bottom of professional education, it cannot 

 be doubted that a more scientific instruction in all branches 

 of horticulture is rendered necessary to high-class, and even 

 to ordinary, gardeners by the discoveries made in all 

 branches of scientific knowledge connected with horticul- 

 ture. The recent progress in chemistry, in biology, in the 

 knowledge of fungus and insect enemiesof cultivated plants, 

 while it very often explains and justifies the traditional 

 practice of gardeners, has thrown so much light on many 

 unexplained facts, and offers so many useful remedies to 

 hitherto hopeless cases, that no reasonable aspirant to gar- 

 dening excellence can afford to despise the aid of science. 



The resources offered to the French student, in order to 

 obtain some scientific knowledge of horticulture, may be 

 divided into two distinct classes : i. Organizations where 

 horticulture comes in as a branch of general education, 

 whatever its degree. 2. Organizations where horticulture 

 is the main object, and other branches of knowledge an 

 accessory. 



Establishments where the teaching of horticulture forms 

 part of the programme are very numerous, as a good many 

 of the 80,000 primary schools of France are to be reckoned 

 among them, many schools for girls even giving some sort 

 of instruction in gardening as well as in housekeeping. Since 

 1850 the teaching of agriculture and of horticulture has be- 

 come optional in all the 4|>J"imary schools. iVIasters who 

 feel any taste for horticulture,,or who consider it as useful 

 to their own advancei^enf to train their pupils in horticul- 

 ture are at liberty to do*^o. Local authorities are generally 

 in favor of horticultural as well as of agricultural teaching ; 

 they supply the necessary space for experiment and de- 

 monstration in the shape of a small garden or field. National 

 and local societies of horticulture encourage the most suc- 

 cessful masters by means of liberal awards of medals and 

 premiums. 



In most of the French Departments (which are territo- 

 rial divisions smaller than the American states, but larger 

 than the counties, and, to some extent, self-supporting) 

 there exists a normal school, where the primary school- 

 teachers are trained. In such schools agricultural and hor- 

 ticultural teaching was made compulsory by a law enacted 

 in 1876, six years being granted as an adequate period for 

 providing the necessary means of instruction. A course of 

 agricultural and of horticultural training is actually given 

 in the primary normal school, generally by the depart- 

 mental professor of agriculture. It is, of course, the right 

 way to begin the work by training the teacher first. This 

 course, however, is not everywhere considered as compul- 

 sory, and often such men only attend it as consider it ad- 

 visable to acquire some special knowledge of horticulture 

 in view of their own pleasure or future advancement in 

 their profession. Agricultural and horticultural teaching 

 should have become general in primary schools three years 

 after its establishment in the primary normal schools, but 

 the measure too often failed on account of deficiency of 

 money or in consequence of the difficulty of introducing 

 fresh matter into programmes already crammed. 



Last year Mr. Henry L. de Vilmorin, in a paper contrib- 

 uted to the Revue Pedagogique, showed that this difficulty 

 might be avoided to a certain extent by selecting texts on 



horticultural subjects for reading and writing exercises, 

 and even by giving arithmetical problems on horticultural 

 data. He further insisted strongly on the usefulness of 

 horticultural as distinguished from agricultural teaching in 

 primary schools ; some practical knowledge of horticul- 

 ture promising to be of immediate utility to a much 

 larger class of the pupils than purely agricultural instruc- 

 tion, the general hints as to gardening operations being to 

 a much less extent influenced by the variable conditions 

 of soil and climate. Besides, gardening being in most 

 cases a mere addition to a man's resources better admits 

 of limited proficiency than farming where a man, simply 

 school-taught, would be, in more than nine cases out of 

 ten, an unmixed failure. 



Nearly all public bodies and authorities in France are 

 decidedly in favor of the extension, both in number and 

 efficiency, of horticultural teaching, considering that a well- 

 kept garden is a very important addition to the welfare of 

 a household, besides encouraging and maintaining do- 

 mestic habits and exerting a healthy influence by open-air 

 exercise. 



The liberality of state and local authorities is mainly 

 seen in the encouragement given to professional schools 

 of horticulture, the number of which is increasing yearly. 

 They are scientific and practical schools at the same time, 

 emulating with more or less success the National School of 

 Horticulture at Versailles, an account of which will be the 

 object of another letter. 



The fact that efficient horticultural schools should be 

 practical is recognized by every one. It is doubtful if in 

 any other profession the knowledge of things and of oper- 

 ations needs more forcible teaching by actual practice 

 by the sight and handling of plants and tools than 

 horticulture. Scientific data, apart from the subject of 

 immediate application, are of little avail, and we cannot 

 end this communication better than by quoting a pas- 

 sage of a letter from Professor Huxley on the subject of 

 agricultural education recently referred to in the Kew Bui' 

 letin : " The story of a bean, of a grain of wheat, of a tur- 

 nip, of a sheep, of a pig or of a cow, properly treated, with 

 the introduction of the elements of chemistry, physiology 

 and so on, as they come in, would give all the elementary 

 science which is needed for the comprehension of the pro- 

 cesses of agriculture in a form assimilated by the youth- 

 ful mind, which loathes anything in the shape of long 

 words and abstract notions, and small blame to it," „ 



Paris. - ."• 



Cultural Department. 



Plant Breeding. 



BREEDERS of animals aim to perpetuate qualities which are 

 most desirable, and to combine those that are best in cer- 

 tain individuals, or to originate new ones, as well as to develop 

 the finest strains by improved feeding, care and selection. 

 Horticulturists are a long way behind in this matter. They 

 have been content, for the most part, to take what they found 

 growing wild, call it good, then patiently wait for more. If an 

 attempt was made to produce varieties from seed it has usually 

 been by sowing those from some popular sort which had been 

 fertilized by the winds or insects, and accept the chance result 

 as the best that could be had. Plant-growers possess the ad- 

 vantage of being able to distribute and perpetuate the life of 

 the particular individual indefinitely. This is literally true only 

 of plants propagated by buds, grafts, layers and the like, yet 

 with those ordinarily propagated by seeds the seed reproduces 

 the individual so closely that it is practically the same. Does 

 it follow that since plant-growers are specially favored in this 

 respect, they do not command the means of improvement 

 which animal breeders have employed .'' W, O. Focke, the 

 author of Die Pflangeji Mischlinge, who is undoubtedly the 

 best authority on the subject of crossing and hybridizing, while 

 acknowledging the need of much more careful observation 

 and experiment, has, nevertheless, been able to derive from 

 his study many laws and generalizations concerning their be- 

 havior. And so far as practical experience goes, it indicates 

 that seedhngs properly bred are much more likely to prove 

 valuable" than those raised indiscriminately. 



