May 28, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



259 



Horticultural Education. 



T T is not strange that there should still be those who qnes- 

 -*■ tion the value of a special education for the horticulturist. 

 Similar doubts were once held concerning education in gen- 

 eral, and they have arisen with each new enlargement or 

 extension of educational methods; in fact, they have been dis- 

 pelled only when experience has proved them groundless. 

 These doubts no longer exist in regard to those technical sub- 

 jects which were first taught in colleges ; but college training 

 in horticulture is of such recent date that it has enjoyed slen- 

 der opportunity to prove its value. All analogy, however, 

 insists that its results must be good. Much horticultural in- 

 struction is, no doubt, incompetent, and all of it is certainly 

 incomplete ; but the subject is capable of elucidation and 

 application to the student. Teachers are largely self-taught, 

 even in elementary principles, and lack' the breadth of view 

 which enables them to epitomize and generalize ; a coming 

 generation of teachers, starting with fundamental knowledge 

 and with enthusiasm, must reap great harvests. Most of our 

 teachers have had little practical experience, both for the rea- 

 son that they are largely young men and from the fact that 

 no institution yet exists in the country where diversity of good 

 practice together with mental training can be secured. This 

 much I have said by way of apology for what horticultural 

 teaching has not accomplished ; but the faults are not vital, 

 but wholly incidental to new ventures. 



Much of the disaffection concerning college training comes 

 from a misconception of the relation which education bears to 

 the man. Education does not make the man; it only in- 

 fluences him. Education builds upon the mental quality of 

 the student, and that original quality largely determines the 

 value which an education possesses. This fact is illustrated 

 to every teacher who sees students going out from his instruc- 

 tion; one makes his mark, while his seat-mate, with equal 

 facilities, accomplishes little. But this fact is not a disparage- 

 ment of education, for it is no doubt true that both are better 

 for their training. But whether the education pays its cost, de- 

 pends upon the industry and faithfulness of its possessor. 

 Education is simply capital invested; and no two investments 

 are of equal value to their owners. 



Disaffection is due also to the fact that a special education is 

 commonly confounded with a trade. It is the aim of our 

 modern technical trainings to attain both these ends, but they 

 are not necessarily correlative. In fact, just here is where the 

 present widespread discussion of horticultural education turns. 

 The "rule o' thumb " should be learned before one enters 

 college; it should be a part of a boy's bringing up. Or, if he 

 has not had the proper bringing up, he must attain this simple 

 handicraft as an auxiliary to his education; and it usually hap- 

 pens that our colleges are not sufficiently equipped with ap- 

 paratus and instructors to give adequate instruction in all these 

 directions. The teachers of horticulture all exercise the 

 greatest care that instruction in handiwork shall be prominent, 

 and this is essential, not so much, however, to develop skill 

 in handicraft as a continual illustration of the interdependence 

 of precept and example. But it is too much to expect that a 

 youth whose mind is reaching eagerly for knowledge should 

 acquire in the detached hours of a two or four years' training 

 what an apprentice, who does little mental work, is expected 

 to acquire in four or more years of steady application. Yet 

 many writers seem to expect even more than this. In other 

 words, astudent should not be sent to college forthe purpose of 

 learning how to hold a plow, how to make a cutting or how 

 to pot a plant. Hercules should not be called upon until there 

 is something heavy to lift. 



But, as a matter of fact, many young men are sent to college 

 for this very purpose. I asked a class of sixty-four students how 

 many had ever seen the operation of budding performed. 

 One raised his hand. The other sixty-three were given in- 

 struction in budding so far as one man with less than two hours 

 a day to devote to the labor could instruct such a number be- 

 fore the bark upon the Peach-trees "set." And many of them 

 were the sons of fruit-growers ! I often wonder how many of 

 them derived any profit from the operation ! 



It is too much to expect that the student is to acquire a full 

 trade in college. College work broadens him, strengthens 

 him, inspires him ; and the knowledge, which is everywhere 

 incidental to his course, is always of practical use to him. If 

 he does not learn how to bud while in college, he ought to be 

 able to acquire the art quicker and grasp it more intelligently 

 than if he had not had the training. Some one remarks that a 

 college training does not teach a youth how to handle some 

 new plant, that it does not enable him at once to discern its 

 requirements. This is certainly true, but training does not 



make him less able to discern them. Such matters are wholly 

 empirical, and must be learned by the doing. But I should 

 expect the educated young man to discern more readily than 

 another, or, at least, to acquire a more complete knowledge of 

 the matter, if both had possessed equal powers to start with. 

 The illustration, however, is trivial. A college training is not 

 meant to enable a youth to drive a nail without danger of 

 pounding his fingers. 



Comparisons are often drawn between graduates and ignor- 

 ant men who are skilled in some particular work. Such com- 

 parisons are fallacious because they contrast things wholly 

 unlike — mental training and mere handicraft. A graduate 

 may not have had opportunities for learning that particu- 

 lar thing, but there are a hundred other things which he 

 can do better than the workman. There are thousands of men 

 who are more skillful in certain things than any professor of 

 horticulture. There are thousands of men on the streets of 

 Paris who can speak French more fluently than many profes- 

 sors of language. 



But, after all, shall we hire college men for our gardeners? 

 That depends upon what a gardener is wanted to do and 

 know. If you want him simply to grow Lettuce, let the col- 

 lege man alone, for he has ambitions above you. If you want 

 him to manage your place with tact and judgment, and grow 

 Lettuce at the same time, you may find him better. If you 

 find some uneducated man to suit, you will soon hear your- 

 self remarking, " What a pity that man could not have had an 

 education ! " for you will feel that education ought to have 

 made him still better. I know of many college-bred men who 

 make the best of farmers and gardeners. And I know of a 

 few who are failures; I often wonder what would have become 

 of them if they had known less ! But this whole comparison 

 of the graduate with the apprentice is invidious. A man is 

 valuable simply for what he is, not for what has made him. 



Cornell University. L. H. Bailey. 



Plans for Small Places. 



"DLANS of four small places are herewith presented (see page 

 ■J- 261), each showing exercise of judgment in the adjustment 

 of buildings, roads and walks to special local circumstances. 

 The problem in each case was to so manage the constructions 

 necessary to convenience as to mar as little as possible what- 

 ever natural landscape advantages the situation possessed. 



In the case of No. 1, outlooks to the west and south were 

 limited by buildings and trees on the opposite sides of the 

 streets. By placing the house, stables and yards near the 

 streets, room was made for a symmetrical and comparatively 

 spacious and sheltered lawn to the eastward. The more im- 

 portant rooms of the house look over a terrace upon this lawn. 



In the second example the view northward toward the 

 street is limited, while to the southward a superb distant pros- 

 pect will be permanently commanded. The object has been to 

 so place the stable, and the stable, kitchen and laundry yards, 

 that they would not break in upon the southern outlook, while 

 leaving the largest space of unbroken lawn in direct view 

 from the principal rooms that could be reconciled with con- 

 venience. Walls overgrown with creepers keep the yards.out 

 of sight from the approach road. 



The third case is that of a narrow lot between two streets 

 not parallel one with the other. There is no distant prospect 

 to be considered ; but, again, the leading motive of the plan is 

 to obtain as much unbroken lawn space as practicable, espe- 

 cially on the sheltered south side. The kitchen, kitchen-yard, 

 stable and stable-yard, and the carriage-approach, are worked 

 snugly into the north-west quarter of the place, and the princi- 

 pal rooms look upon pleasing, though confined, domestic, 

 local scenes to the north-east and to the south. 



The fourth sketch illustrates a cramped, tilted and other- 

 wise difficult situation near the top of a steep hill, the lot being 

 bounded on three sides by public streets. The position is 

 elevated -and a tine distant view will be under permanent 

 command to the south-east. From the point A to the point B 

 there is a continuous descent of eighteen feet. The main 

 floor of the house is two feet below the streeton the south side 

 and ten feet above the street on the north side. The street on 

 the south side is carried on a retaining wall of field stone 

 built very roughly, without mortar, spreading toward the base 

 and furnished with numerous pockets and deep crevices filled 

 with leaf mould. Opposite the more important windows of 

 the house the parapet of this wall is ten feet or more above 

 the natural surface of the ground. 



Between the base of the retaining wall and the house there 

 is a slight ravine, providing for surface drainage, the north 

 side of which constitutes a bank covering the high foundation 



