CCXXVIII.—-INSTRUCTION IN HORTICULTURE. 
The funds at the disposal of the County Councils for technical 
education are being in some cases applied to instruction in Horticulture. 
Kew has been applied to for advice as to how this can be most effectively 
organised. The following correspondence is published for the informa- 
tion of those interested in the subject. 
MONTAGU SHARPE, atte Vice-Chairman of the cer pacer County 
, to ROYAL GARDENS, 
Technical Instruction in Horticulture. 
Dear Sim, Hanwell, W., December 13, 1891. 
SUB-COMMITTEE of the above dindi is now considering the 
best means of giving instruction in horticulture to the inhabitants of 
Middlesex who may care to avail themselves of it. 
have been requested to ask you to be kind enough to express your 
views on this matter, which will be of great assistance to the 
parliamentary divisions of Brentford and Taking 4 we think (so far as 
soon as a course of instruction was finished. With 
aoe dori era you. 
am, &c. 
(Signed) MONTAGU SHARP 
Viso iiron] Middlesex Gomis Council. 
The Director, Royal Gardens, Kew. 
Royan GARDENS, Kew, to VICE-CHAIRMAN, MIDDLESEX County 
COUNCIL. 
Royal Gardens, Kew, 
SIR, 15th December 1891. 
I am sorry to say that I feel great difficulty in seeing my way 
with regard to the general problem of technical education, and horti- 
culture seems to me to present peculiar difficulties. The cultivation of 
plants is an art which can only be acquired by practice, and therefore, 
it appears to me, cannot be taught in the lecture-room any mo 
art except by beginning at the bottom and going through every opera- 
tion, from the most elementary to the most difficult and refined. an 
intelligent young man does that, and keeps his eyes open, he may 
me a successful dener. But the mere reading of books and 
attendance on lectures will cn in my judgment, make anyone even a 
moderately competent garden 
If you will look at the Po hire Chronicle for November 28, n 
you will see a letter of Professor Huxley's which I reprinted. It ex- _ 
