472 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



June 22, 1912 



subject of botany to be able to describe in 

 clear, concise language, the various parts of 

 a plant, and understand its structure well 

 enough to know what the particular func- 

 tions are of each part, then the work of 

 nutrition, food elaboration, and reproduction 

 will add an increased interest to their work. 



any 



Advantage of Moving: About. 



The young journeyman who has been pro- 

 perly advised will be alive to the a^dvantages 

 to be obtained from moving about to gardens 

 in different parts of the country, where he 

 will see the various methods practised under 

 varying conditions of soil, climate, etc., and 

 he ought not to stay much longer than two 

 years in any one place. This moving alx>ut 

 to different localities and gardens will tend 

 to broaden his ideas, and teach him many 

 lessons which it would be impossible to learn 

 in any one garden, and to this end he should 

 make it his business to get into as varied 

 gardens as possible. 



It is, Tierhaps, hardly necessary to mention 

 any particular gardens in this respect, as in 

 iluH country there are so many which are 

 noted for their special features, and it can 

 well be left to tlu' or the varying 



circumstances of tlic iii<lividual. 



I may, however, call attention to the great 

 value to be obtained from spending part of 

 cne\s training in a good market or general 

 nursery, where the methods of work are 

 usmilly conducted with the ereatcKt econoniv 

 and profit, factors which are indispensable 

 in the successful management of 

 garden. 



If the iourne3'man could 8pend part of his' 

 training in a good Continental nursery or 

 public garden he will ]ye still further 

 equipt:)ed, as here, l>esides his purely horti- 

 cultural training, he will also have the advan- 

 tage of acquiring a knowledge of the lan- 

 guage of the country, which would probably 

 be of much value to him in after years. 



I venture to suggest that this 'is a subject 

 this Conference might well consider, and see 

 if ftome sort of organised exchange syetem 

 between young gardeners of this country and 

 Continental countries could not be instituted, 

 on somewhat similar lines to tho«e which at 

 prcvsent exifit for elementary school teachers 

 between this country and France. 



^riie journeyman desirouri of making the 

 best uw<^ of his early training will endeavour 

 to .spend two years in our great national 

 botanic p-ardcn at Kew ; or. failintr Kew. 

 cither Edinburgh or Glasnevin, in either of 

 wliich places he will find gardening of the 

 very highest order carried on. It is true 

 that at neither Kew nor Edinburg-h are fruit 

 and vegetables grown, but knowledge of these 

 important eubjectjs mil have been acquired 

 in the previous training. The great value of 

 the.se gardens lies in their great wealth of 

 collections of plante, such as are not found 

 elsewhere. Further — and this, is equally as 

 important — in the association with men who 

 are anxious to become the best men in their 

 profet=sion : in thevSe associations with men of 

 ambitious inclinations the l>e8t is brought 

 out of any young man, and he soon shows by 

 his work, and in the lecture-room, of what 

 sort of stuff he iff- made. 



It is jufit possible that when a young man 

 ftets out upon his career he may have Pome 

 definite ideas of the class of p^ardenino* he 

 wishes to follow; but whether this be private 

 work, eervico under public bodies in narks. 

 market and nur^erv work, or the teaching of 

 horticulture, he will find that if he ha^i eon^ 

 through such a rourse of training a.s T 

 have indicated, he v/ill be much better 

 cquipned for specialising in any particul 

 branch. 



One cannot leave this nart of the subject 

 without acknowledgino" the q^reat valu^ of 

 the horticultural Pre^s in helping forward the 

 educational work of a e^ardener. The man 

 who wants to keer) himself posted in what i'-: 

 going on in the horticultural world cannot 

 afford to ieruore the weekly Pr^ss which fill's 

 a far more important part in a gar- 

 dener's training than many people like to 

 admit. 



Mutual Improvement Societies especially in 

 the neighbourhood of eome of our large 



towns, are also doing good work ; but with re- 

 ference to these one feels that if they could 

 work in connection with local educational 

 authorities, and have some definite courses 

 of instruction given through a compeMiit 

 teacher, their work would be of much more 

 value. This need not interfere with the 

 " mutual character of their work, but 

 should be regarded as an amplification 

 of it. 



Flower shows al&o play their part in our 

 educational work ; especially is this true of 

 those of the Royal Horticultural Society, and 

 many of the larger provincial societies, seve- 

 ral of the latter having special features for 

 which thev are noted. 



So far we have dealt with our svstem of 

 education more or less as one who sets out 

 to Ijecome a gardener finds it. 



Educational Establishments. 



From the mass of information, however, 

 which this Science and Education Commit- 

 tee have collected together, it is evident that 

 there is an enormous amount of teaching of 

 gardening provided by the various educa- 

 tional authorities of the country ; but, after 

 carefully considering the whole of it, one is 

 reluctantly forced to the conclusion that 

 very little of it is designed for the man who 

 is making gardening his profession. More 

 especially does this seem to be the case with 

 the higher college courses, which appear to 

 be designed more for schoolmasters, who, it 

 is hoped, will then be able to teach garden- 

 ing in the schools. 



This is certainly not quite as it should be, 

 and what many of us would like to see grow 

 out of this Conference is some definite co- 

 ordinated system of educational teaching de- 

 signed for the man who is making gardening 

 his profession. This system should insure 

 that the young gardener would 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 college-trained theory men, who, it 

 has to be admitted, are often preferred for 

 positions before the purely practical men 

 because of their supposed superior scientific 

 equipment. 



Organise some system of training so as to 

 make it possible that a thorough blending 

 of the two types of men are the resxilt, and 

 horticulture will stand to gain untold ad- 

 vantages. 



The pure scientist often has to lament his 



non-acquaintance with practice, as was the 



case with Darwin, who said that every 



botanist should have spent part of his train- 

 ing as a gardener. 



Personally I am more than satisfied that, 

 given the necessary training in research 

 methods, the intelligent young gardener 

 would often be a greater success than are 

 many of the purely class-room men. 



If, then, it were possible for the best 

 men in gardening to spend two years 

 or so at institutions which would make 

 it their business to specially cater for 

 them with teaching of the riqht kind, a race 

 of workers would result who would be highly 

 (pialified to deal with unsolved problems in 

 horticulture, in a thoroughly intelligent 

 manner, and with great and lasting good to 

 the community. 



Very careful selection of the men who 

 would be most likely to profit by this spe- 

 cialised training would be an essential part 

 in the success of this scheme, and I would 

 venture to suggest that one way by which 

 they might be discovered would })e by means 

 of the examination for the National biploma 

 in Horticulture which it is proposed to estab- 

 lish. 



Since horticulture is of such vast import- 

 ance to the people of this country, is it too 

 much to ask that the Government should 

 render financial assistance, in the way of 

 bursaries and scholarships, to help forward 

 this scheme for the better education of gar- 

 deners? Surely not! And one ventures to 

 hope that something of a definite nature in 

 this respect may be the outcome of this great 

 gathering. 



WORK FOR THE WEEK. 



THE ORCHID HOUSES. 



MILTONIAS. — In many collections Mil- 

 tonia vexillaria will have passed its flowering 

 stage, and in others will be in full beauty. 

 After flowering the plants should have a 

 short rest, and nothing should be done that 

 will induce growth, for the longer period of 

 rest this species enjoys the stronger will l)e 

 the new growths, when the season of activity 

 commences. For the next eight or nine weeks 

 it will only be necessary to keep the compost 

 moist, but on no account must the plant be 

 allowed to suffer from excessive dryness at 

 the roots or in the atmosphere. The pseudo- 

 bulbs must be kept plump and healthy until 

 new growths appear. In strong, healthy 

 plants this will occur before the plants have 

 finished flowering. Whilst at rest, M. 

 vexillaria in dry localities enjoys a cool at- 

 mosphere, and is best accommodated in the 

 cool house, and will enjoy as much fresh air 

 as any subject grown therein. In a damp 

 and cold locality I find the cool intermediatL' 

 house the best place for this orchid when 

 at rest. I do not advise repotting until the 

 new growths are of some considerable 

 length, and are about to push forth new 

 roots; the middle or end of August is quite 

 early enough. Should hot, dry weather pre- 

 vail, I find Miltonias do not appreciate being 

 disturbed. With the dfferent varieties of 

 this most useful orchid, it is possible to main- 

 tain a supply of flowers during the whole of 

 the summer months. After the early-flower- 

 ing varieties are over, the succession is 

 maintained by M. v. splendens, M. v. Lam- 

 beauiana, M. v. Queen Alexandra, M. v. 

 superba, M. v. Leopoldi, and M. v. rubella. 

 These late-flowering varieties should be kept 

 in the intermediate house until they bloom, 

 after which they may also, should every- 

 thing be favourable, be removed to the 

 cool house. 



M. BLEUANA.— The hybrids, M. Bleuaua 

 and M. Hyeana, and their many varieties, 

 should always be given a position in the in- 

 termediate house. These plants make their 

 growth after the same manner as M. vexil- 

 laria, and should be treated much in the same 

 manner, with the only exception of tempera- 

 ture. I find these hybrid Miltonias com- 

 mence to grow a little in advance of the spe- 

 cies mentioned, therefore they may be re- 

 potted earlier. Being purely surface-rooting, 

 they are best grown in what is known as 

 half-pots, which must be well drained. For 

 oompost, I rejcommend equal portions of 

 peat, polypodium fibre, osmunda fibre, 

 sphagnum moss, and pure oak leaves, from 

 which all the fine particles have been 

 taken, 



another 



IS 



MILTONIA PHAL^:N0PSIS 

 species which may be treated after the same 

 manner, but care must be taken that the 

 plant is not over-potted, as it has not the 

 power to push through a great thickness of 

 compost. 



CULTURE.— When potting Miltonias, care 

 must be taken not to pack the compost too 

 tightly, but it should l>e moderately finn 

 around the whole plant. One of the greatest 

 errors made is an excess of water after repot- 

 ting ; only just suflicient should be given 

 until the roots have freely entered t,hc ncv.' 

 compost. Small yellow thrips often attack 

 the foliage of Miltonias, and, when found, 

 the plants should at once be dipped in soiih' 

 safe insecticide, the leaves carefully spnged, 

 and subsequently cleaned in tepid rain 

 water. After an attack of this pest, the 

 plants may be vaporised from time to tim^ 

 Math some safe compound. Woodlice do much 

 damage to the young roots of Miltonias, and 

 should be diligently searched for at all times, 

 and destroyed, liaits of apple and potato 

 should be laid for them, and every means 

 taken to entrap them, until they are exter- 

 minated.— J. T. Eakker, The West HiU 



Gardens, 



