VOL. LV.— No. 3,062. 



SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1912. 



THE 



GARDENERS 



MAGAZINE 



NOTE OF THE WEEK. tliose qualities of boauty, colour, make. 



Science and Horticultural 



Education. 



With reo-ard to the recent 



ment of Mi 



pronouncc- 

 Runciman that a grant Mould 

 be made by the Government for the pur- 



of horticultural edncation, there 



of 



poses 

 exists 



some difference 



opinion. 



intjuiry, it would appear that this differ- 

 in some cases is based 



ence 



on a doubt as to the really 

 practical application of the 

 money. The profevssional 

 gardener, who has acquired 

 his knowledge by many years 

 of practical experience, finds 

 himself severely handicapped 

 in the struggle for 

 fort able existence by 

 fact that his profession is 

 not recognised as it merits ; 

 his position, too often, being 

 merely that of a sort of out- 

 doo r servant, w it h w a ges 

 more or less on the scale of 



a com- 

 the 



a superior 

 side his 



labourer 



Out- 



actual working 

 sphere little or no opportu- 

 nity is afforded him of edu- 

 cation on wider 

 his sons, if he 

 can only follow him 

 same profession with an 

 equ a 1 handicap. W he n , 

 therefore^ grants or bequests 

 of the nature cited come 



lines, while 

 have any, 

 in the 



into question, 

 shows him that 



experience 

 instead of 



him 



or his deriving any 

 direct benefit therefrom, 

 there is, in his opinion, too 

 great a tendency to appoint 

 as trustees or distributors 

 of such funds, men of purely 

 scientific stnndiug, so that 

 eventually the bulk, or all, 

 of the funds are dev^oteil to 

 scientific research, and the actual working 

 horticulturist or gardener is left out in the 

 cold, and his eminently practical services 

 ignoriMl. Kven those Avho recognise the 

 great value of scientific research as a foun- 

 dation for its practical a [^plication caniict 

 but feel, and recognise al^so, that we cv. e 

 the great nuxss of our horticultural and 

 floricultural acquisitions directly to the 

 practical gardener, rather than to lie 

 scientist. The scientist is practiciliy 

 bound to restrict his labours to more or 

 less abstruse research into the inner phe- 



flavour, etc., etc.. which <listinguish tlio 

 flowers and fruit with which the gardener 

 is familiar, and by virtue of which j-pccial 

 knowletlge he is enabled hv sele<*ti.)n to 



one phase of it, and that, in liis mind, by 

 far the least imjiortant. On the other 

 hand, it is only fair to (H)nsider the im- 

 mense benefit w]ii<*h the gardener derives 

 from rt>search in the form of chemical 



improve them more and more. If we lake manures, experiments in etherization, elec- 

 such representative bodies as the judging tricity, and other stinudative factors, in- 



committees of the Royal Horticultural So- 



ticides, in the elucidation of bacterial 



ciety, the Floral, Fruit, Orchi<l, and allied influenc<\s in the soil; and last, but by tio 

 Committees, form<Hl of men who not oniv ' - • - . . 



On judge, but are themselves largely the ori- 



ginators, so to speak, of the improved pro- 



MR. J. F. McLEOD. 



ducts concerned. \\r >\u\\] find that a!- that be. am 



means lea.st, is the discovery of the Men- 

 delian laws of hybridisation. A knowledge 

 of these first factors certainly enables him 



to stimulate growth, and to 

 hasten inflorescence, while 

 the last gives him such an in- 

 sight into the mysteries of 

 complex reproduction, that 

 instead of regarding the ap- 

 parent identity of the first 

 family rais<ul as a failure, 

 and consigning it to the dust 

 heap, he now knows that on 

 it he may have all the ele- 

 ments of success lying latent, 

 and ready to appear in the 

 next generation in the forms 

 he desires. He also knows 

 that by subsequent crossing 

 on Mendel's lines, he can fix. 

 a variety definitely. To 

 these and many other l)ene- 

 fits every intelligent gardener 

 si I o u I d know his indebted- 

 ness, but it is quite another 

 matter when the indebted- 

 ness to his own particular 

 branch of knowledge and 

 practical experience is 

 ignored, and science given 

 altogether the lion's share of 



spoils which may be 

 going. We have ventured 

 to voice these sent ini('in>. as 

 we know that tlun- arc \ cry 

 much in the air. but 

 ill the ab'-mcc 

 (U'tinite <u f^aiiiNat ion of gar- 

 deners, fail. peiliaps, to 

 imd that exjiressinii wliieh 

 can rea<li the power 

 1 ^(^ reelifv matters. 



anv 



air. 

 of 



anv 



though many, itrobably most of them, 

 admit tlie value oi si ience as an ally to 

 horticulture proper, few or none will :.dniit 

 the justice of all grants in aid being ab- 

 sorbed in the scientific direction, or })laee<l 

 in scientific hands alone for distribution. 



Mr. J. F. McLeod has for about a 

 quarter of a ceimiry ha<l eliarge of the 

 gardens ()f Dover House. H(H^lnuitl>ton. the 

 resklence ot d . Piei iiont .Mor;z:Hi. Kmj.. and 

 throughout that ]>eri<jd lu^ has maintained 



We are quite willing to grant th:it it is not them in such splendid c<hu iti<m hat they 



an easy matter to determine how they may lun e <-o.ne to be regarded by tliose wel 



be justly and judiciously apportioned, but versed m uardc., management as a mo<lel 

 it is quite easy to conceive that without 

 .such api)orti(tniiient, the practical gardener 

 is bv no means "enthused " when he hears 



of their <'l:iss. which, u may he >aid, is a 

 high one. Mr. McLeixl has uhtaiiuHl con- 

 siderable fame as a cultivator of Malmai- 

 son and other carnation'^, of choice fruits 



nonieiia of plant life, and in the va^t of such ]);<uniaiv ;j^M-tan<-e. o>tensiV)ly t;> 

 niajority^.f cases is quite unacquainted with horticultural education, but really only to that are usually grown under glass, ana 



