590 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



August 3, 1912. 



HORTICULTURAL 



EDUCATION IN FRANCE. 



In the report on Horticultural Education, 

 prepared for the International Conference 

 held at Chelsea in May last. Professor L. 

 Henry, of the National School of Horticul- 

 ture, Versailles, contributes the following ac- 

 count of horticultural education as conducted 

 in France : — 



Horticulturists may be divided under three 

 heads, viz. : Horticulturists proper, seed- 

 growers, and market gardeners. 



1. Horticulturists. — One or other of the 

 following methods is usually pursued in 

 training horticulturists proper: 



A. By professional apprenticeshi 



(1) Either in some horticultural estab- 

 lishment, 



(2) At the residence of someone who pos- 

 sesses gardens so large as to necessi- 

 tate the employment of professional 

 gardeners for the purpose of main- 

 taining them, 



(3) In public gardens, such as botanical 

 or ornamental gardens belonging to 

 the State or Municipality, of which a 

 considerable number exist. 



(4) In the garden schools of the various 

 h'trt i(Mi 1 1 II 1 s-(M'irties (twenty-four in 

 1 "raiio- 1. 



B. By a stay in one of the special schools 



numbering sixteen in all. 



2. Seed rJrowrrs. — ^The same method is fol- 

 lowed as in tlu' vam' of horticulturists proper, 

 but in this ca^^e the number of special firms 

 or persons cultivating seeds is much more 

 limited, only certain large houses raising 

 their own ^mhIh, such as — Vilmorin-Andrieux 

 and .. Cuyeux and Lie Clerc, Chausse, For- 

 tin , ami liaumonnier, Simon (Louis-Leon), 

 in liu' neighbourhood of Paris — Rivoirc at 

 Lyon — and DmaiflV at CanVnan (Ardennes). 



All othiT .-^mhI nuTchants. and even some 

 large houses ilu'inst'lvrs for differtMit speciali- 

 ties, draw tlu'ir srod sujjplii's from specialists 

 who are generally located in districts par- 

 ticularly suitable for such productions. 



:Ja. Market Oardeners. or Maraichers, as 

 they are called in France.*— In the environs 

 of very j)opul<^us centres, such as Pans, 

 Lyons, Lille, Nancy, etc., the cultivation of 

 market gardens to be really remunerative re- 

 quires special knowledge, practice, and a 

 particular training, which is difficult, if not 

 almost impossible, to acquire otherwise than 

 by a proper apprenticeship with some spe- 

 cialist of experience. 



Thus it is in this way that the professional 

 market gardeners in France are generally 

 very independent, being specialists who can 

 demaad for the vegetables which they pro- 

 duce a remuneration quite out of proportion 

 to the work entailed — in fact, a regular 

 salary for one of the roughest professions, 

 which, however, strange to say, is handed 

 down from father to son in famiHes of simple 

 manners, usually patriarchal, honest, and 

 very hard-working. 



3b. Vegetable Growers.— Although market 

 gardening is quite a special branch of the 

 linrtioultural art, and necessitates a particu- 

 lar apprenticeship, it is not quite the same 

 thing as producing vegetables in season, 



which only requires simple and non-expensive 

 material. 



Strictly speaking,, this should not be called 

 a speciality^ since it is a relatively easy and 

 simple part of horticulture in general, in 

 fact, a cultivation open to all, yet it may 

 become, if it is properly carried out, a source 

 of very considerable profit. 



This cultivation must be learnt with those 

 gardeners who are evstablished with the spe- 

 cial aim of supplying modest households, and 

 for this purpose they work a piece of land, 

 more or less e xtensive, without attempting 



*In horticiiltnpal laaigniag-e, when eix^akine- of ih(- 

 cuHivaftion of Tegietablee, one di6tingnLs:h^ betw^^n 

 market giardener^ and kitchi^n g^rd^ners. Market 

 g^rdtwrf, have in view t-h^ tnipply of the niarke<tif* 

 a-na tins ivi carri^'d on und-e-r e-pecial conditioniS ; kit- 

 chen prdenor.. rather have in view tlie providine- of 



ftmi^'hold retjuireim^nti^ by means within tlie reach 

 of anyone. 



to obtain articles of luxury so much as those 

 in season and of fine quality. 



It can also be learnt in large private houses 

 under the direction of a clever and trained 

 gardener. Very often, and it is one of the 

 best methods, the apprenticeship is a family 

 one — the son then works as soon as he can with 

 his father and receives from him all the tech- 

 nical instruction and all the necessary manual 

 qualifications. Naturally the schools of agri- 

 culture worthy of the name make their pupils 

 familiar with the cultivation of vegetables 

 under conditions more or less perfect, accord- 

 ing to the resources which they have at their 

 disposal. Schools of agriculture themselves, 

 when they are properly managed, and pos- 

 sess a chief who is practical and some- 

 what clever, also form gardens adaptable for 

 the ordinary culture of vegetables. 



It is in these same establishments that 

 agricultural students are taught those 

 methods which are indispensable to the small- 

 holder. This part of the training is very 

 often neglected, in spite of all the interests 

 which it presents from the point of view of 

 food production, and the resources which one 

 can derive from it. The teaching of gar- 

 dening, in principle, forms part of the pro- 

 gramme of the movable domestic agricul- 

 tural schools; but what can they do, and 

 what inHuence can they have for a period of 

 instruction restricted to three months at the 

 outside, crammed with so many subjects, and 

 purely theoretical from the"^ horticultural 

 point of viewP They are held during 

 the winter months, and all classes of this 

 nature must, of necessity, do without prac- 

 tical application. 



ITxis is a state of manifest inferiority by 

 comparison with what takes place in neigh- 

 bouring countries (Belgium, G-ermany, Swit- 

 zerland, Italy, England, etc), where fixed 

 schools are the rule and where the young 

 woman— the future housewife — is instructed 

 m the art of gardening, which, later on, she 

 will have to undertake in rural cultivation. 



Whilst a neighbouring country, Switzer- 

 land, possesses two horticultural schools for 

 young women, it is as much as France can 

 do to show a single experimental, permanent, 

 domestic, horticultural-agricultural school 

 brought into being by private initiation. 



Theoretical Instruction. 



leaving aside the purely practical part and 

 considering the theoretical instruction only 

 this we find is distributed— 



(1) In horticultural schools of all kinds. 



(2) Agricultural schools of all degrees and 

 the farming schools w^here the instruction for 

 vegetable culture is more particularly 

 adapted to the needs of the farm. 



(3) Various special schools under the autho- 

 rity of the Minister of Agriculture. 



(4) Domestic agricultural schools, either 

 stationary* or movable. 



(5) Lectures and courses held by special 

 professors. 



courses organised by 

 various societies of popular instruction, asso- 

 ciations philotechniques, associations polv- 

 techniques, young people's unions, gardeners' 



societies, and lectures organised by the hor- 

 tipiiitiirai eocaeties. 



and 



(7) Municipal 

 classes. 



county lectures or 



Under the impulsion of enthusiastic initia- 

 tors, these classes and lectures have been 

 organised more or less generally, but espe- 

 cially, as goes without saying, in important 

 centres where audiences are not want-n^ 

 Pans, in particular, has in this respect 

 achieved some very remarkable progress and 

 fiuch and such a professor (often a trained 

 and clever gardener), and such and such a 

 willing delegate, animated solely by his de- 

 sire to render useful service and to serve 

 the cause of horticulture, gathers round him 

 m the evening during the winter in some hall 

 which IS held at his disposal by some intelli- 

 gent municipality or some society favourable 



^ ^ 1 I M I II 



* Permanent or etation^ary domestic agriciiMural 

 ^hooJB are BtiU very rar^ in France, as far every- 

 body ifl espeoia-lly attached to the" creation of ihovabJe 

 iScnooiiSB 



and 



to progress, an audience eager for instruc- 

 tion — attentive and sympathetic. 



There the clerk, freed from his office or 

 8hop labour, the working man from his work 

 shop, the amateur who cultivates his little 

 garden plot in the suburbs, come to derive 

 the information which is necessarv for the 

 intelligent cultivation of vegetables 

 fruit. 



Teclinical Training: of Arbori 



cultural Gardeners, 



4. Arboricultural Gardeners. The know- 

 ledge of the cultivation of fruit trees is 

 acquired in the same manner as vegetable 

 culture — 



(1) By study in special schools; 



(2) Professional apprenticeship to practical 

 work under the direction of arboricul- 

 tural gardeners, whether in private 

 hous-es, or in establishments devoted to 

 fruit production^ or in important nur- 

 series ; 



(3) By attendance at classes and lectures 

 given by county or municipal profes- 

 sors, or of horticultural societies, or 

 even of popular educational societies. 



Technical Training- of Gar 

 deners in Private Houses. 



Gardening in private houses embraces all 

 the various branches of horticulture. 



The preparation of gardeners for this work 

 19 accomplished in France principally by ap- 

 prenticeship lender the orders and directions 

 of experienced, clever, and master gardeners. 

 The apprentices, being anxious to perfect 

 ^heir professional instruction, afterwards 

 stay a certain time with specialists, vegetable 

 growers, florists, arboriculturists, etc. 



The schools we have previously mentioned 

 as teaching horticulture also train a certain 

 number of gardeners for private houses. 



1 ere are many complaints in France of the 

 apprenticeship difficulty in horticulture, a& 

 well as in every other branch of the agricul- 

 tural and industrial concerns. In order to 

 meet this difficulty the horticultural authori- 

 ties recommend and propose some special 

 schools for horticultural apprenticeship. 



Technical Instruction of Gar 

 deners of Public Parks and 



Scientific Gardens. 



To stay and work in some establishment of 

 a similar kind (public gardens and botanical 

 gardens of the State, societies, or some large 

 school, etc.) constitutes the most usual pre- 

 paration for this work in France. 



The National School of Horticulture of 

 Versailles is, in this respect, a nursery often 

 made use of, especially as in recent years 

 positions of this nature are competed for. 



In its School of Arboriculture of St. Mande, 



the Administration of the Public Gardens 



and Walks of the City of Paris, who retain at 



St. Mande trained and specially competent 



specialists, prepare agents fully qualified in 

 these matt^^rR 



rr 



(To be continued.) 



Heuchera sang'uinea.— I noticed 



a reference in your paper recently to Heu- 

 chera sanguinea, and thought a note re- 

 specting it might interest you. Heuchera 

 s-^anguinea, one of my introductions, was 

 brought by a friend of mine from Mexico; 

 there were six plants packed in a small bas- 

 ket, five of which were alive, and were 

 planted in my private garden at Tottenham, 

 where they flowered well, the spikes being 

 four feet high, and much finer than anything" 

 I have seen since, lliey produced a quan- 

 tity of first-class seeds, the whole of which 

 was then handed over to Mr. T. S. Ware, of 

 lottenham. As the plant propagated so 

 freely from seeds, division was neglected, 

 and so the true plant was soon lost. How- 

 ever, the plant now passing under the name 

 of " Walker Warietv" was from the original 

 seed which I gave Mr. Walter C. Walker; 

 when I saw it in bloom I obtained it from 

 him, and this was the origin of the variety 

 sent^out under his name, which, I contend, 

 IS the nearest I have seen to the originally 

 imported plants.— Amos Perby, Enfield. 



