626 



THE GARDENERS* MAGAZINE. 



August 17, 1912 



GARDENERS AND 

 GARDENING* 



EDUCATION AND TOAINING OF 



GARDENERS. 



The monthly meeting of the Scottish Hor- 

 ticultural Association was held in the Goold 

 HaU, 5, St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh, on 

 the 6th inst. Mr. Massie, the president, was 

 in the chair, and there was an attendance 

 of 60 members. 



The evening was devoted to a dlHcuesion 

 on the training and education of the young 

 gardener, the discuswion being opened with 

 short papers by Mr, C. Comfort and the 

 secretary on the practical and teelinical 

 sides rewpeotively. A general discus^sion fol. 

 lowed, the meeting l>eing sitbstantially in 

 agreement with tlie vimvs put forward in the 

 papers. 



APPRENTICESHIPS AND PRACTICAL 



TRAINING. 



Mr. Coniiui t >t.ited that in the.se days the 

 man who learned his bu^dne^lH only by lutp- 

 /la/ard means would soon find lums-elf el- 

 bowed out, and hopelessly left behind in the 

 race of life, and thi.s was emphatically true 

 of gardening, wiiirh demanded so wide a 

 range of both practical and scientific know- 

 ledge. There were two individualn to con- 

 wider in this question — the head gardener 

 and the under gardener or apprentice. In 

 .selecting an ap{>rentice, the bead gardener 

 >hould see that he was of good moral charac- 

 ter and of fair intelligence, that he had re- 

 ceived a good elementary education, and 

 that 111* had some taste for gardening. Fewer 

 buk wwv Huw urtering themwelveg as appren- 

 tice-, than \va^ t lu' case some years ago, and 

 he sngge^sted tlMr ajiprentices should he 

 taken on at ar t arli^T age than was usually 

 the ca^ie, say, at hfteen instead of seventeen 

 At present youn^ lad,s >vho intended to be^ 

 come gardeners hung on at odd work for two 

 or three years after tliey left school, until 

 they reached the age at which they were 

 generally taken on as apprentices, and the 

 best of them often turned their attention to 

 somethiijcr ;,t uliifli a Mart c.uld be made 



at all t';irIitM* at>^*' 



'I'ill' nil] V 



thf air,. ,n irardening, >(> far as lie Vould see 

 was in order to obtain the servi( -> (d a lad 



r.ason for tliis putting hack of 



who was able to do a man s work ior a boy's 

 pay. There were few gardens however 

 where a boy of fifteen could not be profitably 

 employed. The change suggested would be 

 ot great advantage to the young gardener, 

 and jf it were to come into vogue the term 

 of apprentices-hip might with advantage be 

 extended to four year.^, instead of tliree as at 

 present. Ha\ing secured liis apprentice the 

 head gardener should realise that, not onlv 

 had he taken upon himself the responsibilit'v 

 of grounding the young man in his craft, 

 but also of looking after his moral and phy- 

 ^cal welfare. So long as plants required 

 immediate attention, the gardeners' bothv 

 would most Idkely remain a necessitv, and", 

 wiule the almost palatial structures^ which 

 have been ere<'ted in t>ome establishments 

 were not likely to Ix^eome common, the place 

 in which the young gardener had to live, and 

 for the time being became his home, should 

 at any rate, be in keeiiinn; with modern ideas 

 of healtJi and comfort, and a place to which 

 an intelligent young man would not be 

 a>hamed to take his friends. Bothies should 

 also be provided with some literature, and 

 there r;hould be some facilities for recreation, 

 for " all work and no plav make^* Jack a dull 

 boy." 



Too much should 1 ot be expected from the 

 apprentice to begin with. Seniors were too 

 apt to forget the gulf which separated them 

 from the apprentice. The reason for doing 

 a thing in a certain way should be explained 

 to the apprentice. Not only v^hould he be 

 taught how to use his tools, but he should 

 also }>o instructed to keep them clean and 

 tidy, and, in fact, the lesson of tidiness in 

 everything should be ^^trongly impressed upon 

 him. During part of his' time the appren- 

 tice slionld liave the opportunity of seeinp' 

 Hery thing that 1. to hv ^ee.n in the establish- 



ment, though it may not be practicable iu 

 a four years' apprenticeship to take part in 

 every practical operation, from weeding to 

 the potting of a fifty-guinea orchid. The 

 establishment in which tiie young man. served 

 hig apprenticeship need not necessarily be a 

 large one. In a well-appointed, moderately- 

 sized garden, under the charge of an efficient 

 head gardener, more would be found than 

 the smartest apprentice could take advantage 

 of even during a four years' appreJiticeship. 

 The evstablii^hment to avoid was t>ne in which 

 a cheese-paring policy was pursued. Eco- 

 nomv was incumbent on all, but those who 

 either could not or would not pay the neces- 

 sary price for what was, after lall, largely a 

 luxury, should cut their coat according to 

 their cloth. 



Having chosen lli-^ calling, the young gar- 

 dener would do well to remember that very 

 much of hi.s future success depended upon 

 himself. Courteous and polite he should be, 

 and he should learn that submission to those 

 having authority over him was not only 

 necessary to tlie advancement of his know- 

 ledge, but that it was also necessary for the 

 formation of cliaracter. " Learn to obey and 

 you will know how to command." Industry, 

 too, should become a trait of his- character. 

 "Good Jitriving makes good thriving^" and 

 industry should assert itself in every detail 

 of his work. He should take painei to find 

 out things for himLself, and should strive 

 to get to the root of everything. There was 

 often a diffidence about asking questions, 

 which might arise from natural shyness or 

 from the fear of being considered ignorant. 

 Eut no reasonable being expected to fi^nd au 

 old head on young shoulders, and those hav- 

 ing the charge of young lads should so culti- 

 vate their inter-relationships with them that 

 they would have no fear of being snubbed 

 even should they ask what might seem a 

 silly question, no long as it was asked sin- 

 cerely. 



The young gardeners " time " being com- 

 pleted, it would, as a general rule, be well for 

 him to move about a bit for the next few 

 years, and if he could spend some time in 

 establishments where certain subjects call- 

 ing for skill in their cultivation were made 

 specialities of, it would be to his advantage. 

 He should also visit other establishments and 

 interchange views with his fellow gardeners, 

 and visits to flower shows should not be neg- 

 lected ; neither should the reading of at least 

 one good gardening paper weeklv. 



1^ 



TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 



After contrasting the position of the youncr 

 gardener of to-day, as regards the advan''- 

 ta^ which he enjoyed in the way of tech- 

 nical education and cheap literature with 

 that of the young gardener of forty to fifty 

 years ago, the secretary said that, though 

 they bad to find out many of the secrets of 

 heir success as cultivators by rule of thumb 

 methods, a.nd their knowledo-e of these 

 matters was therefore largelv empirical, the 

 old gardeners would hold their own with 

 the younger ones either as cultivators or 

 otherwise. Iheir average education, too, 

 when they left school was better, he thouglit, 

 than that ot the average of boys leaving the 

 eleme.-itary schools at present and their 

 efforts at .-elf-improvement afterwards were 

 more persistent than those of the present- 

 day young gardener. 



Before referring to the technical subiects 

 which the young gardener should apply him- 

 self to once he had settled down to the seri- 

 ous work of liis calling, the secretary said 

 there was no doubt in his mind that if the 

 practical and theoretical trainings could not 

 be earned on alongside each other, the prac- 

 tical should come first. It was absolutely 

 wrong to put a young man through a course 

 of technical training, and then to teach him 

 the practice, and in most cases, it would be 

 a ho|3eless failure. If a lad had made up his 

 mind to become a gardener, he would have 

 to realise that the time would come when 

 he would have to teach other lads the practi- 

 cal part of it, and that, in order to do so, he 

 would require to become a skilled workman 

 himself; and there was no doubt that the ..1 

 most receptive time for practical inj^truction burgh. 



was at the very commencement of hie career 

 If it were delayed until he had pas-* 

 through a course of scientific training- 

 would not take to it with the same avidif 

 if he took to it at all, and he would fill, 

 himself handicapped at a later period of \ii 

 career. 



Those young men who commenced the 

 gardening careers at the horticultural col- 

 leges would find their courses of instruction 

 prescribed for them in the various college ciin 

 ricula, but the young gardener who had ! 

 opportunity of attending one of these college!^, 

 provided he had received a good sound el^' 

 mentary education, might make consideral)! 

 progress in some of the technical subjec 

 without assistance, though it would b& ;i. 

 the better for him if he could obtain sojiu- 

 tuition, or if he were fortunate to be placfd 

 amongst studious companions. Botany, . 

 the subject which would appeal most to hin 

 being the natural science with which h. 

 v/ould be most intimately brought into con- 

 tact in his career, would probably be the be.-t 

 subject to begin with. It had the advantao. 

 of being a comparatively easy subject, and 

 h^ would always have abundance of material 

 for study. Entomology was the next in im- 

 portance of the natural science subjects, and 

 among the phymcal sciences perhaps the most 

 important was chemistry, especially in con- 

 nection with the manuring of plants, but 

 the' young gardener should also have a sound 

 knowledge of elementary general physics, in- 

 cluding meteorology Of the other technical 

 subjects which he should study, one of the 

 most important was simple land surveying^ 

 and levelling. With a good elementary 

 school education the youngs gardener should 

 know something about mensuration, and with 

 a little tuition elementary land surveying 

 and levelling should not be beyond his 

 powers. It not infrequently happens that 

 a gardener has to make an: alteration in or 

 an addition to his garden, or he may be called 

 upon to make an entirely new one, and "vvith 

 a knowledge' of this and a little elementary 

 plan drawing he would be in a position to 

 efficiently carry out such work. He should 

 also have some knowledge of horticultural 

 engineering. Lastly, a knowledge of book- 

 keeping wa« most esse*ntial, and, as a gar- 

 dener's books were not of a complicated 

 nature, this he could get up with isonie read- 

 ing and a little practice. 



These w^era what might be called the essen- 

 tials of the young gardener s technical edu- 

 cation, but they by no meams exhausted the 

 list of subjects which he should get up, and 

 his reading should be both extensive aiii 



varied. If the teaching of horticulture wa> 

 his aim the more extensive his general 

 knowledge of gardening was the better, and. 

 thanks to an excellent horticultural pre?^. 

 he would have no difficulty in keeping him- 

 self a.breast of the times whatever branch ol 

 gardening he specialised in. It was a mis- 

 take to assume, as was often done, he feared, 

 that teachers of practical subjects like hor- 

 ticulture should be merely college graduates.. 

 All the better if they were college graduates.. 

 perhaps, but they should first of all be pW' 

 tical men, and the better they knew tli^ 

 piactical part of their subject the more sik" 

 cessful would they he as teachers. 



The exhibits were : New pentstemon Mrs. 1 

 Fulford and spikes of Kalanchoe flammea. 

 cut from plants raised from leaf cuttings 

 put in in July, 1911, and grown on m 3m- 

 pots, from Mr. F. Fulford, Montgom^ju 

 Castle Gardens, Tar*bolton, Ayrshire (awa 

 a cultural certificate for kalanchoe); Acaiy- 

 pha Sanderiana, from Mr. Jam-eis Fraser. 

 Bonaly, Colinton (awarded a cultural cerri- 

 ficate); ox-eye daisies, from Mr. F. BaiUJ^^ 

 Liberton ; strawberries, gooseberries, a 

 black currants from the City of Edinburgh' 

 Distress Committer's farm at Murieston, 

 Calder, per Mr. Cairns (awarded a cuitur^ 

 certiticate) ; new tomato, from Mr. tj. _ 

 Simpson, Edinhurcrh: Nephrolepis todeoia 

 Snuthi and Pt^^ris Tncisa, from Messrs. Jam 

 Grieve and So.-is, Edinlmrgh (awarded a c 

 tural oertificnto) ; plants of Onopordon AC^^^^ 

 thium and Dipsacus fullonum, each 

 6ft. high, from Messrs. Todd and Co., ^ 



ded 



