WHAT CAN WE DO AT CHISWICK ? 



169 



highly valuable — depending on the intelligence with which they 

 have been planned and executed. Merely as examples of the 

 multifarious lines of work successfully prosecuted by horticul- 

 turists, I will mention the following : — Control of flowering 

 seasons in fruits by mulching, &c. ; influence of electric light on 

 plants ; methods of irrigation ; the necessity of cross-pollination 

 in various apples, pears, plums, and grapes ; the protection of 

 peach trees against winter freezing ; the distribution and eradi- 

 cation of weeds ; the preservation of fruits for market ; the 

 acclimatisation and distribution of many fruits; methods of 

 pruning and training ; forcing fruits and vegetables, &c, &c. 



" The work is yet unorganised and imperfect in many par- 

 ticulars ; but a fairly general agreement has been reached as to 

 the experimental methods which give best results. The actual 

 fruit growers most interested in the work of the experiment 

 stations, and all those most closely connected with them, feel, I 

 think, that we shall make still further progress just as fast as we 

 have investigators thoroughly and broadly trained in the sciences 

 and capable of pursuing independent, original scientific research, 

 and as fast as the management of the experiment stations is 

 taken out of the hands of unworthy politicians, so that such 

 trained scientists may be employed in place of incapable favour- 

 ites who still hold a few of these positions. 



"F. A. Waugh. 



" Burlington, Vermont." 



Turning now to the instructional features that might be 

 introduced at Chiswick, it may be pointed out that in many of 

 the experiment stations alluded to in the preceding letters, there 

 are horticultural schools where a thorough training in the prin- 

 ciples underlying cultivation is afforded, as well as instruction in 

 the technical details of plant cultivation. The word training is 

 employed because dogmatic teaching is in these institutions, as 

 elsewhere, as far as possible, superseded by practical work. The 

 student is now expected to verify for himself, so far as circum- 

 stances will allow, the details and explanations afforded by 

 lectures and text -books. We have not in this country yet any- 

 thing that we can put alongside of the horticultural schools 

 of Versailles, Ghent, Vilvorde, or Berlin ; but a commencement 

 has been made, and at Chelmsford, under the auspices of the 



c 



