HORTICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



158 



lastly private ejfort, where an enlightened individual is spending all his 

 spare time in self-tuition, and possibly receiving a little assistance through 

 the post, or from evening classes on allied subjects in a technical 

 institute. 



We are accustomed to hear the work of colleges lauded to the skies in 

 flowery speeches on public occasions. Those who know, must discount 

 heavily the flattering reports which appear in the periodic Press. Not 

 infrequently some of us wish these were more moderate and strictly honest, 

 so that the plodding worker who has no such opportunities should not be 

 discouraged. One realises that college courses are at x>resent well-nigh 

 indispensable stepping-stones to the better-salaried posts. But, notwith- 

 standing all the glamour, there is unquestionably a great deal of 

 discontent respecting college instruction. We should recognise that 

 although certain students have won many laurels during, and at the end 

 of their college course yet they become failures as cultivators ; that when 

 an experienced employer wants to engage an assistant he usually avoids the 

 college-trained garden or farm student. (He may not always state why to 

 the applicant.) Is the objection justified ? 



As an ardent educationist I sincerely regret having to admit it is 

 perfectly justified in probably the majority of instances. As a practical 

 cultivator who has succeeded in making gardening and farming pay, 

 I must frankly admit that bitter experience has taught me to reject the 

 college-trained person when I require help. These things should not so 

 be. What are the causes of the failure ? I will not probe the subject 

 deeply, but I feel very strongly there is not sufficient co-ordination 

 between the scientific and the garden or field work. The house is often 

 divided against itself. In how many of our agricultural or horticultural 

 institutions are the guiding organising minds really successful practical 

 cultivators ? High degrees they may have, but can they run a market 

 garden or a farm on a successful paying basis ? It is said college farms &c. 

 are not a success. Why not ? That professor's gardens are fruitless and 

 unprofitable. Why so ? These questions arise, and if we would be honest 

 and succeed they should be investigated, and if possible solved. Attached 

 to every agricultural or horticultural college there should, of course, be 

 sufficient land cropped for teaching purposes, for demonstrations, and 

 for practice of students. As many varieties of different kinds of plants 

 should there be grown as possible. Plots for demonstration should be 

 kept distinct from those for experiment if it be considered wise to have 

 experimental plots there. Plots for demonstration being essential for 

 educational purposes, the cost of "upkeep" must be borne by the in- 

 stitution. Apart from this, it is, in my opinion, most desirable that land 

 should be managed by the authorities, or possibly by the director himself, 

 where students do no work whatever ; where the methods, as far as 

 practicable, advocated in the lecture-room are acted upon and their utility 

 proved. Students could visit them at certain intervals in charge of the 

 lecturer and note carefully what was done, and they should be supplied 

 with a detailed balance-sheet every week. A careful valuation should be 

 made every year by a thoroughly competent and quite independent valuer ; 

 the expense attendant on this valuation (being specially for educational 

 purposes) might be borne by the college, but no other item. There are 



