HORTICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



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informed by the "powers that be," or were, that digging, pruning, &c. as 

 an ordinary labourer was beneath the dignity of a professor, our friend 

 turned to economic culture on his own account, and, after many mistakes, 

 became equally successful in this as in his former undertakings. And as 

 the adviser to-day of a large circle of practical cultivators he calls to others 

 to help forward the pioneer work. This career shows that, notwith- 

 standing much opposition and many difficulties, perseverance can, and 

 will, do much. I repeat, then, we must insist upon every child having a 

 sound elementary education, with every inducement to pursue its studies — 

 not in an early specialised form, but to enable it later to attain any goal 

 within reach of its God-given intellect and its own perseverance. 



Although such education may rob horticulture of a genius, it will create 

 others. If our special subject be taught aright — if the dry bones of hard but 

 essential facts be clothed with living muscle and nerve, quivering with 

 vitality — showing the wondrous beauty and harmony of garden life — all 

 will be well. Although we cannot agree to infantile specialisation, yet 

 we doubt not the advisability of letting children, say of twelve years and 

 upwards, take a part in useful w^ork. A child of twelve, working with its 

 parents in the hayfield or garden, will have its attention forcibly drawn 

 to the stern realities of life — will begin to understand that knowledge 

 is power, and the utility of knowledge. If its education be planned 

 aright, school will have an increased interest for it. Full well I know 

 the time required to revise work after vacations ; hence, if possible, there 

 should only be one long one in the year. Well I know the opposition 

 to discipline which some long absent ones will present on their return ; 

 yet the time is not lost, even from an educational standpoint. Never- 

 theless, although I would give every facility for children to engage early 

 in manual work, I would not reduce the educational requirements, but 

 rather increase them. Our great hope is in the awakening of the 

 masses. Children now attending village schools, young men working 

 in gardens and fields, if these can be made to realise the import- 

 ance of education as the means of raising them and their fellows to 

 a higher level, to independence, to greater usefulness, a new era will 

 indeed dawn. 



True, the people are awakening. The franchise has put into their 

 hand tremendous power. They want leaders — men of character, ability, 

 and tact — men whom they can, and will, trust implicitly. Leaders 

 will presently arise from their own ranks chiefly. Our chief con- 

 cern is, however, to stimulate our youth to true nobility of character, to 

 energy, to study. I would say to our young gardeners : Apply yourselves 

 to your work and to your studies. Faint not. I know how hot the sun 

 shines on the south border of a walled-in garden in July, the 

 oppressive heat of a glasshouse. I know how keen a January wind often 

 blows in the open ; I do not forget the seductive tendencies which would 

 lure the worker to a well-earned rest when the day's work is done. But 

 I also know the intense satisfaction which accrues from the acquisition 

 of knowledge, and I know that the earnest youth, after a refreshing wash 

 and tea, has the opportunity to turn to mental studies, and that when 

 once the preliminary difficulties arf overcome he will be likely to desire 

 to push on. I think of the intense gratification which the worker has 



