Appendix 365 
the young plant; (3) the etnbryo or baby plant, which will produce the 
plant again on germinating — is another part of the third year’s work. 
The life-history of some common insects should be studied, tracing 
the insect from the egg to the larva, thence to the pupa, afterwards to 
the imago or perfect insect; the harm or good they do, and how to 
combat the harmful ones. 
The life-history of some of the common plant diseases should be 
studied, from the germination of the spore to the production of the spores 
again. The third-year pupils may also cross-pollinate some flowers, with 
a view to raising new varieties with higher qualities than those in existence. 
Those pupils may not see the result of their work, but the third-year pupils 
the following season may carry it on, when they leave records of their cross- 
ings and their aims. 
All this may seem a great deal to do at an elementary school, and 
under the present conditions it cannot all be done; but the education 
authorities are beginning to see the immense possibilities of the teaching 
of horticulture in our elementary schools, and there is no doubt that we 
are now at the commencement of a system of horticultural and agricultural 
education which will develop until we are able to give the rural population 
of our country as thorough an equipment in the way of education for their 
work as w'e now give the clerk, the engineer, the chemist, the lawyer, or 
the doctor. 
In horticultural education the great point aimed at should be to blend 
the practical with the scientific, so that there is perfect harmony between 
science and practice. At present the gulf is too wide. The scientist will 
not condescend to associate himself closely with the practical man, and 
the practical man will not put into practice the theories of the scientist. 
Whereas, if the gulf was filled up, and scientist and practical man frater- 
nized with each other, each seeking the other’s welfare, enormous strides 
would undoubtedly be made. As the practical man, living so closely with 
Nature, has found out many things which are not revealed to those who 
only take an occasional glimpse into Nature’s own great treasury, so the 
scientist has the knowledge which has been handed down to him for 
generations, along with that which he has himself acquired with the special 
means at his disposal. If the knowledge obtained in both ways were united, 
what further paths might not be opened to each one again, who might then 
go forward to better and higher things! 
From such intercourse the scientist would not lose, but rather gain 
esteem from those he now wishes to help, while the practical man would 
