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PROFESSIONAL AND MORAL TRAINING. 
PROFESSIONAL AND MOEAL TRAINING. 
HINTS ADDRESSED TO YOUNG GARDENERS. 
By Mr. W. P. KEANE, Author of the " Beauties of Surrey," and " Middlesex." 
17;TIHERE is nothing in nature so truly miraculous and adorable, as that the endless and beneficent 
I\ variety of results -which we see, should spring from such simple elements. The process of 
analyzing the facts learned by observation and experiment, so as to deduce from them the general 
circumstances in which they bear resemblance, is termed the truth, or law, or scientific principle under 
which the facts are classed. Now, while this process is that which leads to the highest objects of 
philosophy, it is also that by which all the common knowledge of the course of nature is obtained by 
ordinary minds. Facts are to the mind what food is to the body ; on the due digestion of facts depend 
the strength and wisdom of the latter, just as vigour and health depend on the former. The most 
successful in practice will be the gardener who has assimilated to his understanding the greatest 
number of facts. 
The great philosopher, Lord Bacon, we read, collected a great number of books on gardening and 
rural affairs, but finding them destitute of the information he sought, he ordered that every one of 
them should be burned, remarking — " In all these books I find no principles ; they can, therefore, be 
of no use to any man : he must get principles for himself, or he must go on till the elements have 
instructed him, and in either case he can stand in no need of books like these." Thanks to the expe- 
rience and research of a few philosophers of the present century, we are enabled by the writings of 
Sir Humphrey Davy, Mr. Knight, and Liebig, to take a comprehensive view of the agents by which 
vegetable life is influenced, and to trace effects to their causes. It is a beautiful fact, that in nature 
there is always a unity of operations, and a regularity of connection between cause and effect, which 
is the more perceptible the more minute the investigation. In the language of philosophy, certain 
antecedents being given, under similar circumstances, corresponding consequents always ensue. 
Investigate one useful experiment in horticulture through the different agents by which success is 
obtained, and the great variety of phenomena will be connected by a small number of general principles, 
by the help of which we are able, from the knowledge of a few facts, to form certain conclusions 
respecting a multitude of others. 
Let us take any one fruit-tree, flower, or vegetable, and follow the course of its life from the 
embryo state to maturity ; it will afford a type of the circumstances, substances, and influences indis- 
pensably necessary for each and every one of the whole vegetable family in all parts of the world. 
From the majestic Oak of the forest to the creeping Strawberry plant, through the various gradations 
from the highest to the lowest in the vegetable kingdom, the same influences are at work, all tending 
by similar means, under various modifications, to produce the same results. 
"When we see trees, plants, and vegetables growing with such rich luxuriance after a fine May- 
shower, we ask ourselves to trace effects to their causes. The rain we saw to be the immediate cause. 
That rain was supplied by the clouds ; the clouds were formed of exhalations or vapours raised from 
the earth ; these exhalations were produced by the heat from the sun, which is the animating principle 
of vegetable life. The sun is, therefore, the source of heat, light, and life. Deprive trees, plants, and 
vegetables of light, and the best-flavoured fruits become insipid, plants of the richest colours assume an 
ashy whiteness, and the most acrid vegetable grows tasteless ; then, all nearly agree in the qualities 
of their juices. It is only when under the direct influence of light that they acquire their peculiar 
properties as to colour, perfume, and flavour. It is on the leaves and succulent stems of plants that 
light chiefly acts, and it is in those parts where the proper juices that give coloiu-, flavour, and the 
other characters peculiar to plants, more especially reside ; they are the oils, volatile and fixed, gums, 
balsams, and turpentines, the alkalies and acids, the earthy and saline compounds, and the tannin and 
extractive principle found in the sap or proper juices. It sometimes happens in America, that clouds 
and rain obscure the atmosphere for several days together, and during that time the buds of extensive 
forests expand themselves into leaves ; these leaves assume a pallid hue till the sun appears, when 
within the short period of six hours of a clear sky and bright sunshine, their colour is changed to a 
beautiful green. A writer in Silliman's Journal mentions a forest on which the sun had not shone for 
twenty days. The leaves, during that period, had expanded to their full size, but were nearly white. 
One forenoon the sun began to shine in full brightness : the colour of the forest absolutely changed so 
fast that he could perceive its progress. By the middle of the afternoon, the whole of these extensive 
forests, many miles in length, presented their usual summer dress. It is reasonable to inquire how 
such magical effects were produced. The answer will apply with equal force to all fruit-trees, plants, fy 
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