October 20, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
347 
the special circumstances connected with the environment of the 
gardener’s calling. We are under these circumstances constrained 
to base any scheme of education and training of gardeners adaptable 
to the greatest number, on the assumption that what has proved 
to be the rule in this respect in the past will still obtain in the 
future. 
It is under exceptional circumstances that a lad leaves school 
before he reaches his fourteenth birthday. If of medium intelli¬ 
gence, under ordinary tuition he will be capable of passing his fifth 
standard examination at eleven years of age, when he is at liberty 
to take up as part of his studies “ specific subjects.” His education 
so far will have covered the elements of reading, elocution, grammar, 
writing, composition, drawing, arithmetic up to simple proportion 
and simple interest, geography, including causes affecting climate, 
and history. Coming now directly to the “ specific subjects ” 
allowed by the Education Department, we have to consider those 
which have a direct bearing on his future studies and particular 
calling in life, attempting to indicate the easiest gradient by which 
he may reach the goal for which he is striving. The new subject, 
“ Horticulture,” as a matter of course, in importance must take 
precedence of the others. As yet no class book on the subject 
has been published, and we are somewhat in the dark as to what 
extent the teaching of the subject will carry him, but this book 
is bound to follow. Taking the Education Department syllabus 
as our guide it carries on the face of it sufficient to indicate a fair 
elementary course of plant physiology. It so fully covers the 
subjects to study that we cannot do better than quote it in extenso. 
Horticulture.—Plant Life. 
“First Stage. —Seeds, nature of, germination, requirements, 
water, heat, air. 
“ Soils. —Nature and composition ; what they do, and how. 
What helps, and what hinders them. 
“ Roots. —Nature and functions ; branches, fibrils, and root 
hairs. 
“ Stems and Branches. —Their nature, work, and uses ; helps 
and hindrances. 
“ Leaves. —What they are, what they do ; helps and hindrances. 
“ Buds and Tubers. —Leaf buds, flower buds, and tubers. 
“ Growth. —Increase in size, and changes of composition ; forma¬ 
tion and storage of food materials. 
“ Floivers. —Their component parts ; what they do. 
“ Fruit. —Changes and development ; ripening. Forms and 
varieties of—as Apple, Strawberry, Plum, &c. 
“ Second Stage. — Elementary Operations. — Description, and 
use of implements, under each head. Operations connected with 
the land, with explanations of good and bad methods. Digging and 
trenching, draining, hoeing, stirring the soil, and weeding. Water¬ 
ing. Preparation of seed beds, rolling and raking, sowing, trans¬ 
planting, and thinning. Potting, planting, position, and shelter. 
Staking, earthing, and blanching. Propagation : elementary 
principles, cuttings, budding, grafting. Insects and fungus pests. 
“ Third Stage. — Advanced Practice. —Budding, grafting, and 
stocks used. Layering, division, branch-pruning ; root-pruning, 
old and young trees and bushes. Fruit culture : open air and 
under glass. Small fruits : Apples and Pears. Stone fruits : 
gathering and storing, packing and marketing. Vegetable culture ; 
tubers and roots. Green vegetables. Fruits and seeds (Peas, 
Beans, &c). Rotation of crops. Flower culture : open air and 
under glass. Manures and their application. Treatment of insect 
pests. Treatment of fungus pests. General knowledge of fruits.”® 
This syllabus covers the practical details of garden work 
generally, but the first stage is of especial value, showing that all 
the operations have underlying their performance definite reasons 
why they are, or should be done, animating the purely practical 
with the very spirit, of which the former is but the embodiment. 
The close inter-relationship of this part of the subject with certain 
branches of “ physiography ” will be evident. A school course of 
this epitome of the sciences will prove ot especial value in clearing 
the way of the difficulties in understanding the technicalities, &c., 
involved in the advanced studies of botany especially referring to 
“ plant physiology,” chemistry, geology, atmosphere, weather and 
climate, work and energy, heat and light, are physical phenomena 
involved and resultant, playing a most important part in “ plant 
life.” As much of each of the above branches have a bearing on 
the question—viz., chemistry, a knowledge of the elements and 
compounds, their affinities, and chemical formula and symbols. 
Geology, the nature and composition of the rocks, as the source of 
important elements (inorganic) of plant food, the part which rocks 
play in the formation of soils, &c. Atmosphere, its composition, 
measurement, height, density, temperature, and hygrometric con¬ 
ditions. Weather and climate, causes affecting climate. Work 
and energy, in relation to the sun as the source of energy. Heat, 
its nature, source, measurement, effects on liquids, solids, and gases, 
evaporation and radiation. Light, its effects on vegetation. 
A course of elementary chemistry would enable the student to 
grasp in their proper order the leading principles involved in 
relation to the elements of plant foods, the economy of manures, 
and a knowledge of plant physiology covered by the advanced 
stage in botany which should follow in due course later on. 
It would be of immense advantage to our intended gardener if 
he could possibly remain at school until his fifteenth birthday, so 
that besides passing the sixth and seventh standards he would have 
a year longer to carry out concurrently along with his usual 
standard work the specific subjects named. In regard to teaching 
facilities, in urban and suburban districts there will be no difficulty 
found ; even in the rural districts, at the present rate of progress, 
not many years will elapse before all schoolmasters are abreast of 
FIG. 47. —MR. T. GARNETT. 
the “ economic sciences.” The same remarks apply to languages^ 
and the gardener’s education cannot be called complete unless he 
knows sufficient Latin to understand the names of plants and the 
botanical terms used. 
(To be continued.) 
FRUIT TREES AND FRUIT. 
Amongst Kentish Fruits with Mr. George Bunstard. 
If pomum redivivum be good Latin, of which, the Latin-learning days 
being in the long ago, I am a little doubtful, it might be inscribed with 
a double meaning over the portals of the great nursery which Mr. G. 
Bunyard directs with such conspicuous ability and success near the 
pleasant old town of Maidstone. His great practical knowledge, fore¬ 
sight, acumen, and courage have done much to further the revival of 
British fruit growing; while years before the movement in which he has 
taken a prominent part gained force he had revived the drooping 
fortunes of an old-established house by the same admirable qualities. In 
looking over the magnificent collection of fruit exhibited by him at 
Earl’s Court the lesson was learned that what he has advocated with 
voice and pen he proves to the hilt by actual produce, and those who in 
face of the conviction piled on conviction’s head during the past year or 
two still persisted that fruit could not be produced in a large bulk equal 
to imported specimens must have received a rude shock. Perhaps they 
supported themselves with the assumption that the splendid Apples 
exhibited were all picked examples, grown on highly fed established 
trees under glass, hence large in size, polished in appearance, and rich in 
colour. And as people in general are just as ready to base an elaborate 
argument on a hasty assumption as on a well established fact, they would 
be able to reason themselves into a stare of considerable pessimistic 
comfort. But what are the facts? Something quite different, believe 
me. A visit to Maidstone arising out of the Show referred to, whereat 
a great desire was engendered to see the conditions under which fruit is 
grown in Mr. Bunyard’s nursery, shows that the magnificent fruit staged 
was gathered, not from established highly fed trees under glass, but from 
* Abstracted from Schedule of Specific Subjects.—Ed. Code. 
