April 13, 1895. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
521 
A GARDENER’S EDUCATION. 
[Continued from p. 508.) 
When one takes into consideration that here in 
this England of ours with its comparatively restricted 
area of 122,550 square miles are gathered represent¬ 
atives of all the floras of the globe which are of use 
to us or which minister in any way to our comfort 
and well-being, we can only be astonished that so 
many of them exhibit such unfailing good temper 
and adapt themselves so wonderfully well to their 
new surroundings. I say when we consider this we 
are forced to ejaculate, Truly man is nature's lord ; 
and why, I would ask, 
should it not be,as for man 
all things are, and were 
created, and how can he 
use the reasoning facul¬ 
ties granted him to better 
advantage than when he 
strives to make existing 
forms of vegetation more 
suitable for the fulfilling 
of his wants and special 
requirements ? From the 
time of the grand old 
gardener Adam right 
down to the present day 
man has had the words 
ringing in his ears, " By 
the sweat of thy brow 
shalt thou earn thybread," 
and behold a great and 
mighty conflict has been 
raging and man is emerg¬ 
ing a victor from the 
contest. Whatever he 
has put his hands to, the 
result has been the same, 
viz., the alteration of 
existing forms of plant life 
to a less natural, perhaps, 
but certainly a more 
gorgeous state of affairs. 
If we look at hundreds 
of our favourite flowers as 
as they used to be and re¬ 
gard them now, Lo! what 
a difference is here ! The 
Dahlia, the Chrysanthe¬ 
mum, the Rose, the Be¬ 
gonia, what mute yet elo¬ 
quent witnesses are they 
of the power and skill 
that man possesses. Then 
again the luscious fruits 
with which the mors 
favoured classes regale 
themselves— the Peach, 
the Apricot, the Necta¬ 
rine, as well as the hardier 
but none-the less delicious 
Apple and Pear—what 
likeness do they bear to 
their ancestors?—next to 
none. Indeed, we may 
almost say that man has 
created them, for assuredly 
out of nothing or next to 
nothing has he brought 
them forth. Even this 
brief and cursory view 
has given us sufficient 
idea of the value of the 
science of horticulture to 
mankind in the past. It 
behoves us then to see 
to it that we of to-day 
shame not the glorious 
traditions of our fathers. 
Of course we know that there are great numbers 
of charlatans in the profession, and we are all like¬ 
wise aware that there are very many crying abuses 
to which gardeners are subjected to-day that are in 
urgent need of reform. A great authority, with 
whom I am not disposed to quarrel, once said that a 
gardener must of necessity possess the learning and 
knowledge of an M.D., or a Q.C., and yet is barely 
requited with the pay of a labourer. We contend 
that it is a crying shame that a body of men from 
whom so much is expected should be insulted by the 
paltry pittances of wage so often meted out to them 
by persons who would feel disgusted were we to call 
them anything else but gentlepeople. Apart from 
this it is almost marvellous the amount of proficiency 
that is required from a gardener of to-day. We 
cannot pick up a horticultural paper without we 
come across persons advertising for something ,—- 
whether it be a gardener or a" Jack-of-all-trades ” is 
a question I have never yet been able to decide for 
myself: perhaps the discussion may help me some¬ 
what on this point. I will quote one or two 
advertisements that have come before my own 
notice that will be amply sufficient to serve the pur¬ 
pose of illustration. 
"Wanted, a thoroughly competent gardener, 
experienced in all branches, to look after cows and 
poultry, clean boots, knives and forks, etc., and 
assist in stables, light weight preferred. Wife to 
assist in kitchen three days a week, joint wages 
twenty-one shillings per week and cottage, no encum¬ 
brance allowed.” 
"Wanted, a good gardener, must have a thorough 
knowledge of stove and greenhouse plants, Vines, 
hardy fruit vegetables, etc. Will be required to 
attend to pigs and fill up his time in the stables; 
wife to look after co vs and poultry, and to assist in 
the laundry when required, for which extra will be 
paid. Applicants must be sober (total abstainers 
preferred), wages .18/- per week and cottage. 
Preference given to Churchman who can sing in 
choir.” 
Of course any proposition that we might put for¬ 
ward as to the necessity for raising the wages of 
horticultural labourers—I beg their pardon, I mean 
gardeners, would be met by the counter-claim that 
the majority of gardeners are so ignorant and that 
the wage they are now receiving is quite as much 
as they are worth. Now, this is just the point at 
which we must strike. Away with ignorance, 
and education, free, ample and unstinted, is the only 
weapon that we can use 
in its abolition. That 
ignorance partial or com¬ 
plete is not alone the pro¬ 
perty of the hard-working 
gardener is proved by 
Mark Twain’s famous skit 
upon the way in which 
newspapers are edited. 
He makes the solemn 
statement that “ when he 
was editing an agricul¬ 
tural newspaper in the 
States he made the un¬ 
fortunate announcement 
to his readers that the 
best way to gather turnips 
was to shake them from 
the trees." From the 
north of England the 
rumour travels of acertain 
expert, who,on being called 
in by a would-be fruit¬ 
grower to see why his 
fruit trees did not grow, 
found that some of them 
had been planted 3 ft. 
deep. Naturally enough, 
he enquired the reason for 
these extraordinary pro¬ 
ceedings and was told that 
the whole of the trees had 
been bought at a sale and 
that some of them had 
been planted deeply to 
make all the tops level. 
The possibility of the 
existence of such ignor¬ 
ance is, I should imagine, 
quite sufficient proof that 
an educational reform of 
some kind is needed if 
we are to really improve 
the position and status 
of the gardener of, let us 
hope, the immediate 
future. 
Now if we are going to 
turn out a decent specimen 
of a gardener we must 
start with him in the 
schoolroom, where he 
should remain if possible 
until he is fifteen years of 
age. The subjects taught 
him there should consist 
of a thorough grounding 
in the three R’s, English 
Grammar and History, 
Mensuration, Geography, 
not less than four Books 
of Euclid, and at least 
two languages or their 
rudiments—say Latin and 
French. Now I hear 
some people saying this is 
rather a large order, and indeed at first sight it may 
seem to be so ; but Horticulture is a progressive 
science and those of its disciples who do not want 
to be left behind must perforce be progressive too. 
I think it would surprise some of us could we but 
know the great store that some gentlemen set upon 
a gardener being able to speak politely, clearly and 
correctly, to be able to wield a good pen and conduct 
himself respectfully, yet not slavishly, towards his 
employer or his employers' friends. 
With regard to the languages, we Britons have 
for far too long been behind our neighbours in this 
respect. The need for one or two foreign languages 
has long been felt in even the ordinary schools upon 
4 
* f 4T' 
Chrysanthemum Philadelphia. 
