February 21, 1903. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
159 
The World of Gardening. 
By F. W. Burbidge, M.A., V.M.H., F.R.H.S. 
The Bishop of Ripon recently wrote that “ the world is 
crowded with a number of well-educated young fellows who 
know much, but are tit for nothing.” Mere education or know¬ 
ledge is of itself of but little moment ; it is the ability to apply 
knowledge to useful purposes that is of prime importance. I 
think it was Professor (now Sir) Michael Foster, of Cambridge, 
who formulated the aphorism : “ All knowledge is of use to the 
gardener, if rightly applied; but no knowledge is of any use 
as applied wrongly.” To the gardener this is especially time. 
Physics to him ought to mean a saving of labour, and chemistry 
a saving of materials, and logic, which is merely organised 
common-sense, will guard him against, falla¬ 
cies in reasoning, such as putting two and two 
together and calling the total five! We are, 
perhaps, a little too apt to be led, or misled, 
as the case may be, by long and high-sounding- 
words-—the shibboleths of science. Just as 
Mr. Jourdain found out that he had been for 
years speaking prose without- knowing it, so 
many gardeners with systematic and accurate 
knowledge are apt to blush a little when they 
hear common-sense dignified under fhe name 
of Science. 
In a word, teaching or education of the best 
is not that which aims at stuffing pupils with 
knowledge, such as dates or facts and figures ; 
but is of the best only when it fits the pupil’s 
mind with the power of personal observation 
and research, thus giving to' him the power of 
finding out and the utilisation of any branch 
of knowledge useful to him in his after-life or 
profession. Time education enables a man to 
do useful work for himself and others, and any 
scheme or system that fails to inculcate this 
is not really and truly education at all. 
The best gardeners up to our own times are 
those taught by experience in good gardens. 
Of course, some men are bom more receptive 
than others, and with a stronger liking for 
gardening than for other crafts or callings, and 
these are the men who succeed best. But the 
gardener should be something more; he 
should also be a well-educated man, a useful 
social unit, and well informed in a broad and 
general way on all subjects of interest in the 
world around him. As a class, perhaps, no other 
calling can produce so many men of strong 
character as that of gardening, and I some¬ 
times think this is due to their isolation in 
countiy places, that affords them leisure for 
reading and quiet thought or study. One 
might say the same is true of the foresters, 
bailiffs and gamekeepers, except that, as a 
class, these do not take to reading, and have not the weekly 
papers or the class literature of the gardeners. 
All we can do in life is to secure a good average, and it is to 
be hoped that the young gardeners of the future will be better 
than those of the past—good, undoubtedly, though the latter 
have been. The great desideratum in the coming men is 
organisation, both for economy in their labour as well as for 
mutual protection. The happy-go-lucky system of day labour 
has done much injury, inasmuch as it has led to carelessness 
as to the actual value or cost of work. Whenever piecework 
is possible it leads to accuracy and promptness with regard to 
work, and is, as a rule, better for master and man alike. In 
any case, young men should get into a habit of measuring time, 
and work done in relation to the scale of wages paid, and so 
instinctively realise the cost. A good workman should always be 
able to state exactly the cost of his time, labour, and appliances 
as used by him on any piece of work that lends itself to actual 
measurement. 
Of course, many operations in gardening do not lend them¬ 
selves to line and rule, being mostly of an artistic or technical 
character, such as pruning, cleaning, and arranging plants or 
flowers ; but even here the time expended may be charged. 
Good organisers or administrators in the garden are rare, but 
we see the advantages of system and organisation in all the 
best of our great market gardens and glass-house nurseries, 
where horticulture is not a sentimental question, but really an 
important economic one. Every crop must come in at a par¬ 
ticular date, every stock plant in a 200-acre nursery must be 
picked out readily when wanted, and while new plants are 
added at one end, old or useless stuff must be eliminated at 
the other, and nothing must be grown that does not pay interest 
on land and labour. 
So in the future, even more than now, economy will loom 
up more largely as a factor in all good gardening. The best 
gardener of to-morrow will be the one who can produce the 
best and most of what is wanted, at the least cost. As it is 
to-day, we have two sorts of gardens—those maintained for 
pleasure and delight, just asi motor cars or horses and hounds, 
yachts, libraries, etc., are kept up ; and those for profit, such 
as nurseries and market gardens, glass-roofed or otherwise. 
Now and then there may be found a combination of the two, 
viz., a private garden from which what is called “ the surplus 
produce” is sold, and which often means that neither the owner 
nor the market is well supplied ! 
In conclusion, the young gardener should make up his mind 
to garden better, and if possible more cheaply, than his pre¬ 
decessors, and a couple of years in a good market garden would 
open his eyes as to how this might best be done. He might 
Iris unguicularis speciosa (See page 160 .) 
