THE GARDENING WO ELD 
509 
.Tune 18, 1904. 
planting. The roots attaoli themselves firmly to this, and lift 
with good balls of soil when, transferred from the boxes. Plant® 
treated in this way will bloom before those sown in, the open 
ground, thereby affording a succession of a glorious golden- 
yellow annual. For those who have not yet tried this annual 
our supplement will give an idea of the form of the flowers,. 
On Learning Gardening. 
Gardening, like most handicrafts, is not easily learnt. This 
is a fact recognised by every gardener and made evident by 
the demands in foaming the Gardeners’ Association, to- limit 
membership to those who have served a long apprentice¬ 
ship. Five or even seven years is not too long to get a good 
knowledge of the ordinary branches, of gardening, and for the 
more exacting a lifetime is all too short. The gardener is in 
a- veiy different position, dealing, as he is, with Nature, than 
the man who works mechanically, or with things not living. 
There are many operations— in fact, the majority—with which 
the gardener is concerned that are only performed under given, 
conditions once each year, and the details of the operation must 
be carried in the memory from season to season,. It is un¬ 
necessary to mention, all that a gai'dener must know ; the list 
is long and varied ; but everything must be acquired prac¬ 
tically. Theory helps the gai’dener but slightly until he has 
mastered the elements of his craft. 
It is said that the gardener needs patience, and if the gar¬ 
dener needs patience, surely the teacher of gardening needs 
it even more. It is undoubtedly difficult when, you know so 
well how to- do a thing to have patience wdth a beginner, to 
whom it all seems hard, but if the teacher would remember 
something he could not learn, it would help matters on both 
sides. To ask a gardener to give reasons for all he does is 
perhaps too- much to expect, but to the learner knowing the 
reason is half the battle, and he is able to do the work more 
intelligently, as he appreciates what is required of him. It is 
often, one of the difficulties of a teacher that -his pupils- will 
start working before they fully understand what is meant. 
Like a boy with a new set, of tools, they must cut something, 
and to avoid this, tools should be kept in the background till 
the explanation is finished. Even then the vigour with which 
a new hand will start on, the work is only equalled by the 
length of the pauses toward the finish ; but time will remedy 
that-, and it is- better to- let him work his own pace at first, 
afterwards pointing out to- him -how to economise his energy. 
A lot of the gardener’s skill depends on method, and if -a be¬ 
ginner is started in the right way be will soon perfect himself 
in. it; but a wrong method is only troublesome and ^vexatious, 
and -has to- be unlearnt at a time which is sure to be incon¬ 
venient. 
The time at which operations are carried out should be t-he 
right time, or if that is impossible the novice should be told 
when is the right time and the reason, for doing it -at any other 
time. The day and date on which an operation was first per¬ 
formed often sticks, and if this happens to be the wrong one. 
it is afterwards very confusing, as no b-o-ok or gardener will 
verify it, and yet the recollection of it is so- clear. There is no 
knowledge so valuable as that gained from experience, but if 
we all had to rely solely on our own experience very little 
would be done, and herein lies the value of books. 
In books we have the experience of others- always ready for 
reference, and by reading and studying such works it is possible 
to anticipate what will happen in our own garden -and to have 
our powe,rs of observation aroused to the advantage of our 
crops and the broadening of our minds. The changes which 
a year brings in horticultural matters are very great-, and no 
gardener can hope to he up to date and fully equipped for his 
work who does not keep constantly reading the current litera¬ 
ture of his profession. 
Young gardeners are told to study botany, and there is no 
more useful study they could take up-. It is not that it is 
necessary to be an expert, or even the owner of a collection, 
hut the methods of observation, comparison, and exact de¬ 
scription obtained by a study of this description must prove 
invaluable to the gardener, who in his daily work with plants 
is always ro-oting out the poorer and encouraging the better 
plants of his garden,. In order to read intelligently it is 
necessary to think intelligently, and nowhere is thought more 
necessary than in botany, riant names are condemned for 
their length and difficulty, but the correct name of a plant 
together with a few descriptive terms will convey more to the 
man who, has studied botany than a whole column of prosy de¬ 
scription to the man who has not, and this, in, an age when 
time is everything, is- an advantage which should not be for¬ 
gotten by the young man who is anxious to succeed in his pro¬ 
fession. L. J. H. 
Pedigree Plant-breeding. 
The subject of plant-breeding by hybridisation, cross-fertili¬ 
sation and selection, is o-ne of fascinating interest and great 
importance. Much has been written, and many varied views 
and ideas -are held and expressed upon the subject,; neverthe¬ 
less there is ample, room for further discussion, and airing of 
views, for ’tis a big subject and well-nigh inexhaustible. Be¬ 
yond doubt, much plant-breeding is carried on. in what may 
be called a haphazard way; that isi, while the desire and in¬ 
tention is to raise plants that shall be improvements upon their 
parents,, no real ideal is set up- towards which to work, and no 
strict record is made of mean® adopted or results obtained; 
therefore, in all probability, the improvement made, although 
so- far satisfactory, is not what it, might he. Would it not be 
well for the plant-breeder to- learn a lesson from the breeders 
of high-clas-s live stock, who- have learned to look upon pedigree 
as- their most important and indispensable aid in, the, wo-rk of 
scientific, breeding? To take one branch only, we will mention 
the breeder of high-class poultry. He has, first of all, the 
standard of excellence in his particular breed before him, and 
toward this he works, not always, and indeed not often,, by 
mating typical specimens, together, but by pedigree breeding, 
following up a s-triot line o-f mating in, order to gain or establish 
certain particular points,; so strict, in. fact, that in many cases 
separate stocks are kept even fo-r breeding cockerels or pullets 
of the same breed, taking extreme precautions that birds of 
cockerel-breeding strain shall not come into 1 contact with those 
of pullet-breeding -strain and vice-versa. By these means he is- 
able not only to achieve better results, but these results are 
obtained while using birds which themselves fall far short of 
the ideal, but which, by the aid of pedigree, be is able to- use 
to advantage and at great saving of expense and time. 
So- would it be in plant-breeding if worked on pedigree lines, 
instead of relying solely upon the blending of two good tilings 
in the vague hope of producing something better. The usual 
custom is to raise a batch of seedlings, pick out one or more 
of the best, and discard the remainder. So far a, goo-d plan,, 
but -somewhat, slow and expensive, and, we think, extravagant, 
for undoubtedly many plants are thus destroyed that would, if 
retained and their pedigree kept, prove- of infinite value as 
future breeders, and could be made the parents of progeny 
possessing sterling merit. We are fully aware that pedigree 
plant-breeding is nothing new to many horticulturists, and 
great are the results obtained. There are also many pedigree 
vegetable® in existence, such, fo-r instance, as the wonderful 
Onions, raised by Messrs. Sutton-, Deverill and o-the-rs, but the 
liigh quality of these pedigree stocks goes to prove the advan¬ 
tage accruing from adopting the system we advocate, and we 
may say this article is not written, wit-h the desire to po-se as a 
teacher of a new theory, but to induce some who- have hitherto 
not worked on these- lines to commence forthwith. Limits of 
space forbid us to- do more than throw out this wo-id of ex¬ 
hortation, but if the Editor allows-—[Please do.— Ed.] we shall 
hop-e in a future issue to express our ideas as to bow to- establish 
and work up pedigree stocks of plants. Heather Bell. 
