atfonal IRursersimaii 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK 
The National Nurseryman Publishing Go., Incorporated. 
Vol. XXIT. 
ROCHESTER N. Y., JANEARY, 3914 
THE NURSERYMAN AND SCIENCE 
By G. M. Bentley, Knoxville, Tenn. 
State Entomologist. 
No. 1 
The world needs to-day, as it never needed before, 
. the man with a vision and the courage and executive 
ability to transform that vision into results. Each 
line of endeavor completed, each vision realized, 
adds to the sum total of human knowledge and bene¬ 
fits society in tliat the path lias been blazed for future 
generations and the wav made easier for us all. 
You nurserymen have achieved, have wrought and 
perfected and shown the way for the maximum of 
• suc(*ess in the respective lines undertaken. Thus has 
concentration, the energy, ambition and deter¬ 
mination of men of your calling brought about the 
realization of visions and we believe fitting rewards 
awiiit you for the labor and sacrifices made by you 
and your “faithful wives. * 
^. To have some definite plan in life, an ambition for 
,^the accomplishment of that plan and to put in years 
Jj-of driving toil to that end is the record of not a few 
nurservmen. The more to the credit of the older 
members of your fraternity who fought obstacles 
without the aid of modern science and had experi¬ 
ence as their only teacher. When one considers the 
handicaps and the successes in spite of the discour¬ 
agements these pioneers of the nursery business in 
America have forged, untrained as they were and 
without the teclniical knowledge within the grasp of 
young men of to-day, it is no stretch of imagina¬ 
tion to see tlie great harvests of the future for the 
trained and especially educated nurserymen who will 
icork for a purpose and get a training for effieienei/. 
In this connection I have read with much interest 
within the past two weeks of special university de- 
liartments being established in flora culture, land- 
scajie gardening, garden craft and arbor culture. 
Specialization 
We have all heard of the boy who was admonished 
not to put all his eggs in one basket and we have all 
heard of the boy who was advised to put all his eggs 
in one basket and then to watch the basket. S])ecializ- 
ation is com])aratively a new doctrine, originating 
within the past few years. Thirty years ago there 
was no one to advise the young man to specialize in 
electricity, in mining, in engineering, in horticulture, 
or in any of the many useful walks of life that now 
offer technical training. A strictly technical man 
was a rarity in those days and a technical nursery¬ 
man was practically unknown. To see in advance for 
40 years and work for that length of time, striving 
every day to become better versed in his special line 
of endeavor, is not the record of many men. The ed¬ 
ucation of a technical nature that is now at the dis- 
]30sal of our young men has been gained by those who 
liave gone before, from the soil, the actual experience 
with the plow, the knife and the shear, these with ob¬ 
servations, seasons, toil, nature and soil as his teach¬ 
ers. 
Training for Efficiency 
The earning power of man is very largely depen¬ 
dent upon his training for the work he performs. 
While the training may be acquired by practice in 
which close observation is given and experience is 
used to increase efficiency, it is never the less train¬ 
ing. But the brain of the worker is the faculty that 
must be trained for efficiency and without a trained 
mind one can never hope to attain any considerable 
degree of efficiency. 
This training which is largely of the mind we call 
education. It gives us power to think correctly and 
to reason logically; to save time and accomplish 
more work and better work in a given time. The 
greatest need of modern societj^ is for better train¬ 
ing and more efficiency. The earning power of a 
large per cent, of our people is too low to afford the 
necessities and comforts of life. This is why there 
are so many demands for charity; why the phrase 
the 'Miigh cost of living” was coined; why crime does 
not seem to be diminishing rapidly; why our taxes 
must be increased and the administration of govern¬ 
ment is so costly and sometimes unsatisfactory. 
Should re Taught to Observe and Appreciate 
Nature 
In Germany all the children are taken frequently 
