316 
April  9,  1896. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
train  and  fortify  the  minds  of  their  populations,  we  must  strive  at 
least  as  earnestly  as  they,  and  on  lines  best  calculated  to  issue  in 
the  best  practical  results.  We  not  only  want  better  educated 
heads,  but  better  trained  hands,  throughout  our  whole  community 
of  workers  in  all  their  varied  crafts  and  callings  ;  and  not  least, 
but  most  of  all  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  whereby  our  land 
may  be  made  to  yield  over  an  infinitely  greater  area  than  is  the 
case  now  its  greatest  increase. 
More  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  in  an  interview  with  a 
then  young  statesman  of  bright  intelligence,  who  rose  to  a  high 
position — the  late  and  universally  lamented  Hon.  E.  Stanhope — 
it  was  mutually  agreed  that  no  stereotyped  form  of  education, 
conducted  with  rigid  uniformity,  could  prove  permanently  satisfac¬ 
tory  in  both  town  and  country.  No  uniform  curriculum  can  be 
formulated  that  will  meet  the  requirements  of  the  diverse  and 
distinct  interests  on  which  elementary  and  technical  education  is 
needed  on  definite  subjects,  both  in  densely  packed  cities  and 
sparsely  populated  rural  districts.  The  fundamental  conditions 
and  peculiar  occupations  of  the  people  are  wholly  distinct,  and  the 
training  of  children  and  youths  must  be  distinct,  too,  to  be  the 
best  for  either,  or  both,  and  for  the  general  community.  Com 
promises,  however,  carefully  provided,  though  they  may  do  some¬ 
thing,  cannot  adequately  meet  the  circumstances  and  exigencies  of 
either  case.  In  the  “  education  days  ”  of  the  past  there  appeared 
to  be  no  practical  alternative  to  centralisation.  The  position  is 
different  now,  as  opportunities  are  provided  for  the  opposite,  and 
in  no  other  way  than  decentralisation  is  it  conceivable,  to  us 
at  least,  that  the  education  both  of  children  and  of  youths  rising 
into  manhood,  can  be  so  directly  useful  and  thoroughly  efficient. 
The  result  of  anything  like  a  uniform  curriculum  for  teaching 
everywhere  alike  is  that  information  is  instilled  into  the  minds  of 
the  young,  in  rural  districts  especially,  that  however  good  in  itself, 
can  be  of  little  use  to  them,  while  much  must  of  necessity  be  left 
out  that  might  be  of  very  substantial  service.  It  is  this  which 
gives  rise  to  complaints  both  on  the  part  of  supporters  of  schools 
and  parents  of  children  that  find  expression  in  the  form  of  “  over¬ 
education.”  It  is  really  education,  but  not  on  the  best  lines — not 
sufficiently  concentrated  on  subjects  of  special  interest  in  particular 
districts  and  adapted  to  the  needs  of  particular  communities. 
Naturally,  and  up  to  a  certain  point,  the  instruction  imparted 
in  schools  must  be  the  same  everywhere,  but  the  time  comes  when 
the  knowledge  which  local  or  district  authorities  know  is  most 
needed  should  be  provided.  No  body  of  persons  can  know  so  well 
as  local  educational  committees  the  particular  teaching  that  is  the 
most  likely  to  be  beneficial.  In  most  rural  and  semi-rural  districts 
far  greater  effort  should  be  made  to  instil  into  the  minds  of  the 
young  sound  principles  relating  to  the  nature  and  management  of 
the  soil  and  the  cultivation  of  crops,  also  errors  to  be  avoided  in 
various  operations  and  the  consequences  ensuing  from  faulty 
methods  and  negligence. 
Instructive  and  entertaining  reading  lessons  could  be  founded 
on  those  subjects  in  which  the  different  operations  for  preparing 
land  should  and  should  not  be  conducted  ;  also  on  st  eds,  their  nature, 
duration  of  vitality,  with  depth  and  distances  for  sowing  ;  on  pro¬ 
cedure  by  which  plants  are  weakened  or  ruined  on  the  one  hand 
and  strengthened  and  made  healthy  on  the  other ;  in  the  several 
parts  of  plants,  roots,  stems,  leaves,  flowers,  fruit,  their  nature, 
functions,  and  requirements,  pointing  out  the  causes  and  conse¬ 
quences  of  obstacles  to  free  development ;  on  the  food  of  plants — 
what  it  is,  how  and  when  it  should  be  applied,  also  how  appropriated 
and  used.  With  sound  truths  on  those  and  cognate  subjects  firmly 
implanted  in  the  minds  of  boys  and  youths  attending  elementary 
or  continuation  schools,  the  possessors  of  such  knowledge  would  be 
in  a  far  better  position  to  fulfil  the  duties  of  life  than  they  could 
possibly  be  in  the  absence  of  such  teaching,  and  better  still  if  sup¬ 
plementary  land  lessons  were  also  afforded  in  which  the  practical 
application  of  such  teaching  could  be  demonstrated. 
Only  those  persons  who  have  had  special  opportunities  for 
testing  the  matter  by  the  examination  papers  (in  which  students 
have  laudably  endeavoured  to  answer  questions  which  have  been 
submitted  to  them)  can  form  any  conception  of  the  erroneous 
views  prevailing  in  the  minds  of  those  who  are  striving  for  more 
knowledge  on  subjects  in  which  they  are  interested  or  engaged. 
The  want  of  exact  knowledge  is  in  truth  deplorable,  even  among 
numbers  of  persons  who  are  engaged  in  gardening.  This  is  no 
reflection  on  them,  or  at  least  on  those  who  are  so  commendably 
endeavouring  to  make  good  their  deficiencies.  They  have  never 
been  taught  what  they  urgently  desire  to  know,  and  in  all  proba¬ 
bility  never  would  have  been,  but  for  the  facilities  afforded  by 
some  of  our  County  Councils  following  the  example  of  Surrey  in 
this  work.  The  avidity  with  which  information  is  received,  the 
measure  of  the  existing  desire  for  it,  and  the  appalling  ignorance 
prevailing,  reveal  the  urgent  need  for  the  shedding  of  more  light 
on  the  vitally  important  subject  of  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  and 
the  production  of  necessary  food-yielding  crops. 
The  teaching  to  be  the  most  effectual  should  begin  in  the 
schools  of  rural  districts,  but  not  end  there,  even  when  gardens  are 
attached,  with  the  completion  of  school  attendance.  It  is  most 
important  that  those  boys  who  display  marked  aptitude  in  the 
cultivation  of  small  plots,  and  develop  a  love  for  the  work, 
should  have  opportunities  for  its  continuance  after  the  school  term 
has  expired,  as  it  is  only  then  that  they  begin  to  appreciate  its 
value,  and  work  with  greater  zeal  accordingly.  Judging  from 
experience  it  would  be  better  to  have  garden  lessons  in  school 
only,  with  land  lessons  at  the  expiration  of  the  school  term  as 
continuation  work  by  then  strong  youths,  than  to  have  plots  for 
practice  during  the  school  term  and  no  longer,  as  this  latter  method 
would  be  cutting  them  adrift  just  when  beginning  to  understand 
the  subject,  and  becotaing  capable  of  practising  it  usefully. 
Where  continuation  school  garden  work  has  been  in  operation 
three  years  under  the  auspices  of  the  Surrey  County  Council  the 
results  in  many  centres  have  been  surprising.  In  some  instances 
land  has  been  made  by  the  labour  of  youths  solely,  under  guidance, 
to  produce  at  the  least  10s.  worth  of  vegetables  from  each  rod  that 
previously  did  not  afford  a  pennyworth  of  produce  for  anyone — 
an  instance  of  waste  land  reclaimed.  In  other  cases  land  that  had 
been  relinquished  as  “  no  good  ”  (starved  out)  has  been  restored 
and  made  to  yield  bountifully.  There  are  youths  not  seventeen 
years  of  age  who  can  work  and  crop  a  piece  of  land  and  keep  all 
the  crops  orderly  from  beginning  to  end  as  well  as  hundreds  of 
good  men  could  accomplish  at  twice  or  thrice  their  age,  and  better 
than  could  hundreds  more  belonging  to  the  careless  or  thoughtless 
brigade.  Surely  teaching  that  gives  such  practical  results  is  worthy 
of  extension  by  educational  authorities.  Encouraging  results  of 
practical  land  lessons  under  competent  teachers  have  also  followed 
in  several  counties  where  the  work  has  commenced,  and  the  effects 
will  be  still  more  marked  as  time  goes  on.  Is  not  education  such 
as  this  calculated  to  be  of  more  service  to  numbers  of  our  future 
men  in  rural  districts  than  any  amount  of  struggling  with 
duodecimals  and  various  other  educational  accomplishments  ? 
It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  all  youths  who  are  taught  the 
theory  and  practice  of  land  cultivation  will  equally  excel  in  it. 
Tastes  and  inclinations  vary,  and  it  is  right  they  should  ;  but  it  is 
all  the  same  a  fact  that  the  great  majority  who  have  taken 
advantage  of  the  facilities  afforded  them  in  plots  provided  by 
technical  education  committees  have  developed  undoubted  cultural 
aptitude.  Nor  will  this  be  to  their  own  advantage  alone,  because 
each  by  his  work  will  influence  others  just  as  prize  allotment 
holders  do  by  the  excellence  of  their  work,  “  shaming,”  as  many  of 
them  have  done,  others  out  of  their  slipshod  and  slovenly  ways. 
Now,  at  a  time  when  something  like  a  revolution  seems  to  be 
in  pi  ogress  in  educational  routine,  we  take  advantage  of  it  for 
putting  a  plea  for  systematic  land  teaching  in  country  districts. 
A  yearly  increasing  number  of  persons  must  live  by  or  from  the 
land  somewhere,  and  we  want  more  and  more  to  live  by  or  from 
our  home  land  by  its  higher,  more  intelligent,  and  more  thorough 
