GARDENING TAUGHT AS SCIENCE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 287, 26 March 1941, Page 3

GARDENING TAUGHT AS SCIENCE

The first batch of 15 students of scientific gardening to qualify at the Sydney Technical College have nov.* received certificates, after a three years' course. The Gardening and Horticultural Certificate Course was institutd three j r ears ago. It comprises horticultural botany, drawing and soil science for the first year; agricultural botany, levelling and surveying, and art, for the second year; and horticulture, .insect pests and plant diseases and their control, in the third year. But the principal of this department of the Technical College, Mr F. J. Jeffery, M.Sc., said that they were given practical demonstrations in the Botanic Gardens, parks and city and suburban nurseries. There they were instructed in plant propagation, pruning, insect life, and horticultural biology. "Enthusiasts of all ages attend the course," Mr Jeffery said. "We have earnest council gardeners, public park gardeners, and willing amateurs, all anxious to learn the scientific as well as the aesthetic side of their art. Their ages may vary from lfi to 45.

Few Women Students "By the time they have reached the end of their course, they ajrei adept at laying garden plots, arranging hedges, pergolas, and ravel drives, at constructing ponds, tennis courts, retaining Avails, bird baths, wall fountains, and even at locating status," said Mr JefFery. "The course/' he continued, "is particularly attractive to women who are interested in fashioning their gardens on scientific lines. In Melbourne, women taking a course in the horticultural college have proved efficient and enthusiastic. Women students in Sydney arc comparatively few as yet, because few are aware of the existence of such a course." Mr JelTery said that women were replacing men in the plant nursery trade, because, so many men liad enlisted. They were interesting themselves in flower and vegetable growing, which was a part of the Technical College curriculum.