A USEFUL WORK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7995, 6 December 1905, Page 3

A USEFUL WORK.

_— -f It has boon said that the English I'.eoplx! comprise a nation of shopkeepers ; it is apparently the in ten tiou o' the Education Department of New Zealaml to make ours a nation of useful people, ami in furtherance o* the idea has set to work systematically to improve the technical education of the colony.

Nuture study is now one qf_ the prominent '.items in our educational syllabus, ami under this comes the leading science of horticulture. For some time past weekly instruction in gardening has been furnished to a class of teachers in the service of the Taranaki Education Hoard by Mr (Sruen, I manager of the Morshoad Nursery) Company. A small plot of ground in Sir A. Hooker's garden, uext the Courtenay Street School, Xewi 'Plymouth, has been displaced at the disposal of the class, and for an hour or two each Saturday a number of teachers 'have attended ito gather tho fruits from the tree of knowledge—or rather, from the small garden plots. Mr Spencer informs us I hat the idea was to impart instrucion! in the science of gardening. Here, for < instance, was a row of young onion plants, some grown with one manure, some with another, and ,somc without. Other vegetables were similarly treated, the idea being to show the valuo of different manures in! various soils. In another portion of tho ground \was some young clover. This was planted in three different soils—poor, better, best. There jierc two plots of each, one being planted with ordinary clovur seed and the other with seed inoculated with a solution of nitrates. These latter showed greater strength than !those grown from unprepared *eed. Other leguminous plants, such as peas, were similarly treatwl. Mr i Spencer, who Is Chief Inspector of I Taranaki schools, says that it was not the intention teT'teach practical [ gardening. The idea was to teach I the schoolmasters and mistresses th« i "why and the wherefore" of various [horticultural joperations. This was I abundantly evident, for lettuces, parsnips, carrots, awl other vegetables waiitod weeding ami thinning. One of the pupils facetiously remarked that "the weeds are an unqualified success.' The other day I found eight classes of weeds jin a patch of ground ihat you could cover with one hand." Sonc of the experiments being carried out, however, are|verj practical, and the results, if published, will make valuable! reading for gardeners.