THE PROFESSION OF GARDENCRAFT 17 



this will slowly appear and steadily increase side 

 by side with her physical development. Then, too, 

 a profession which comprises, as gardening does, 

 muscular, athletic exertion is readily acquired by 

 a child who knows nothing as yet of stiffness or 

 backaches. 



Until quite recently, many looked down upon the 

 profession of Gardencraft, for they imagined it to 

 be a narrow life, restricted as regards its intellectual 

 possibilities ; others considered that women were 

 physically unsuited to it. As in all new pro- 

 fessions, there were a certain number of failures at 

 the outset, and these were due to a lack of per- 

 ception on the part of employers, and partly to the 

 fact that the right type of young woman did not 

 take it up. After some sixteen years of bufferings 

 and cold-shoulderings, a few brilliant examples of 

 the right kind of women gardeners have worked 

 their way up successfully through a small army of 

 non-competents, and the craft is now an established 

 and a coveted one for ladies. The employer, mean- 

 while, is slowly learning a lesson, and begins to 

 realise that to have a lady as a gardener is a luxury 

 and must not be considered an economical way of 

 reducing the payment of a living wage. A woman 

 gardener, like all head gardeners, should be paid in 

 proportion to the amount of brain-fag, deception, 

 and other disagreeables that, by honesty and 

 intelligent supervision, she rescues her employer 

 from being the victim of. Then too her practical, 

 well-trained skill, her scientific education, deserve 

 remuneration. 



All evils bring some compensation with them, 



