PREFACE ix 



to make a beginning and find it exceedingly hard 

 to do so, that I have written these pages. The 

 part which concerns what has been done to build 

 up the Market Garden School at Glynde also 

 describes the work done there during the first 

 twelve months of the war. It was written, amidst 

 other work, for the amusement of those friends 

 who have been good enough always to follow 

 with interest what my women gardeners have 

 done during the course of fourteen years, and will, 

 I hope, convey somewhat of the happy, joyous 

 atmosphere that surrounds years of training for 

 the garden profession. 



Interwoven with this are ideas that may, I hope, 

 interest those who do not wish to be professional 

 gardeners but are desirous of knowing more about 

 land questions. Suggestions are given for the 

 better housing and living of the village labourer, 

 for stemming the Rural Exodus (not the present 

 war shortage, but the one that has for centuries 

 depleted the countryside), and for increasing the 

 yield from our land by the settlement of colonies 

 of growers throughout England. 



All these are subjects which should concern 

 those boys and girls who are now growing up and 

 will themselves own land, so that it is important 

 that their mothers should consider these questions. 

 If ladies will interest themselves in the land and 

 study it seriously they will have it in their power 

 to revive those rural industries which have alter- 

 nately been tossed about by party politics and 

 allowed to dwindle into insignificance beside more 

 absorbing matters connected with town life. 



