DIFFICULTIES OF GARDENING SCHOOLS 39 



innocently and sometimes maliciously done to crops 

 either by over-watering or neglect. I know one 

 educational centre where students made such in- 

 roads upon the apples that it was decided they 

 should have their holidays when apple-picking time 

 drew near. The scholars in this instance were all 

 young boys, and they no doubt were exceedingly 

 troublesome to deal with when scarlet, juicy apples 

 hung upon the trees. The injury done to plants 

 by women gardeners is more often caused by excess 

 of care and injudicious treatment than anything 

 else. It is all the same harmful to the profits of a 

 business undertaking, but this is seldom realised 

 by the outside public. Most owners of gardens have 

 lived only in old-established, " made " places, accus- 

 tomed to have as their staff men who from child- 

 hood upwards have been gardeners, experienced in 

 handling tools and at carrying on the even tenor of 

 routine work. It is only natural that the serious 

 difficulties to be overcome by those who teach 

 gardening are unknown to them. 



I wish to lay stress upon these troubles, because 

 lately, owing to the Great War, many have turned 

 their attention to national problems, and thus the 

 land question has been considered by ladies who 

 have perhaps, until this year, never given it a 

 thought. With the sudden outburst of impulsive- 

 ness, which upon occasion overmasters our habitual 

 insular apathy, there have recently been evolved 

 and revived various societies for increasing our food 

 supplies, cultivating waste spaces, and giving to 

 unemployed typists, secretaries, and others a brief 

 training in gardening and farming, so that women 



