THE UNSUITABLE WOMAN-GARDENER 103 



be dealt with in Nursing Homes, where a moderate 

 amount of garden work is considered part of the 

 cure but is not carried out with any seriousness or 

 with the intention of its being later adopted as a 

 means of livelihood. 



Then the somewhat rough-mannered, undis- 

 ciplined middle-class woman who in early days 

 emerged as gardener from some of the training 

 centres is also now in a minority. How it was ever 

 thought that fragile, tender little plants would 

 thrive if some one of this description watched over 

 them, I cannot conceive. A similar idea took root 

 with regard to the selection of men suited to care 

 for dumb animals, for the roughest and least well- 

 educated often abound in stables and are assistants 

 to the veterinary surgeon ; yet common sense, one 

 would think, should quickly prove that where the 

 object to be cared for is helpless, as is a plant or 

 animal, excessive gentleness of touch, patience, and 

 observation are necessary. 



Certainly, this type of woman-gardener should 

 never have been tolerated ; she has done more 

 harm to the calling than can perhaps be realised 

 by any excepting those who have lived for a while 

 in an educational gardening atmosphere. Her un- 

 tidy general appearance, disorder of clothes, un- 

 kempt hair, unbusiness-like habits, and bad manners 

 have caused her employer many a mental shudder. 

 Soon, let us hope, she will be a thing of the past, 

 completely forgotten and never to rise up again. 



Sometimes too we hear of maidservants who 

 have grown tired of household duties and would 

 welcome a change to outdoor life. They are, 



