n8 WORK UNDER GLASS 



It would seem almost as if this golden sickle 

 were a happy portent of the harvest we hope to 

 reap when winter work is done, and the star some 

 guiding influence placed above, in watchful care 

 for the young lives that are making this place the 

 first halting-ground in their gardening careers. 



As the rose tint in the eastern sky deepens and 

 the long line of hill slowly loses the dark-blue colour 

 and assumes its natural paler tint, figures begin 

 to move about their work, for the warmth-giving, 

 life-giving sun has risen again. It is still holiday 

 time, but, unlike some large Institutions where all 

 the students leave upon a given date and work is 

 then attended to only by an indifferent official, we 

 always retain six students at least in order that 

 plants should not suffer from neglect. These 

 specially selected workers, too, gain in this way 

 exceptional experience which helps them to obtain 

 more speedily responsible posts. One of the most 

 important rules is that nothing shall hinder the 

 proper treatment of flowers and vegetables, because 

 their successful culture is in itself good testimony 

 of what women-gardeners can achieve ; the garden 

 therefore is never left unattended, even for a day, 

 as one small band of students succeeds the other 

 until all have had their holidays. 



Although there is not much to watch in the 

 growth of outdoor plants, there are signs in some 

 of the deep warm country lanes that life is stirring. 

 The distant landscape always looks so much larger 

 in winter and now more than ever does it recall 

 those soft colours of the old needlecraft. All 

 leaves have been blown from hedge and tree, conse- 



