A FOREWORD AND A PLEA xiii 



caused by exercise of the muscles in the open air which is 

 in no way akin to that heavy exhaustion which comes 

 from much labour indoors. 



I frequently see, in English gardening periodicals, 

 advertisements by women desiring positions as head or 

 under gardeners, and there seems to me no reason why 

 this should not become one of the professions properly 

 open to women. As far as the under-gardener's work is 

 concerned, it certainly requires no more physical 

 strength and endurance than the work done by many 

 women in domestic service, as trained nurses or in 

 factories, besides having much to offer on the side of 

 health. Of course to be a head-gardener would require 

 both training and experience, but this would not, now- 

 adays, be a difficult matter, and would become less so as 

 the demand for such training grew. I do not wish to en- 

 croach upon the domain of man, but it would seem that 

 many a woman, under the necessity of earning her own 

 living, might find health and renewed youth in such an 

 occupation, who now wears herself out and grows old be- 

 fore her time doing work of a more confining or nerve- 

 wearing nature. 



There is an ancient superstition, still in force, though 

 less strong of late years, that it is not quite "nice" for a 

 woman to be physically able to do manual labour out of 

 doors, and if she is, she should keep quiet about it. 

 When we first came to live in this neighbourhood, where 

 there are many small and not very flourishing farms, my 



