28 RECORD OF HORTICULTURE. 



m. 

 WOMEN IN HOETICULTURE. 



Is Horticulture a suitable occupation for women ? Is 

 there anything degrading in the cultivation of fruits and 

 flowers ? We are told in sacred history that the first gar- 

 dener had a woman given him for a helpmate and partner ; 

 then why should we not only admit, but encourage women 

 to assist in producing those blessings that our Creator in his 

 beneficence has given to mankind? We have some excuse 

 for not urging women to engage in general agriculture, for 

 besides needing strength in that position, she would come 

 in contact wuth many things repugnant to the finer feel- 

 ings of her nature. But in Horticulture she would seldom 

 meet with anything distasteful. True, we would not ask 

 or expect her to do the coarse drudgery of the business, 

 leaving that for such men as seem to have been created to 

 be hew^ers of wood and drawers of water, and whose tastes 

 and aspirations are but little above those of animals. But 

 what could be more agreeable to refined tastes than to 

 cultivate and handle our ordinary fruits, especially the 

 smaller kmds ? Is it less noble than sitting idle, or waiting 

 upon customers in some close, half-stifling shop in a city, or 

 plying the needle for sixteen hours a day, for scarcely 

 enough to keep soul and body as partners for a few years, 

 with no time for relaxation from toil or to enjoy the exhil- 

 arating pleasure of breathing the free air of the country ? 



