268 GARDENS: THEIR FORM AND DESIGN 



a superior education is essential. The labourer works 

 willingly for one who is above him by education as well 

 as by birth. He will obey orders from either the man or 

 the woman whom he feels to be, through upbringing, 

 ahead of him in thought, while at the same time, through 

 gentle birth, he or she will in all probability treat him 

 with a fairness and justice which other masters might not 

 be so careful to maintain. 



I feel sure that much of the difficulty we have had up to 

 now in introducing garden craft as a profession for women 

 has been, as it still is, that we do not get the right women. 

 If only the daughters of country squires, Army and Navy 

 men and others, many of whom have but a limited income 

 and are obliged to earn their living, would come to us for 

 a training, good remuneration and an intensely interesting 

 life would be theirs after two years of study. It is just 

 that "grit" that is valued in the commanding officer 

 which is required, too, in the man or woman who directs 

 garden operations; and this applies equally to all branches, 

 whether it be in the posts of head-gardener, of advisory 

 expert, or of garden designer, or in the more independent 

 careers of smallholders and market-gardeners. Tact in 

 the management of men, forethought for the further 

 increase and the health and protection of all plants, a 

 cheerfulness undaunted by the teasing elements that 

 destroy crops, or wicked pests that devour them these 

 are what the garden craftsman must exercise. 



The war has taught us that for the good of the nation 

 we should encourage a return to country life. In all 

 probability this will be carried out because those gentle- 

 folk whose incomes have become greatly reduced will 

 welcome an active, health-giving occupation in the midst 

 of rural conditions. Here appears, therefore, to be every 

 prospect of the renewal of the steady, settled, fruitful work 



