1921.] 



Women in Horticulture. 



1141 



in horticultural research work. Women with the necessary 

 training, who have a keen interest in such scientific problems 

 as plant-breeding, plant pathology and physiology can now 

 find opportunities to carry out investigations in these subjects. 

 It must, however, be pointed out that research workers are 

 required to be of a high order of efficiency; they should be 

 highly trained botanists and chemists, and, in addition, they 

 should have had a practical training in horticulture. The 

 woman gardener who has the ability and can afford to under- 

 take the necessary scientific training should prove eminently 

 suitable for such work. 



There remains one question which deserves consideration, 

 and that is the type of woman who is likely to " make good " 

 as a practical gardener. Before the War, women gardeners 

 were almost without exception drawn from the educated classes. 

 This was due to the fact that the necessary practical training 

 could only be obtained at a college or gardening school, and was, 

 consequently, restricted to those who could afford to pay the 

 fees. Incidentally, the colleges were obliged to devote a con- 

 siderable part of their courses to the teaching of elementary 

 garden operations. Such knowledge was acquired by boys and 

 improvers at no expense to themselves. The War, however, 

 introduced new conditions which react in two ways on the entry 

 of women into horticulture. In the first place, it opened the 

 door of many gardens to women as learners and improvers, 

 with the result that it is now possible for them to obtain the 

 initial practical training outside the colleges and schools. It is 

 to be hoped that this will have a marked effect on the work 

 of the gardening schools in the future by raising the grade 

 of instruction given and ensuring that it shall be of a more 

 advanced and specialised character. In the second place, the 

 necessities of war produced a new type of woman gardener. 

 Large numbers of working class girls were attracted to the 

 Land Army and experienced the joys of a life in the open. 

 Some of them continued their work and are still employed in 

 nurseries and private gardens. These women may become 

 imbued with a desire to learn something of the scientific 

 principles underlying the manual operations which they are 

 carrying out. If so, the need can be met in two ways, (1) by 

 the provision of suitable instruction at the developing Farm 

 Institutes, and (2) by the establishment of bursaries and 

 scholarships tenable at the recognised gardening colleges and 

 awarded only to those women already in the profession who 

 cannot afford a scientific course. 



