GARDENING FOR WOMEN 5 



The profession of gardening offers a consider- 

 able amount of freedom, the refining influence of 

 poetry and beauty, contact with intelligent, inter- 

 esting people, and health and happiness to body 

 and mind. These, to an active, out-of-door, young 

 woman are very great advantages. Then, too, 

 there are different branches of the profession, so 

 that a selection is possible as to which best suits 

 her talents. Should she be fond of teaching, she 

 can hold classes in Nature Study or botany ; 

 if she has taste and talent for drawing, she 

 can take up landscape gardening. With a 

 small amount of capital to invest, she may 

 start a market garden, with every prospect of 

 success. 



There are, too, the higher branches of horti- 

 culture, such as the treatment of rare greenhouse 

 plants, hybridisation, cross-fertilisation, and the 

 handling of orchids. All these intensely interest- 

 ing, intellectual matters require such dainty skill, 

 so much thought, that there is no doubt whatever 

 they are suited to ladies. Many who practise in 

 these branches employ women to execute the minute 

 operations that are so often entailed, because their 

 light touch is better adapted to the purpose than 

 the heavy hand of a man. Few women have up 

 to the present studied long enough to sm-pass men 

 in these matters, but there is a certain future 



