74 GAEDENING FOR WOMEN 



a short history of the undertaking. I bought six acres 

 of land here fifteen year{=5 ago, with a view to start a garden 

 on a more or less remunerative footing. I had been 

 brought up in a town, but had always been fond of botany 

 — of plants as individuals — and as years went on, felt 

 drawn to a country life. I got bo know something of cul- 

 tivated plants by studying in the Botanic Gardens at 

 Cambridge, where I lived. I hired a quarter-acre allot- 

 ment in a field let out in that way. I got very much 

 interested in it, and decided to go in for a country life 

 with a garden, which I hoped to make pay its way, if not 

 more. I studied gardening for two years with a family 

 who had taken up market gardening in Wales, and pro- 

 ceeded to buy a small plot of land to begin upon. I had 

 enough capital to start a place and build a small house 

 for myself, and, fortunately enough, means to live upon 

 in a somewhat bare way. I did not feel the least sanguine 

 of making ends more than meet, and this was lortunate, 

 as for many years it was a most unpromising and expensive 

 undertaking. I was entirely without business knowledge 

 in general, or of any of the detailed knowledge of the 

 horticultural trade, and also, being town-bred, I was led 

 into many errors. The soil proved poor and sour from 

 lack of draining, and thickly infested with wire -worms, 

 and being far from any town (Bournemouth, nine miles, 

 being the nearest) there was absolutely no local demand 

 for anything. I should say one of the main points in 

 starting any place of the kind is to be near some town. 

 I had not originally intended to go in for market gardening, 

 but circumstances seemed to favour it moie than any other 



