84 GARDENING FOR WOMEN 



authority who has made the agricultural education 

 of women a lifelong study, says that the young 

 women who have taken up gardening as a pro- 

 fession are in consequence " as lithe as panthers 

 and of splendid physique." 



Not only, therefore, does such a life increase 

 muscular development and consequently help cir- 

 culatory, respiratory, digestive and other normal 

 processes, but it helps to make a healthy mind. 

 If a serious bit of thinking has to be done, a piece 

 of trenching or some purely mechanical exercise 

 will greatly assist the brain. To quote a passage 

 upon digging from Mr. Halsham's admirable book, 

 " Every Man His Own Gardener," " You will find 

 that the mind is not merely left free for all the 

 valuable reflections which may occur to it, but 

 that the attention necessary for the job takes up 

 and keeps employed and quiet some subordinate 

 activities of the understanding which in times of 

 repose are often decidedly troublesome." 



I should like to quote a passage, too, from 

 Ruskin's " Sesame and Lilies," which seems to 

 me very applicable to the case in point. In showing 

 us the power of woman, he says : " The first of our 

 duties to her — no thoughtful persons now doubt 

 this — is to secure for her such physical training 

 and exercise as may confirm her health, and per- 

 fect her beauty, the highest refinement of that 



