90 GAEDENING FOR WOMEN 



and the idea of sending ladies as gardeners to our 

 colonies is a new one. We have had brilliant 

 examples of success, and at the present moment 

 a lady gardener at Bloemfontein is doing good 

 work. Miss Hewetson's report to the South 

 African Colonisation Society, on Cape Colony 

 Fruit-farming, tells us, perhaps, most about the 

 subject, and we feel that her views can guide us, 

 as her supervision of the work of Kaffirs for a year 

 and a half gave her personal experience in the 

 matter. We know that there are vast possi- 

 bilities of fruitful cultivation if only there existed 

 more skilled, directing heads. What a change 

 might be made in the production of the soil, if 

 educated guides superintended the merely me- 

 chanical ¥/ork of Kaffirs ! 



It is intelligence and enlightenment that are 

 needed, brains that are wanted more than hands. 

 We are told that it takes three busy months to 

 prune fruit trees on a large Cape Colony farm. 

 These fruit trees make only moderate growth, 

 as in England, but in Natal growth is tropically 

 luxuriant, and in pruning much wood has to be 

 left for shade, otherwise the fruit becomes sun- 

 baked. To carry out properly such operations 

 intelligence is necessary. Then, again, we know 

 that fruit packing and grading are large under- 

 takings on many farms. We read of a farm with 



