GAEDENING FOR WOMEN 93 



will lie in undertaking work with a spirit of pure 

 humility. Only after a thorough course of in- 

 struction in the country itself can the manage- 

 ment of a post of any degree of responsibility be 

 attempted. 



One considerable source of difficulty is the 

 question of a white woman as overseer being left 

 unprotected among Kaffirs. In small gardens, 

 with only one boy," this danger is reduced, but 

 in large ones it is almost a necessity that two 

 ladies should protect each other. The proportion 

 of men to women is about seven to one, and, 

 therefore, some may consider that South Africa 

 will not be, as regards lady gardeners, a woman's 

 country for another fifty years. That it will be 

 so then, we who are anxious to see the better 

 cultivation of our great colony, upon lines in- 

 dicated for us by Cecil Rhodes, venture to hope. 

 When Englishwomen have firmly established a good 

 reputation as landscape gardeners, directing experts 

 and teachers in the mother country, they will doubt- 

 less be welcomed with enthusiasm in our colonies. 



To those who are not deterred from making 

 an attempt at gardening in South Africa by these 

 few difficulties, I venture to give the following 

 practical hints, which I am allowed to publish 

 by the kindness of the South African Colonisation 

 Society : — 



