GARDENING FOR WOMEN 171 



garden of ten acres and tlie large Louse promised to be 

 sufficient for years to come. Miss Castner gave up her 

 dental practice and devoted herself entirely to the school. 

 The interest of German women was at last awakened, and 

 what was impossible ten years previously was now imitated 

 in Godesberg and other places. Schools of horticulture, 

 on the Marienfelde model, were started. 



Next comes the question of the training and the after 

 career of the students. The prospectus and plan of 

 studies of the institution abundantly answer the first 

 question. I believe I can rightly say one seldom finds 

 such an excellent organisation, with so harmonious an 

 intermingling of theory and practice. The gardener's 

 calHng is thoroughly practical, but theoretical instruc- 

 tion cannot be left in the background. In our school 

 only the afternoon hours belong to scientific exposition, 

 the whole morning is devoted to practical work. This is 

 more necessary, as most ladies come to us without the 

 shghtest preliminary knowledge, and an obligatory previous 

 apprenticeship was part of our ideal scheme. It is no 

 slight task for a head-gardener to overlook and occupy in 

 the garden fifty to sixty ladies, many without former 

 training. A suitable organisation, formed in the course 

 of years, considerably lightens this task, and the number 

 of students in the gardens might be doubled without causing 

 Herr Cornelius (our present head-gardener) much more 

 trouble. Each lady learns to begin and finish her task 

 without help ; second year students are allowed partly 

 to arrange their own work for each season, and are re- 

 sponsible for their, management of it. 



