WOMEN GARDENERS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 18 May 1912, Page 9

WOMEN GARDENERS.

The spheres of employment in which vomeri are not to be found are yearly )ecommg fewer. Twenty years ago the nere reference to a woman gardener vould probably have conjured up a picmre of an unbusinesslike-looking garlen fork being pressed feebly into the ground by a pair of carefully-gloved lands belonging to a dainty, muslin-clad igure. But this vision has nothing at ill in common with the impression gainsd by a representative of the Standard luring an interview with Miss Helen Dolt, a very successful jobbing gardener. This lady, it appears, holds the Royal Botanic Society's Practical Gardening School's diploma, and has in her employ several women and one man. In the course of the interview, Miss Colt, whose field of operations extends to all parts of London, remarked: "Many trained women look upon this branch of gardening but as a steppingstone to a higher position, but I regard it as a fino art. If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well. And if one is really equal to the tax on one's energies and resources, it is most delishtful and interesting work. "When considered as a fine art and as a business as well, its possibilities are practically unlimited." Miss Colt also pointed out that as the proper, care of a garden entailed arduous work, both mental and physical, girls should not enter the profession unless they had the interest of the business thoroughly at heart. There were many difficulties to contend with, a great deal of patience and perseverance was required. But given normal health and a taste for the work, there appears to be no reason why women should not make a very comfortable living out of jobbing gardening, more especially as women in this capacity are paid at the rate of from 6s to 7s 6d a clay, while the mere man receives only 4s or 5s a day.