Horticulture for Women.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 932, 10 January 1890, Page 5

Horticulture for Women.

Women horticulturists ! That has a pleasant sound to those who are familiar with the possibilities in this direction, but the damper which shuts it out from the list of near probabilities is the too familiar one of American false and foolish pride. The devotee of society shudders as she thinks of toils n the fields. She calls to mind tales she has read of the women labourers in the cotton fields of our own South ; visions of women workers in the vineyards on the Rhine flash before her mental vision, and she recoils in disgust. Goodness knows, we would not have our women labour as do those we speak of, but why not let her use her brains in this direction, supplying the physical defieiencyfrom the mental reservoir 1 The titled ladies of the old world are not so adverse to trade as tradition wonld lead us to believe, or as are the sensitive women of our own country, for thus they advertise : * My gardener will Bell a superb collection of twenty-five dozen perfectly hardy flowering plants for one guinea. Hon. —.' This from a lady of the haughty English nobility ! Why should we hesitate in a choice between methods of obtaining a livelihood when in horticulture are independence and health, in the shops sickness and starvation wages ? The Garden believes in the women—God bless them—and * one who ha 9 tried ’ is now engaged in telling our readers how horticulture as a business for women is already an established fact, and how its doors are open to thousands more. This shonld be an Inspiration to many.—American Garden.