HEALTHY WORK FOR WOMEN

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10207, 18 February 1919, Page 3

HEALTHY WORK FOR WOMEN

The Burnley School of Horticulture in Victoria receives stole queer requests for its women students.

.Recently an optimistic farmer asked to be supplied with a strong young woman who understood all about orcharding and would give the “missus" a hand in the house when her services were not required in the open. Nono of the students had the slightest desire to make his acquaintance. The following offer from a Tasmanian widow was worthy of more serious consideration:— “I am looking for a partner for a small fruit garden and poultry run. Do you think you could persuade oho of your lady students do join mu? I have an acre of ground, with about a quarter under cultivation. My plan is to open the garden .to the public in the summer season, and depend on poultry for the winter season. I am a widow in the late twenties. Would like a partner about the same age, a good worker, and a gentlewoman." Another offer came from a woman settler in the Murray district:"I am. trying to manage a block of 5» acres alone. I wondered whether any of your lady pupils would join me. X have wonderful peachy and orange trees, hut Tf have no Idea how to treat them. The trees are laden with fruit each year, bat will deteriorate if they don’t get skilled attention. X have also lucerne, wheat, pigs, cows, poultry, and sheep. Your pupil could take over the orchard and I could look after the animals." These letters indicate that there is a wide field of activity for the woman horticulturist outside the ordinary avenues of employment. JN umbers of the students have specialised in pruning, and this season one graduate secured all the work she needed in the orchards in tfio Beaconsfield and Pafcenham districts. Nursery work is a branch of gardening that seems to appeal to women, and a number of Burnley students ate engaged in this class of work. So far, only a limited number have turned—their -attention 'to landscape gardening, but there are indications that the gifted students will eventually' take up this branch •of their profession..