WOMEN AS MARKET GARDENERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9316, 17 August 1908, Page 3

WOMEN AS MARKET GARDENERS.

Why should not women — wom^tt of cultivation — be market gardeners? To the uninitiated — perhaps because they are vminitiated— the question recurs again and again. The hard digging, hoeing, etc k , are no harder than many a day's outdoor exercise, ox indoor housework. The girls at British horticultural schools thrive under it amassingly. They are specimens of womanhood such as are seldom seen nowadays. They simply glow with health and their flesh has a'firm, solid quality that docs not accompany the delicate indoor life. The growing of things has always appealed to refined intelligence, and the exodus of the man with tho book from th© city to the farm is growing ever more marked. To raise kitchen products Beemß quite within the recognised woman's kingdom, too; especially when Scrupulous care, attention to detail and economy are important elements in success.

In Britain the management of a market garden by women, indeed, ia no longer an Experiment. In one case at least it has been made a decided huccess. Two young women took five acres of land and engaged a French gardener. Now, herein lies the secret of their success; for in. England vegetables are cheap, and land is dear t and the cry of "Back to the land " hats been met by tiie unanswerable retort that the land was not for those who had to make a living wage. But if people at Home are economical compared to colonials, French people, especially the French peasantry, are reputed to be far and away ahead of either in this quality. They are said, indeed, to be able to live on "what other nations would waste. The engaging of the French gardener was an inspiration. The conduct of the little farm is thus bescribed in "Black and White ": — "Briefly, the secret of their success lies in what w known as ' close cultivation ' by means of innumerable cloches and glass frames. This sounds easy and even commonplace, but the method demands unwearying patience, tireless industry and the bestowal of minute care upon the smallest details. It may be that it is for this last reason that girls have succeeded where men have failed. The experiment was initiated by two women. They were not possessed of large capital ; but they took five acres of land and engaged the services of a French gardener. Now they have students and though they have found their little farm too large- for their requirements, on less than half the space they earn enough profit for all. To an' English market gardener this would sound almost bewildering, and perhaps incredible. But it is hardly possible for an Englishman to realise what can be produced from a small patch of land when it is nursed with the loving care that a Frenchman employs.

" Naturally the soil bears within itself half the secret of success. To the French gardener, his soil is his capital, and it is often agreed upon bettVeett landlord and gardener in France that the outgoing tenant may take his soil to the depth of about eighteen inches away with him. Economy of space i® another factor. Hardly a square inch is wasted. Every cloche and frame covers as many plants as will grow under it, and the spaces between the frames are jealously filled. Then, too, they raise three crops a year by means of their careful nurture, and, when snow was falling recently, the atmosphere in the frames was up to eighty degrees, thanks to tJie French mats used to protect them. Lettuces, cawots, cauliflowers, melons and various fruits are among the produots of the little garden, and many people in the neighbourhood are anxious' to secure small holdings and follow their exanrole."