instruction--and a good many women are at work in this college. The
students registered in the college of agriculture (not in the College
of Arts and Sciences) number over 300.
LOWTHORPE SCHOOL OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING AND HORTICULTURE FOR
WOMEN, AT GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS
_Founded by_ Mrs. EDWARD GILCHRIST LOW
LECTURERS
_Landscape architecture._--Mr. J. F. DAWSON, with OLMSTED
BROTHERS. _The garden and its accessories._--MR. LORING
UNDERWOOD.
INSTRUCTORS
_Study of trees and shrubs._--MISS LAURA BLANCHARD DAWSON. _Drawing
and garden design._--MISS GERTRUDE F. SANDERSON. _Surveying and
engineering._--MR. STEPHEN CHILD. _Botany: Greenhouse work and
gardening out-of-doors._--MISS L. L. HETZER.
_Study of trees and shrubs._--Lectures with field walks. Study
of trees from winter buds, and in leaf. Study of shrubs, foliage, and
flowering, with consideration of landscape value. Specimens from the
Arnold Arboretum.
_Botany._--Study of plant structure, function, and classification.
The greater part of the time will be devoted to the flowering plants.
[Illustration: AVENUE LEADING TO “LOWTHORPE,” GROTON,
MASSACHUSETTS, MRS. LOW’S SCHOOL FOR LADY GARDENERS.]
_Garden design._--Practice in making preliminary and finished
plans. Designing and laying out of gardens.
_Drawing._--Freehand in black and white and water colour,
with autumn and spring sketching out of doors. Mechanical, simple
projections leading up to elementary study of architectural details.
_Surveying and engineering._--Such parts as have value to
landscape work.
_Greenhouse work._--Care of greenhouse. Propagation, by seeds,
cuttings, layering, budding, and grafting. Carnation, violet growing,
orchids, etc.
EXPENSES
Tuition $100 a year. One half to be paid on entering, the second half
in January.
A limited number of students may be accommodated at Lowthorpe. Single
room, $30.00 per month, and upwards; double room for two, at $30.00 per
month for each. Accommodation for others may be obtained in the village
near by. The full course comprises two years’ work. School year is from
September 15 to June 15. Vacations at Christmas and Easter.
The avenues of work that are available are:--
Designing and planting flower gardens; care and maintenance of rose
gardens and flowering shrubs; weekly supervising of greenhouses;
planning and laying out small estates; planting small parks for village
improvement societies.
All communications should be addressed to
LOWTHORPE SCHOOL, GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS.
Simmons College, Boston, Mass., has, I believe, a horticultural college
connected with it, but it has not been in operation long.
Smith College, Northampton, Mass., also offers courses in practical
horticulture.
The following letter, written by the director of the principal school
of Forestry in America, and very kindly sent to me by Mrs. Low, shows
that he is of opinion that there is an opening for women in landscape
gardening:
YALE UNIVERSITY FOREST SCHOOL,
NEW HAVEN, CONN.,
_May 22, 1907_.
MY DEAR MRS. LOW,--
I have for a long time felt that there is an opportunity for
useful work by women in landscape gardening. There is, at the
present time, no place except the Lowthorpe School, where women
can secure an adequate training in landscape gardening. I
believe that your institution is needed, and will be appreciated.
I may say from my impressions upon visiting your school that you
have chosen an exceedingly favourable location, and that you
have made very fine progress in the organisation of your work.
I want to do what I can to assist your school, for I believe in
it. If I can be of any service in this or any other way, I hope
that you will feel free to call upon me.
Sincerely yours,
H. S. GRAVES (_Director_).
[Illustration: SOUTHERN ENTRANCE TO “LOWTHORPE,” GROTON, MASS.
MRS. LOW’S SCHOOL FOR LADY GARDENERS]
_To_ MRS. LOW,
_Principal of Lowthorpe School for Lady Gardeners_.
Mrs. Low asks me to draw attention to the fact that the work of
“landscape design” is the most important in her school. Garden and
greenhouse work are secondary to this. She tells me that several of
her former students have become supervisors of school gardens, in
connection with the Public Schools or Village Improvement Societies.
The highest salary is $60 per month, for five months. One former
student has gone to Portland, in Oregon, on the Pacific coast, where
she is told she will soon become established as a landscape gardener.
Several women have already made a success of landscape gardening. Ten
years hence they will be heard of all over the country. At present the
largest income is £800, or $4,000.
The two photographs of Lowthorpe are attractive. Three years ago the
site of the present avenue, leading to the house, was a field. The
students surveyed the avenue under instruction, and then did the
planting. They have to learn to read a surveyor’s plan with ease. In
the oval in front of the door are Rhododendron maximum, which is hardy
in Massachusetts, ferns and Rinus Strabus. At the entrance on the
right are viburnums, cornus, lonicera, roses, etc. The picture of the
southern entrance gives the bulb garden, between the greenhouse and
verandah, where later on bloom lilies, lilacs and magnolias. On the
left is a hedge of white rose rugosa. Through the arch one goes into
the garden. The large tree is a “platanus occidentalis.” The place was
an old farm when Mrs. Low bought it in 1900–1, and we can judge by the
well-kept grounds what a success she has made of it.
PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF HORTICULTURE FOR WOMEN
The plan of the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women has
originated in the desire to offer to women an opportunity to fit
themselves for an occupation at once healthful, pleasant, profitable,
peculiarly fitted to their gifts, and in which they have ever taken an
intelligent interest and active part.
Our purpose is to offer to these earnest-minded women a training in the
principles and practice of horticulture and allied subjects, knowing
that really skilled labour can always find a market, helping them also
to find employment in the work for which they have been thus prepared.
To this end we expect to open in the near future the “Pennsylvania
School of Horticulture for Women.” A small farm of twenty to forty
acres will be obtained (probably rented), having upon it a comfortable
dwelling with accommodation for about ten students (at first). Flower
and kitchen gardens and orchards will be laid out and planted. Teachers
of skill and experience will lecture upon the principles and practice
of the courses of study offered, and will oversee all practice work
done by students. For the very heavy work a labourer will be employed,
but the students will do all the rest themselves under direct
supervision of the teacher. A competent matron or principal will be in
charge of the household and will have general oversight of the students.
The full course will occupy two years of twelve months each, but
arrangements will be made for suitable holidays, and full students
will be advised to live in the house. Short courses on special subjects
will also be arranged, and it is hoped will prove attractive and useful
to some who may want to specialise along certain lines.
The tuition and board fees will be kept down to as low a figure as
possible, and it is hoped that there will be endowed scholarships.
The subjects to be offered at once are:--
Flower and kitchen gardening, care of lawns and shrubbery, orchards,
poultry raising, bee-keeping, garden carpentry, marketing of produce.
Later there may be added:--
Forestry, maple sugar growing, preserving of fruits and vegetables, and
such other subjects as may be called for.
There is in Pennsylvania no other school of this character. The
Pennsylvania State College at State College, Centre County, offers
valuable and excellent instruction, but, like the other state colleges,
lays most of its stress on agriculture rather than on horticulture, and
gives great attention (and necessarily so) to experimental farm work,
and to seed and soil tests. Incidentally we hope to profit by these
experiments and to help to spread abroad knowledge of the improvements
and better methods which their experience may have proved beneficial.
We shall be glad to enter into communication with others interested in
the subject, and we look for the interest and support of Pennsylvanians
and many others.
MISS JANE B. HAINES, _Secretary and Treasurer_, Cheltenham, Pa.
THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDENS, ST. LOUIS, MO.
The Trustees of the garden offer theoretical and practical instruction
in gardening, with a certain number of competitive scholarships. These
scholarships are not open to women. The course of instruction can,
however, be taken by women who are ready to bear their own expenses and
pay the nominal fee of $25 per annum.
Only one young woman has so far completed the course. This lady,
Miss Eda A. Sutermeister, 1637, Broadway, Kansas City, Missouri,
has become an accomplished landscape architect. One other girl went
through the greater part of the work. She subsequently took charge of
the floriculture at an industrial school for women, after extensive
experience in practical floriculture. In addition to these two, a
number of ladies have taken various courses of study included in the
outline, or have received practical training in gardening at the
Botanical Garden, covering short periods of time, and limited parts of
the subject.
The following is taken from the last report:--
INSTRUCTION IN GARDENING
The requirement that instruction in gardening and horticulture should
receive attention at the Garden, in addition to the provision of a
lodging house for pupils, led to the entire renovation of the fruit
orchard some years ago, at a cost of $444.44, and two small vegetable
houses have been built for further experimental and educational use.
The annual expenditure on the gardening course averages $930.34.
The Director reports that of the 39 pupils thus far enrolled, of whom
15 completed the course, ten are now successful florists or gardeners,
two have become landscape architects, three hold responsible park
positions, two are college horticulturists with teaching as well
as practical duties, one is a surveyor, one is a government plant
experimenter, and one is a forester in the Philippine service.
INSTRUCTION IN BOTANY
Mr. Shaw’s provision for a close connection between the School of
Botany, which he had endowed in Washington University, and the
Garden has been of great assistance to the undergraduate department
of the University, and through the Garden opportunities for work
have been offered to graduate students, of whom five have received
the Master’s degree and six the degree of Doctor of Philosophy with
botany as a major study. The Board expect to see a large increase in
this utilisation of the Garden facilities commensurate with the very
gratifying growth of Washington University. Indirectly the Garden has
been of much use to the young men who have served as assistants in its
office, library, or herbarium, or as teachers in the school of botany,
for with very few exceptions they have gone to college, government or
other positions of high responsibility in botany or horticulture, for
which their service here gave excellent training.
NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AT CORNELL
UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, NEW YORK
_Normal Work.--Two-Year Special Course in Nature-Study._--This
course is organised to help persons who expect to teach nature-study
and country-life subjects in the public schools. Persons actually
engaged in teaching, and also all persons in the University who signify
their intention to teach, are eligible. A certificate will be given on
the completion of 60 hours in the courses prescribed below, together
with such other work in the College of Agriculture as may be approved
by the director. Designed to prepare students to teach elementary
agriculture.
_Nature-Study._--Lectures and discussion of methods.
_Home Nature-Study Work._--Work in the training classes in the
Ithaca schools in which students are also to take part.
_Practice Work in Nature-Study_ in the public schools of Ithaca,
comprising schoolroom work, excursions, and other exercises with
children.
_School Gardens_, comprising actual garden-making with children on
school grounds and in the University school gardens. In winter the work
will be conducted in the forcing houses, where plant-growing subjects
will be taken up in such a way as to adapt them to elementary school
conditions.
_Seminary in Nature-Study and Elementary Agriculture._--Devoted
to the study of the methods of teaching nature-study and elementary
agriculture, and to the review and criticism of courses now offered in
our elementary and secondary schools.
_Nature-Study._--Advanced course. Individual work on special
problems.
_Travel Course in Agriculture._--The aim of this course is to give
the students an opportunity, under competent guidance, to see the main
agricultural activities and crops not represented in New York. It is
open to qualified students of the College of Agriculture and of other
colleges.
SPECIAL WORK
Opportunities are provided for persons who desire to pursue special
work. Students must be at least eighteen years of age to take advantage
of this work.
_Special Work in General Agriculture._--This work is designed to
meet the needs of young men and young women from the farm who have
not the time to give to a four years’ course. They must satisfy the
director that they are well enough grounded in the secondary school
subjects to enable them to pursue the work with credit to themselves
and with honour to the University, and also that they desire to take
the work because of direct interest in agricultural affairs. They must
present an honourable dismissal from the school last attended and
certificates of good moral character, and will be required to present
such certificates and letters as may be desired. This work is not a
definite “course” in the sense of having a programme or a prescribed
set of studies. The student chooses any of the agricultural “electives”
that he may be able to pursue. Certain courses are to be given by some
of the departments for those who lack some of the fundamental work
usually required in those subjects. Admission as a special student by
the director does not admit to classes. The student is admitted to the
various classes by the heads of the departments when he has satisfied
such officers that he is able to pursue the work.
_Nature-Study Special Course._--This course, of two years, is
open to teachers, or to such students in regular University courses
as signify their intention to teach, who desire to prepare themselves
in nature-study and country-life subjects. In this course the work
is largely prescribed. The course comprises two categories of work:
the subject-matter studies, and the pedagogical practice. The
subject-matter is secured in the regular classes of the University,
largely in the biological departments. The pedagogical practice is to
be had with children in regular nature-study classes and clubs in the
public schools of Ithaca and in school-garden work with children.
EXTENSION WORK
The extension work of the College of Agriculture is designed to help
persons directly on their farms, and to aid those who desire definite
instruction but cannot take a long or regular course in agriculture in
the University. It supplements the teaching and experimenting of the
College of Agriculture. It is professedly a popular work. It endeavours
to reach the common problems of the people, to quicken the agricultural
occupations, and to inspire a greater interest in country life. It
is also a bureau of publicity, whereby there is an exchange of all
important matters connected with the progress of the agriculture of the
State.
ARGENTINA; BUENOS AIRES
The following information is all that I can ascertain. There are no
special horticultural colleges for ladies in this country, but they
are admitted to all the agricultural colleges. They may take the same
degrees as men.
As yet only one lady has received the highest degree accorded, namely
Agricultural Engineer, and two others are now studying.
No opening for women in this sphere of activity has presented itself
so far, but I am informed that undoubtedly very soon the public will
appreciate their efforts and employ them in preference to men.
In all public schools pupils from the fourth to sixth grades of both
sexes receive notions of agriculture, and are practically taught
the care and cultivation of indoor plants. In some few schools that
have the necessary ground, pupils are also instructed in cultivating
vegetable and flower plants.
CHAPTER XVII
GARDENING AND NATURE-STUDY IN CANADA AND AUSTRALIA
The question of gardening for women in Canada is admirably dealt
with--together with that of “Nature-Study”--in the following
communication which I have received from Miss E. Ritchie, of
Halifax, Nova Scotia. It will be seen that while “Nature-Study”
is taking a prominent position in the curriculum of the public
school--the profession of gardening for women has barely entered
into consideration:--
I very much regret that the information I can now send is far from
complete as regards the whole Dominion. Our committee on education
is not really in working order, only two members--both from Ontario
cities--having been appointed by “local councils,” so that I have
myself had to collect facts from the other provinces without having
local knowledge to guide me. In Canada educational matters are subject
entirely to provincial control, and the system differs in the various
provinces, so there is no Central Bureau of information at Ottawa. The
following statements may, I think, be relied upon as correct as far as
they go.
1. _Nature-Study_ is taught to some extent in the public schools
all over Canada (I am not quite sure about Quebec, about which my
information is imperfect, but I believe it is probably true of that
province also). In Nova Scotia, which is a fairly representative
province in such matters, nature-study occupies a part of every day in
all the schools, and so far as my own observation goes, it seems to
be taught sensibly, and in a way to interest the children; they are
made familiar with the growth of plants, the habits of insects, the
appearance, songs, and migration of the different kinds of birds, etc.,
and are encouraged in making simple nature-observation for themselves.
In the higher grades this teaching merges into more specifically
agricultural and scientific work.
2. _School gardens_ are becoming more numerous throughout Canada;
Ontario probably takes the lead in this respect. Sir William Macdonald,
who is devoting very large sums to the development of the more
practical side of education, has inaugurated a number of school gardens
in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and (I think)
British Columbia.
As of possible interest in this connection, I may mention a plan
carried out by the Halifax Local Council of Women to encourage a love
of gardening among city children. Seeds of six hardy varieties of
flowers are bought wholesale in the spring, and sold through the school
teachers to children desiring them at cost price. Each child for six
cents (threepence) got a package containing small packages of the six
kinds of seed, and simple printed directions for sowing and caring for
them. An exhibition of flowers grown from these seeds was held in the
month of August, and prizes given for the best bouquets, and also for
“compositions” on the raising of flowers. Last year some 6,000 children
bought the seeds, and the exhibition of flowers was quite remarkable,
even the children from the poorer parts of the city having done
remarkably well. I am in hopes other “local councils” will follow us in
this work.
3. _In regard to the status and prospects of professional women
gardeners in Canada_, I have been unable to get much information.
Few, if any women here, have deliberately chosen this calling as their
life’s work. It must be remembered that almost every woman _living
in the country_ in Canada, whether married or not, has to do a
large part, often all, of her own housework, servants of any kind
being, except in the towns, almost unobtainable--in the North-West
Provinces absolutely so; this renders it difficult for her to undertake
outdoor work that would occupy a great part of her time. I think all
gentlewomen thinking of settling in the rural parts of Canada should
fully realise the bearings of that most troublesome enigma, “the
servant problem,” which we have in its extremest form in this country.
Apart from this I should imagine that gardening, in the neighbourhood
of a good market, might be carried on by women with very satisfactory
results--some capital and good business ability being supposed.
I do not think there would be at present many openings in Canada for
lady teachers of gardening, as such subjects as “nature-study,” etc.,
are taught in the public schools by teachers of other subjects, and in
the private schools (which, though the wealthier parents send their
children to them, are generally inferior from a pedagogical point
of view to the public or free schools) nature-study is very little
attended to.
A career for women that might offer inducements to some is that of
“orchardist,” which in Nova Scotia especially pays well, and is in many
ways agreeable. I know of many married women who assist their husbands
in the apple orchards, and at least one, a widow, I think, who owns and
manages a large orchard with great success; and there are probably many
others. Of course, capital is required, and some knowledge of local
conditions.
4. _In regard to opportunities for the education of lady
gardeners_, I may say that in all agricultural and other colleges
supported by public money women are received and taught on precisely
the same terms as men. This includes the Agricultural College at Truro,
Nova Scotia, Prince of Wales College, Charlottetown, Prince Edward
Island (which has agricultural courses), the Agricultural College at
Guelph, Ontario, and the Macdonald College at St. Anne, Bellevue,
Quebec. The latter is said to be the most advanced and well-equipped
institution of its kind in America.
THE MACDONALD SCHOOL GARDENS
The following information relative to the School Garden
movement is taken from a paper written by Mr. R. H. Cowley, and
originally published in the _Queen’s Quarterly_.
In the spring of 1904 a group of school gardens went into operation in
each of the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia
and Prince Edward Island. These school gardens are associated with Sir
William C. Macdonald’s plans for the improvement of Canadian schools,
and they constitute a notable feature of the general scheme devised by
Professor James W. Robertson, director of the Macdonald educational
movement.
At a meeting of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in 1890, a
paper on horticultural education for children was read by Mr. Henry
Lincoln Clapp, master of George Putnam School, Roxbury, Mass. At this
school a garden was established the following year as a result of the
interest awakened. This garden, which appears to have been the first
of its kind in the United States, was devoted exclusively to native
wild plants until 1901, when a vegetable plot was added. Here and there
within the past decade, and with various objects in view, the idea has
been employed by private citizens, charitable associations, commercial
firms, horticultural societies, and a few educational institutions, but
as yet the school garden has not become an organic feature of any state
system of education.
In Canada the school garden idea has also received some recognition
prior to the Macdonald movement. For several years a very successful
and quite extensive garden for boys has been conducted at Broadview,
Toronto, by Captain Atkinson, of the Boys’ Brigade Institute. Here and
there throughout the Dominion, floriculture has been encouraged to some
extent in the elementary schools. Under the aggressive advocacy of Dr.
A. H. MacKay, Superintendent of Education, whose faith in all branches
of nature-study has been fully justified by his works, Nova Scotia
has taken a leading place in establishing school gardens. In 1903
there were 52 school gardens in the province. Last July 79 in all were
reported. The special courses in agriculture and nature-study, recently
provided for teachers, has had a considerable influence in promoting
the school garden movement, though outside the Macdonald gardens few
are yet more than temporary efforts of the teacher for the time being.
It is apparent that three leading motives underlie the origin and
growth of school gardens in Europe:--(1) to provide a convenient means
of supplementing the teachers’ income, thereby simplifying the problem
of maintaining the public school; (2) to promote a practical knowledge
of horticulture and agriculture, thereby increasing the national
prosperity; (3) to furnish means and material for the practical study
of botany as a desirable department of scientific knowledge.
The vast majority of European school gardens look to utility. Of the
few that recognise the importance of the educational end, nearly
all stop short at the acquisition of a certain amount of scientific
information and the habit of careful observation. On the other
hand, the Macdonald School Gardens, while designed to encourage the
cultivation of the soil as an ideal life-work, are intended to promote
above all things else symmetrical education of the individual. They
do not aim at education to the exclusion of utility, but they seek
education through utility, and utility through education. The garden
is the means, the pupil is the end. The Macdonald School Gardens are
a factor in an educational movement, and for this reason Professor
Robertson sought to have them brought under the Education Department,
and not under the Department of Agriculture, in each province. The
fact that the various provinces already referred to have passed orders
in council incorporating the Macdonald School Gardens into their
educational systems at once places these school gardens on a broader
educational basis than that occupied by the school gardens of any other
state or country.
The Ontario Government has provided special courses at Guelph to train
teachers in the practical educational aspects of this new work. An
initial grant of one hundred dollars, as well as an annual grant, is
offered to any rural school section establishing a school garden.
At Truro, and elsewhere in the Maritime Provinces, suitable courses
for teachers are also provided. In New Brunswick, annual grants of
thirty dollars to the Board of Trustees are given where a garden is
established at an elementary school. In Quebec, extensive preparations
for the training of teachers in the new lines of education are under
way.
The Macdonald School Gardens not only have a recognised place in the
provincial systems of education, but they are attached to the ordinary
rural schools, owned by the school corporation and conducted under
the authority of the school trustees and the express approval of the
ratepayers.
The work of the garden is recognised as a legitimate part of the school
programme, and it is already interwoven with a considerable part of
the other studies. The garden is becoming the outer classroom of
the school, and the plots are its blackboards. The garden is not an
innovation, or an excrescence, or an addendum, or a diversion. It is a
happy field of expression, an organic part of the school in which the
boys and girls work among growing things and grow themselves in body
and mind and spiritual outlook.
The true relation of the garden to the school has been in good part
established by the travelling instructors whom Professor Robertson
appointed to supervise the work in each province. These instructors
were chosen as teachers of experience in rural schools, and were sent
for special preparation, at the expense of the Macdonald fund, to
Chicago, Cornell, Columbia, and Clark universities, and to the Ontario
Agricultural College, Guelph.
THE SCHOOL GARDENS OF CARLETON COUNTY, ONTARIO
The county of Carleton was selected by Prof. Robertson for the
initiation of school gardens in Ontario, and the work that is being
carried on here is typical of what is being done in the other four
provinces. In all five gardens have been established under the
Macdonald fund in Carleton County. Two of these are placed at Carp
and Galetta, points on the Canada Atlantic Railway, distant twenty
and thirty-three miles respectively from Ottawa. A third is located
at Richmond, a small incorporated village in the heart of the county,
distant from the capital about twenty miles by stage. The remaining
gardens are situated at North Gower and Bowesville, the former about
twenty-five miles and the latter five miles from the city. As the five
schools at which these gardens have been established are from seven
to fifteen miles apart, the experiment is being brought fairly under
the scrutiny of the entire county. The garden at Richmond is within a
short distance of the grounds of the County Agricultural Society, and
will annually be open to the inspection of many hundred visitors to
the fair. Already the gardens have attracted much local attention, and
last autumn the products of the gardens won about a hundred dollars
in prizes, given both by the agricultural societies and by private
citizens who have taken a generous interest in this educational
experiment.
After full discussion with trustees and ratepayers each garden was
established under the direct approval and control of the school board
concerned, and in harmony with the already existing regulations of the
Education Department, which provide in a general way for instruction
in agriculture and nature-study, and also for enlarging school
grounds. It is worthy of note that while the ratepayers interested
were not indifferent to the question of expense involved, they paid
special attention to the fact that they were being asked to take up an
experiment of a very novel nature which required a marked departure
from the beaten path of elementary school work. Thus the educational
aspects of school gardens were specially considered, the result being
that the people have taken up the enterprise with an open-minded
interest that has already carried the experiment far on the way to
success.
The size of the gardens, including the usual school grounds, is in each
case two acres, excepting the garden at Richmond, which contains three
acres. Where additional land had to be acquired, the Macdonald fund
bore half the cost, as also the whole cost of fencing and preparing
the garden, erecting garden shed and providing the necessary tools,
etc. The cost of maintenance of the garden is likewise met by the
Macdonald fund for a period of three years. For the same period Sir
William Macdonald pays the salary of the travelling instructor, Mr.
J. W. Gibson, who visits each garden one day per week to assist the
teachers in directing the garden work of the pupils, to give lessons in
certain practical aspects of nature-study, and generally to encourage
the association of the garden work with the ordinary exercises of the
classrooms.
One of the most useful accessories to the school garden is the garden
shed, which is used for storing tools and produce, and for carrying
on work not suited to the classroom, such as preparing tickets and
labels, analysing soils, assorting seeds, arranging plants, etc. The
average cost of the garden sheds is about seventy-five dollars. They
are of various shapes and sizes, according to the number of pupils
to be accommodated. A popular plan is that of a shed, ten feet by
twenty feet, with an extension on one side about five feet wide, and
finished as a greenhouse. This obviates the necessity of having special
hot-beds. The garden tools are disposed along the walls of the shed
in places numbered to accord with the numbering of the pupils’ plots.
Along one side of each shed is a bench or table of plain boards,
about eighteen inches wide, running close to the wall, along which
are several small windows giving abundant light to pupils engaged in
practical work.
The chief tools and implements requisite to the school garden are hoes,
rakes, hand weeders, garden lines, one or two spades and shovels, a
wheelbarrow, hammer, saw, nails, etc. The pupils, as a rule, require
only hoes, rakes and hand weeders. Those pupils who are sufficiently
mature to work a plot by themselves, or along with a companion, can get
along very well with hoes and rakes of the average size. In one case,
where smaller tools were supplied, the pupils abandoned them after a
little practice for those of the standard size.
While the plan of laying out the gardens varies according to soil,
surface and location, the arrangement of the Bowesville garden suggests
the general features that have been kept in view. These include a
belt of ornamental native trees and shrubs surrounding the grounds;
two walks, each about one hundred yards long, between rows of trees;
a playground about half an acre in area for boys; a lawn of about
a quarter of an acre for the girls, bordered with some light and
graceful shade, such as the cut-leaf birch; a small orchard, in which
are grown a few varieties of the fruit trees most profitable to the
district; a forest plot, in which the most important Canadian trees
will be grown from seed and by transplanting; a plot for cultivating
the wild herbs, vines and shrubs of the district; space for individual
plots and special experimental plots; an attractive approach to the
school, including open lawn, large flowering plants, foliage, rockery,
ornamental shrubs, etc.
The special experimental plots are, as a rule, larger than the
individual plots. They are used for such purposes as the special study
of rotation of crops, values of fertilisers, effects of spraying,
selection of seeds, merits of soils, productiveness and quality of
different varieties of crops, and many other similar subjects. At one
school a special study was made of corn, clover, tomatoes, and cabbage;
at another beans, peas, beets, and potatoes occupied the experimental
plots; and at still another, some extra attention was given to plots
of pumpkins, squash, cabbage, and cauliflower. At all the gardens
special plots will be devoted to small fruits, such as strawberries,
raspberries, gooseberries, and currants. The experimental plots vary in
area from 200 to 2,000 square feet, but where the extent of ground is
restricted the experiments may be successfully carried out on plots of
a much smaller average size.
The gardens are managed throughout on the basis of individual
ownership, individual effort and individual responsibility on the part
of the pupils. At all the gardens the pupils are given plots that are
solely their own. According to the age and strength of the pupils,
these plots vary in size from 72 square feet to 120 square feet. At
some schools each pupil has two plots, one for vegetables, etc., and
the other for flowers. In other cases the flowers and vegetables are
kept in different parts of the same plot. The former plan presents no
inconvenience, and is found to contribute to the general appearance
of the garden. At one of the school gardens the pupils’ plots were
uniformly 10 feet wide by 20 feet in length, each plot being worked in
partnership, a junior pupil working with a senior pupil in each case.
Though very good results were secured by this method, the instructor
considers the individual method preferable, and will pursue it in
future.
NOVA SCOTIA
Nature-study is here taken very seriously. The following
extracts from a leaflet issued to every teacher in the province
by the Educational Department will show how thoroughly and
systematically the matter is dealt with.
LOCAL “NATURE” OBSERVATIONS
This sheet is provided for the purpose of aiding teachers to interest
their pupils in observing the times of the regular procession of
natural phenomena each season. First, it may help the teacher in doing
some of the “Nature” lesson work of the Course of Study; secondly,
it may aid in procuring valuable information for the locality and
province. Two copies are provided for each teacher who wishes to
conduct such observations, _one_ to be preserved as the property
of the section for reference from year to year; the _other_ to be
sent in with the return to the inspector, who will transmit it to the
superintendent for examination and compilation.
What is desired is to have recorded in these forms the dates of the
_first_ leafing, flowering and fruiting of plants and trees; the
_first_ appearance in the locality of birds migrating north in spring
or south in autumn, etc. While the objects specified here are given
so as to enable comparison to be made between the different sections
of the province, it is very desirable that other local phenomena of
a similar kind be recorded. Every locality has a _flora_, _fauna_,
_climate_, etc., more or less distinctly its own; and the more common
trees, shrubs, plants, crops, etc., are those which will be most
valuable from a local point of view in comparing the characters of a
series of seasons.
Teachers will find it one of the most convenient means for the
stimulation of pupils in observing all natural phenomena when going
_to_ and _from_ the school, and some pupils radiate as far as two
miles from the schoolroom. The “nature-study” under these conditions
would thus be mainly undertaken at the most convenient time, without
encroaching on school time; while on the other hand it will tend to
break up the monotony of school travel, fill an idle and wearisome hour
with interest, and be one of the most valuable forms of educational
discipline. The eyes of a whole school daily passing over a whole
school section will let very little escape notice, especially if the
first observer of each annually recurring phenomenon receives credit
as the first observer of it for the year. The observations will be
accurate, as the facts must be demonstrated by the most undoubted
evidence, such as the bringing of the specimens to the school when
possible or necessary.
To all observers the following most important, most essential
principles of recording are emphasised: Better _no date_, NO RECORD,
than a WRONG ONE or a DOUBTFUL one. Sports out of season due to very
local conditions not common to at least a small field, should not be
recorded except parenthetically. The date to be recorded for the
purposes of compilation with those of other localities should be the
_first_ of the _many_ of its kind following immediately after it.
For instance, a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis in a sheltered
cranny by a southern window in January would not be an indication of
the general climate, but of the peculiarly heated nook in which the
chrysalis was sheltered; nor would a flower in a semi-artificial, warm
shelter give the date required. When these sports out of season occur,
they might also be recorded, but within a parenthesis to indicate the
peculiarity of some of the conditions affecting their early appearance.
These schedules should be sent in to the inspector with the annual
school returns in July, containing the observations made during the
whole school year and back as far as the preceding July (if possible),
when the schedule of the previous school year was necessarily completed
and sent in.
A duplicate copy of the schedule of observations should be securely
attached to the school register for the year, so that the series of
annual observations may be preserved in each locality. The new register
has a page for such records.
Remember to fill in carefully and distinctly the date, locality, and
other blanks at the head of the schedule on the next page; for if
either the date or the locality or the name of the responsible compiler
should be omitted the whole paper is worthless and cannot be bound up
for preservation in the volume of The Phenological Observations.
PHENOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, CANADA
(1906 SCHEDULE)
For the _year_ ending _July_, 190.
Province ____________ County ______________
District ____________ locality or School Section
____________________________ No. ________
=============================================================
[The estimated length and breadth of the locality
within which the following observations were made ______ ×
______ miles. Estimated distance from the sea-coast
______ miles. Estimated altitude above the sea level
______ feet.
Slope or general exposure of the region _____________________
General character of the soil and surface ___________________
Proportion of forest and its character ______________________
Does the region include lowlands or intervales? _____________
and if so name the main river or stream ________________ Or
is it all substantially highlands? ________________________
Any other peculiarity tending to affect vegetation? _________
_____________________________________________________________
The most central Post Office of the locality or region ______
===================================================================
NAME AND ADDRESS OF THE TEACHER OR OTHER COMPILER |WHEN | WHEN
OF THE OBSERVATIONS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR |FIRST | BECOMING
ACCURACY. |Seen. | Common.
_______________________________ | |
_________________________________ | |
--------------------------------------------------+------+---------
WILD PLANTS, ETC.--NOMENCLATURE as in “Spotton” | |
or “Gray’s Manual.” | |
| |
Alder (Alnus incana), catkins shedding pollen | |
Aspen (Populus tremuloides), „ | |
Mayflower (Epigæa repens), flowering | |
Field Horsetail (Equisetum arvense), shedding | |
spores | |
Blood-root (Sanguinaria Canadensis), flowering | |
White Violet (Viola blanda), flowering | |
Etc., etc., etc. | |
| |
CULTIVATED PLANTS, ETC. | |
| |
Red Currant (Ribes rubrum), flowering | |
„ „ fruit ripe | |
Black Currant (Ribes nigrum), flowering | |
„ „ fruit ripe | |
Cherry (Prunus Cerasus), flowering | |
„ „ fruit ripe | |
Plum (Prunus domestica), flowering | |
Etc., etc., etc. | |
| |
FARMING OPERATIONS, ETC. | |
| |
Ploughing begun | |
Sowing begun | |
Planting of Potatoes begun | |
Shearing of Sheep | |
Hay Cutting | |
Grain Cutting | |
Potato Digging | |
| |
(METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA). | |
| |
Opening of (a) Rivers, (b) Lakes without currents | |
Last Snow (a) to whiten ground, (b) to fly in air | |
Last Spring Frost (a) “hard” (b) “hoar” | |
Water in Streams, Rivers, etc., (a) highest, (b) | |
lowest | |
First Autumn Frosts (a) “hoar” (b) “hard” | |
First Snow (a) to fly in air, (b) to whiten ground| |
Closing of (a) Lakes without currents, (b) Rivers | |
Number of Thunder-storms (with dates of each) | |
Jan---------------, Feb---------------, Mar---------------
Apr---------------, May---------------, June--------------
July--------------, Aug---------------, Sept--------------
Oct---------------, Nov---------------, Dec---------------
===========================================+===========+===========
|Going North|Going South
|or coming |or leaving
|in Spring. |in Fall.
-------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------
MIGRATION OF BIRDS, ETC. | |
| |
Wild Duck migrating | |
Wild Geese migrating | |
Song Sparrow (Melospiza fasciata) | |
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) | |
Slate-coloured Snow Bird (Junco hiemalis) | |
Spotted Sand Piper (Actitis macularia) | |
Meadow Lark (Sturnella magna) | |
Kingfisher (Ceryle Alcyon) | |
Etc., etc., etc. | |
===========================================+===========+===========
AUSTRALIA
VICTORIA
SCHOOL OF HORTICULTURE IN RICHMOND PARK, MELBOURNE
The site covers 33 acres of ground. In 1890 the Government decided to
start here an institution for the training of orchardists and small
settlers, and during the past eight years much has been done to provide
for teaching the regular and casual students, and those visitors
calling in search of special information. Classroom instruction is
given in horticultural science, vegetable pathology, botany, physical
and commercial geography, entomology; measuring, levelling, designing,
and plotting of homesteads, orchards, small farm and garden areas,
and the most approved methods of raising and managing fruit trees and
plants. Practical work includes the propagation and management of
orchard trees, citrons, table grapes, bush fruits; harvesting, storing,
packing, marketing, drying and canning fruit; vegetable culture;
clearing, grading, and trenching land; management of soils, manures,
drainage, and villa gardening.
The principal and his assistant carry out this programme by affording
lessons daily in the classroom and field. In 1899 women students were
first admitted. They have for the most part devoted their attention to
the designing and making of villa gardens, vegetables and herb culture,
and the special cultivation of table grapes and lemons--branches
of commercial horticulture most suited to women. Previous to 1903
instruction was free, but a fee of £5 per annum is now charged. There
is a steady advance in the number of students, and every indication of
the school doing generally helpful work in the service of the State.
The school year extends from February to December.
* * * * *
The tabulated return on the following page of persons engaged in
agricultural pursuits in 1901 is of interest. Only those subjects
bearing reference specially to horticulture are mentioned.
A lady near Melbourne has recently bought a place and laid out a
garden. There is about one acre of ground, and a five-roomed cottage
with various outhouses, etc. The whole cost about £400, and has since
increased in value. A telephone is attached, and a good many people
in Melbourne ring up when they want flowers. These are despatched
direct to the buyers by train, the station being only ten minutes’
walk from the house. All the flowers are hardy ones. The work is done
by a gardener, who comes when wanted, and the rest is done by the
lady herself. There has not so far been much profit, as it has only
been started two years. As the garden is now well-established, it is
supposed it will pay well in August, September, October, and November,
which are the best months in Melbourne.
-------------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
_Persons | |_In Business| |
following |_Employers |on their own| _Receiving |_Relatives
Agricultural |of Labour._ |account, but| Salary or |assisting._
Pursuits._ | |not | Wages._ |
| |employing | |
| | labour._ | |
-------------------+-----+------+-----+------+-----+------+-----+------
|Males|F’m’es|Males|F’m’es|Males|F’m’es|Males|F’m’es
Market Gardeners | 859 | 19 |1,647| 32 |1,518| 9 | 576 | 132
Fruit Growers } | | | | | | | |
Orchardists } | 493 | 44 | 868| 91 | 700| 43 | 465 | 172
Hop, Cotton, Tea, }| | | | | | | |
Coffee Grower }| 10 | 2 | 7| -- | 48| 48 | 9 | 2
Tobacco Grower | 10 | -- | 25| -- | 24| -- | 1 | --
Vine Grower } | | | | | | | |
Vigneron } | 174 | 18 | 72| 8 |1,131| 6 | 86 | 39
Horticulturist | 237 | 7 | 571| 17 |2,132| 7 | 107 | 39
-------------------+-----+------+-----+-----+------+------+-----+------
NEW SOUTH WALES
“We are a young community and also a small one, otherwise we should
have had at least a small college for lady gardeners ere now,” is the
answer that comes to my inquiry on the subject. I am told, however,
that there is fine scope for such a thing, and that the women of
New South Wales are quite ready for it. Up to now they have chiefly
confined themselves to bettering the conditions of labour in those
departments voluntarily sought by women, rather than to forming new
schemes.
TASMANIA
Accounts which come to us of the possibilities of the successful
cultivation of fruits, trees and plants are all favourable. The
mildness of the winter and the great amount of sunshine cause very
rapid growth and production of fruit. Plants that will not survive an
English winter need no protection here. We learn, too, that the acreage
of gardens and orchards is steadily on the increase.
There are so far no training schools for lady gardeners, and no posts
are held by them either in private gardens or market gardens. The
jam factories employ women, but these belong to the working classes.
Nothing definite can therefore be held out as to the future for lady
gardeners, beyond the certainty that the more directing heads we have,
superintending the development of these orchards and gardens, the more
successful they will be.
[Illustration: THE MARCHIONESS OF SLIGO’S GARDEN, MOUNT BROWNE,
NEAR GUILDFORD.
UNDER THE MANAGEMENT OF A LADY GARDENER.
_Photograph by Pictorial Agency._]
CHAPTER XVIII
TRAINING GROUNDS FOR MARKET GARDENERS.
Special opportunities are afforded to those who intend to
devote their attention to the study of market-garden work. I
am enabled, by the courtesy of the principals, to give the
following information concerning some successful market gardens
which are conducted by ladies, and where pupils are received.
This I have supplemented with details of such facilities as are
offered by public bodies for courses of instruction in the work.
THE VIOLET NURSERIES AT HENFIELD, SUSSEX.
_Proprietors_: MISSES A. AND D. ALLEN-BROWN.
The Violet Nurseries, instituted a few years ago in a small garden,
now extend over several acres, and are carried forward on practical
business lines.
The Misses Allen-Brown, specialist violet growers, do the entire work
of the nurseries, with the assistance of a boy and of any pupils who
may be with them.
Pupils are received on payment of five guineas premium for a year’s
tuition. The instruction given is entirely practical. Arrangements
are made to obtain rooms for pupils in the village, the charges being
(approximately) one guinea for a single room and board, and fifteen
shillings each for a room shared.
The work of the year is, in general:--In spring, the taking of cuttings
and planting out; in summer, the tending of plants and cutting of
runners; in autumn, the lifting into frames, and the selling, packing
and despatching of plants and flowers; in winter, the picking of
blossoms and the tending of plants in frames. Of the four, spring is
the busiest and most instructive season for violet-growers, but it is
advisable that pupils should, if possible, remain in the nurseries for
the full year.
The work is exceedingly healthy--above all other open-air
employments--owing to the fact that the smell of violets has medicinal
qualities. The pleasure of the work proves its ample reward, apart from
the pecuniary success, to all who give themselves to it, unreservedly,
with physical and mental vigour.
Amongst ladies who are supervising, or themselves undertaking,
market gardens, are the following. They all write hopefully
about their work, but seem of one accord in thinking that it
is only by the combination of their brains and the work of a
labouring man that success ensues.
MISS DORA GROOME, at Heath Nursery Gardens, Petersfield, has
the largest nursery garden in the neighbourhood, but only employs men.
MISS A. CROSS, Cleveland, Bere Alston, Devon, writes that,
having been trained at Studley College, she has lately started a
nursery garden. At present the garden is only three-quarters of an
acre in extent, but it is proposed to add to it each year. It will be
eventually a fruit and asparagus market garden, supplemented by poultry
and milking goats.
MISS BIRTELL and her sisters have a violet farm at the
Cottage, Shripney, near Bognor. They do all the work in connection with
the violets themselves, and also make the frames and glaze and paint
the lights. A labouring man does the rough digging. Miss Birtell has
two acres of land and about half of it is devoted only to the violets.
HOLLY BUSH NURSERY, CHESNUT LANE, AMERSHAM, BUCKS
MISS M. AGAR and MISS M. G. HOLMES, directors of this garden, are
willing to take ladies as students in simple land surveying and plan
drawing. Terms for tuition are £2 2s. per week; and if students live at
the nursery, 30s. a week is charged for board and lodging.
Gardening students will probably be admitted shortly, but the garden
has not been started long enough to take these at present. Miss Agar
is a garden designer. The following are particulars of her nursery
garden:--
The Nursery undertakes the laying out, stocking, and up-keep of
gardens, and provides seeds, bulbs, plants, shrubs, and all garden
requisites.
Skilled gardening labour is supplied at 4s. a day. Yearly or monthly
contracts can be made.
Advisory work is undertaken at a guinea for the first visit, and
half-a-guinea for subsequent visits; or two guineas a week with all
expenses.
MISS A. BATESON, Bashley Nursery, New Milton, Hants, has a
most successful market garden, described on p. 73. She sometimes takes
students, and her terms are £40 premium for a year’s work without
residence; £100 per annum premium with board and residence.
MISS DIXON, F.R.H.S., holding the Horticultural College,
Swanley, diploma, and 1st class Horticultural certificate, South
Kensington, assisted by MISS EVE, R.H.S., receives students
at Elmcroft Nursery, Westergate, Chichester, suitable rooms being
provided in the village. The house stands in two acres of ground, four
miles from Bognor, and six from Chichester. Both soil and climate are
good. There are 300 ft. of glass, in which are grown melons, cucumbers,
tomatoes, peaches, strawberries, forced rhubarb and seakale, early
vegetables, roses, chrysanthemums, bulbs, etc. Outside are grown roses,
sweet peas, violets, and other flowers; vegetables of all sorts, and
fruit.
Poultry and ducks are kept, and there is also jam making and fruit
bottling.
The produce is chiefly sent to Bognor, Chichester, and Manchester, and
private orders are supplied for weekly hampers of vegetables, eggs, and
cut flowers.
A man is kept to help with the rough work.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN COLTHURST VESEY’S GARDEN, LUCAN, IRELAND.
FOR MANY YEARS HIS MOTHER, MRS. VESEY, HAS MADE THE GARDEN HER
PERSONAL INTEREST.
_Photograph by Pictorial Agency._]
In 1907 Miss Dixon obtained the R.H.S. Silver Medal for melons,
and second prize for fruit, flowers, and jam from the Women’s
Agricultural and Horticultural International Union.
Although the following is not a school for instruction in
horticulture, I should like to mention it, as young ladies are
taught floral decoration and other matters, which may prove
of great use to them, if they wish to start job gardening or
decoration for themselves.
The Women’s London Gardening Association, established in 1891,
undertakes floral decorations of all kinds. Cut flowers supplied
regularly by contract, and arranged if desired. Wreaths, crosses,
sprays, bouquets, baskets, dinner-tables, receptions, ballrooms,
platforms, weddings, etc. Table decorations are a speciality. Jobbing
gardening work is also done. Contracts are taken to keep in order,
and furnish, gardens, conservatories, window-boxes, balconies,
roof-gardens, etc., by the year or season.
Advice is given on the management of country or suburban gardens at
reasonable fees. Lawns are sown and kept in order, gravel is supplied,
soils, fibre, sand, flowerpots, retail. Seeds, bulbs, etc.
The above is under the management of Mrs. T. Chamberlain, and all
communications should be addressed to her at 107, Pimlico Road,
Chelsea, S.W.
The nursery is in St. Ann’s Place, Milman Street, Chelsea, and the old
wells in it were once in Sir Thomas More’s garden.
Mrs. Chamberlain takes one or two young ladies from time to time, as
apprentices or improvers to learn jobbing gardening, florist’s work,
or both if desired. Terms for improvers who have already had some
training, 10s. per week to start with. The terms for a course, £30.
The ladies find their own board and lodging. After three months, Mrs.
Chamberlain pays them 2s. 6d. per week, and after six months 5s. per
week. For the last quarter of their training, ladies receive 7s. 6d.
per week. Sometimes ladies are taken for four months, upon payment by
them of £10 10s.
Should it prove desirable, they can, at the end of this time, pay a
further sum and remain a year. Pupils are expected to be ready to do
anything required, and are not allowed to pick and choose their work.
The following extracts from the report of the
WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL CLUB
will serve to show the scope of its object and work. The club
has as its premises the Manor House, Bredon’s Norton, near
Tewkesbury, Worcestershire.
There are few more beautiful spots in rural England than the little
village of Bredon’s Norton in Worcestershire, nestling as it does at
the base of the lofty Bredon Hill and overlooking the fertile valley
of the Severn. The club-house stands on a gentle eminence, and from
its broad terraces may be viewed some of the most lovely scenery in
England. Abruptly behind it rises the Bredon Beacon Hill, of which a
great poet wrote:
“Twelve lovely counties saw the blaze
From Bredon’s lonely height.”
The hill is crowned by the remains of a Roman encampment, thrown up, it
is said, during the wars of the Romans against Boadicea, the Queen of
the Iceni.
The hopeless intellectual outlook of agricultural pursuits dissevered
from contact with the foremost thought and scientific experiments of
to-day has driven the enterprising progressive workers of both sexes
from the land to the towns.
Miss Woodhull, of Norton Park, Bredon’s Norton, near Tewkesbury, who
has gone deeply into the agricultural problem, more especially the
great need for the extension of intensive culture, has retained a fine
old Elizabethan manor house on her estate, which she has renovated and
filled with beautiful old furniture for the club.
Since the lighter branches of agriculture have taken such a prominent
place on the list of suitable occupations for women, there has been a
great demand for some place where the subjects could be studied for
short or long periods. Though short courses are held no college as yet
has filled this want.
Where a large number of students are together it is necessary to have a
certain number of rules which compel them to lead the ordinary college
life. In many cases it is not convenient to do this, and so many a
woman who sometimes finds she has a week or two at her disposal and
would very much like to come to a place of this sort is debarred from
doing so.
It is hoped this club will do much to solve the problem of what is to
be done with the healthy, energetic unmarried woman of the present
day, who has a little capital, and who wishes to live in the country,
instead of leading a narrow and restricted life in towns. In Bredon’s
Norton in a simple way she can live her own life, have congenial
employment, and at the same time add to her income without being cut
off from associating with people of her own standing, or debarred from
intellectual occupations, which is so often the result if an isolated
country life is led devoted entirely to agricultural pursuits.
The result, so far, is satisfactory. The scheme is in its second
year, and has earned a right to its recognition by the public. Since
January, 1906, several cottages have been secured in the village, and
have been made suitable for gentlewomen to reside in. These have all
been taken by those who carry on whatever work they are interested in.
Some members have taken up half-acre plots, and among other things are
growing tomatoes in large quantities.
The club is unique of its kind; while combining opportunities for the
higher intellectual pursuits and attracting those who have travelled
and read extensively, it enables those who wish to specialise in the
lighter branches of agriculture to carry out their work under the
following conditions:
1. Members staying at the club will be able to take lessons in
gardening, dairy or poultry work, or bee-keeping, for long or short
periods.
2. Members who have trained at any of the existing colleges can reside
at the club and rent small plots, from half an acre upwards, which will
enable them to make a start either in market gardening or otherwise
with very little outlay.
3. A horticultural school is carried on in connection with the club.
The younger students under the necessary supervision will live in
separate houses.
4. Members can attend the higher courses at Cheltenham Ladies’ College.
5. Members who reside in the village or immediate neighbourhood can
obtain all meals at the club at a very moderate tariff. This is an
important item, as gentlewomen are often deterred from settling in the
country on account of the great difficulty of getting anyone to do the
necessary cooking and housework; by being able to obtain their meals
they are more or less independent of the servant question and manage
very well with occasional help.
The library contains standard books of reference in the lighter
branches of agriculture, besides a wide range of other subjects,
together with the principal English and foreign magazines.
An experienced secretary and typist is at the disposal of members. The
telephone is attached to the club; the principal houses and cottages in
the village are connected by telephone.
The club house is situated 106 miles from London, 16 miles from
Gloucester, 14 miles from Worcester, 14 miles from Evesham, 11 miles
from Cheltenham, 11 miles from Malvern, 5 miles from Tewkesbury, and 5
miles from Pershore.
TARIFF
Resident members: breakfast, 1s.; dinner (middle day), 1s. 6d.;
afternoon tea, 6d. and 9d.; high tea, 1s.; plain late dinner, 2s. 6d.;
supper, 1s. 6d.; cocoa and cake, 3d. Rooms from 1s. 6d. per night.
Meals for non-resident members, permanently living in cottages, 15s.
per week.
LIST OF CHARGES
VISITORS
Terms per week, 2 guineas, to include: Breakfast, 1s.; dinner (middle
day), 1s. 6d.; afternoon tea, 6d.; supper, 1s. 6d.; room, 1s. 6d. Rooms
from 1s. 6d. per night. Meals for non-resident visitors as per charges
on tariff card.
WEEK-END VISITORS
From middle day, Saturday, to middle day, Monday, 17s. 6d. (to include
breakfast, mid-day dinner, afternoon tea, and supper, also room).
Arrangements can be made for boarding dogs.
* * * * *
The following scheme is in operation under the Department of
Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland. Any woman,
of whose qualifications the above department approves, is
eligible for the post of instructor under this scheme, which, by
permission, I am allowed to reproduce. It will be seen that
the actual appointment rests with the local authorities.
Miss Lucy Douglas, in Cavan, is at present the only woman
gardener employed under it.
[Illustration: ROSE GARDEN, DANNY, SUSSEX.
THE ROSES ARE PRUNED AND ATTENDED TO BY MISS ALICE CAMPION.
_Photograph by Pictorial Agency._]
SCHEME OF INSTRUCTION IN HORTICULTURE AND THE
MANAGEMENT OF BEES, 1907–8
1. The department are prepared, provided a suitable instructor in
horticulture and bee-keeping can be obtained, to approve of the
appointment of at least one such person for each county in Ireland.
In the case of new appointments no person shall be eligible for the
position of instructor in the county of which he is a native, or in
which he permanently resides.
2. The department will, as far as possible, assist the county committee
in obtaining an instructor, by supplying the names of persons qualified
for the post. If a county committee should find it impossible to obtain
a person competent to give instruction in both branches the department
may sanction the employment of separate instructors for each subject.
3. The remuneration of the instructor shall not, unless in exceptional
circumstances, exceed £2 per week, in addition to expenses of
locomotion, which include second or third-class railway fare, as
decided by the county committee, car hire when necessary, or a bicycle
allowance not exceeding 2d. per mile in lieu thereof.
4. The employment of the instructor under this scheme shall not
continue beyond the 30th of September, 1908, and is terminable at any
time previous to that date by the giving of four weeks’ notice in
writing on either side.
5. It will be the duty of the instructor to give demonstrations and,
if approved, to deliver lectures on horticultural subjects, such
as soils, manures, vegetable, fruit, and flower cultivation, plant
diseases, and insect pests--to visit gardens and orchards, and give
practical demonstrations on spraying, planting, pruning and grafting
of fruit trees--to conduct such experiments and other demonstrations
in the spring and summer as may be approved by the department--to
select suitable land for this purpose--to supervise the sowing of the
seeds and manures, and the keeping of the plots free from weeds--to
weigh the produce, tabulate the figures, and prepare a report on
the results--to give instruction in the principles and practice
of modern bee-keeping--to deal with diseases of bees, plants, and
trees--to advise farmers, cottagers, and others interested in land,
as to the planting of trees, etc., for shelter and ornament--to
reply to letters from those seeking his advice on horticultural and
bee-keeping subjects--to report to the department and to the county
committee on the progress of his work either weekly or otherwise, as
may be required; and generally to give his whole time to the work and
to do all in his power to further the interests of horticulture and
bee-keeping in the county.
6. The instructor shall report to the county committee on all cases
of foul brood which may come under his notice. He may, subject to
the consent of the owner of the bees being previously obtained by
him, destroy infected stocks by burning them, and shall take all
due precautions against the spread of the disease. He must advise
in writing the county committee of each case in which stocks are so
destroyed, and the county committee may, if they think fit, pay to
the owners of such stocks a sum not exceeding 5s. for each stock
destroyed, provided that the amount set aside in the county scheme for
compensation under this clause shall not be exceeded.
It will also be his duty to report to the county committee the names
and addresses of persons in the possession of gooseberry bushes on
which he has detected, or has reasonable grounds for suspecting the
existence of, American gooseberry mildew.
7. For the purposes of this scheme the county should be divided into
circuits. The instructor should work for three or four weeks in each
circuit, and give lectures and demonstrations during that time. In
cases, however, where an instructor may be employed to give instruction
in bee-keeping only it will not be necessary to divide the county
into circuits. In such instances demonstrations can be arranged
for at centres from which applications have been made through the
secretary of the county committee for his services. The instructor will
visit gardens, orchards or apiaries in the district, and give such
information on practical subjects as the circumstances of the case may
suggest.
The county committee are alone responsible for the selection of centres
for lectures and demonstrations. No work of this nature should be
undertaken by the instructor, though it is desirable that he should be
consulted.
8. It will be the duty of the county committee to select centres at
which the lectures and demonstrations will be given, and to appoint at
each centre a local committee, with an honorary secretary, who should
select the school and arrange for the hiring, lighting, and warming of
the room in which the lectures will be delivered.
In selecting centres the county committee should have particular regard
to districts in which lectures and demonstrations may not have been
given in previous years.
It will also be the duty of the county committee to undertake the
responsibility of seeing that the instructor’s time is fully and
usefully employed.
The county committee shall keep a separate account of all expenditure
under this scheme, and shall furnish detailed statements of such
expenditure as may from time to time be required by the department.
9. Where it is considered desirable to arrange for lectures, the
lectures should be given in schoolrooms or other suitable public
rooms in the evenings, and should be held in rural centres. Towns and
the larger villages should be avoided, as experience has shown that
the greatest success attends those lectures which are given in the
rural parts of a county. The local committee at each centre should be
responsible for appointing a representative chairman for each lecture
as well as for the distribution of the short syllabus of the lectures
which will be prepared by the lecturer as soon as he is appointed. The
local committee should undertake to have posters and handbills, which
will be supplied by the secretary of the county committee, effectively
displayed and distributed throughout their district. Copies of these
posters and handbills should be forwarded to the department at least a
week prior to the commencement of each course of lectures. Each lecture
should be followed by a discussion, during which persons interested in
horticulture and bee-keeping will be invited to ask questions. Where
a course of lectures has already been given a new syllabus should be
presented.
10. The county committee may purchase fruit, forest and other trees,
shrubs, or plants, in bulk, and resell them at cost price, including
carriage, to farmers, cottagers and other residents in the county. As,
however, it has come to the knowledge of the department that trees and
plants infested with disease have been imported into Ireland, it will
be necessary for county committees who intend to put this clause into
operation to invite from nurserymen tenders for the supply of trees,
etc., to be guaranteed free from disease, and before acceptance to
submit the tenders to the department for examination. The department
may, if they think it advisable, inspect the trees, etc., that are
offered for sale, and satisfy themselves that they are suitable and
free from disease.
11. The horticultural demonstrations should commence early in autumn
and be continued throughout the whole year.
12. In each circuit one demonstration plot may be provisionally
selected for the purpose of growing fruit, vegetables, and flowers,
and showing improved methods of cultivation, but no new plots shall be
selected in a county if a sufficient number of suitable plots have been
established in previous years.
Before sanctioning the establishment of a new plot the department will
inspect the site with a view to determining the suitability of the
land, etc.
(_a_) In counties in which a sufficient number of suitable plots
already exist the committee shall make provision for the continuance of
the plots at a cost not to exceed £1 5s. per plot. (See List A on p.
270.)
All requisite labour must be given gratuitously by the owner of the
plot, who will be entitled to the produce.
(_b_) In cases where it is necessary to establish new plots the
department will require compliance with the following regulations:--
(1) Plots must not exceed a quarter of an acre in extent, or
be less than one-eighth of an acre (quarter-acre plots are
recommended).
(2) No new plot shall be established save at a convenient centre
adjacent to a main road.
(3) Plots should be selected on sites which are properly fenced.
Should, however, any fencing be necessary, the materials (i.e.,
a sufficient quantity of wire with wooden posts) may be supplied
by the committee, provided funds have been allocated for the
purpose in the county scheme; the fencing to be put up by the
owner of the plot at his own expense. In no case will the
department approve of expensive fencing and gates being supplied
by the county committee to a plot owner.
(4) The aspect of each plot and the nature of the soil must
be suitable for fruit and vegetable growing. Necessary
improvements, such as drainage, must be carried out, and when
required farmyard manure must be supplied by the plot owner
without expense to the committee.
(5) The owner of the plot must sign an undertaking to continue
the plot for three years.
(6) The necessary labour must be given gratuitously by the
persons providing the plots--the produce to be their property.
The cost of trees, etc., required for planting a new plot must not
exceed £3. (See List B on p. 271.)
13. The department’s approval in writing must be obtained before any
expense is incurred in connection with the establishment of a plot, and
application for such approval must be accompanied in each case by a
detailed report from the instructor.
14. No action shall be taken by the county committee towards putting
this scheme, or any part thereof, into operation until the sanction of
the department has been obtained in writing.
15. In all matters of dispute relating to this scheme the decision of
the department shall be final.
LIST A
LIST OF VEGETABLES, ETC., RECOMMENDED FOR A HORTICULTURAL
DEMONSTRATION PLOT (NOT EXCEEDING ONE-FOURTH ACRE)
ALREADY ESTABLISHED
ESTIMATED COST ABOUT £1 5s. 0d.
_Vegetables_
_Description._ _Quantity._
Beans, Broad 1 qt.
Beans, French ½ pt.
Beans, Runner ½ pt.
Brussels Sprouts ½ oz.
Broccoli ½ oz.
Cabbage, Early 3 oz.
Cabbage, Savoy ½ oz.
Cauliflower ½ oz.
Carrot 2 oz.
Celery 100 plants.
Kale, Curly ½ oz.
Leek 1 oz.
Lettuce 1 oz.
Onion 3 oz.
Onion, Potato 1 st.
Parsnip 2 oz.
Parsley 1 oz.
Peas 3 qts.
Potatoes, Early (to be boxed) 4 st.
Potatoes, Late (to be boxed) 4 st.
Turnips 2 oz.
Vegetable Marrow 1 packet.
_Flowers_
Candituft 1 packet each.
Canterbury Bells 1 „
Larkspur 1 „
Lupin 1 „
Mignonette 1 „
Nasturtium 1 „
Sunflower 1 „
Wallflower 1 „
Sweet Pea 1 pt.
_Artificial Manures_
Muriate of Potash 3 stone.
Nitrate of Soda 3 „
Superphosphate 4 „
LIST B
LIST OF FRUIT TREES, PLANTS AND SEEDS, ETC., RECOMMENDED FOR
A NEW HORTICULTURAL DEMONSTRATION PLOT OF ONE-FOURTH
ACRE IN EXTENT
ESTIMATED COST ABOUT £3
_Fruit_
_Description._ _Quantity._
Apples, Bush on Paradise Stock 6 trees.
Pears, Bush on Quince Stock 2 „
Plums, Bush 2 „
Currants, Red 3 bushes.
Currants, White 3 „
Currants, Black 6 „
Gooseberries 12 „
Raspberries 24 canes.
Strawberries 100 plants.
_Vegetables_
Beans, Broad 1 qt.
Beans, French ½ pt.
Beans, Runner ½ pt.
Brussels Sprouts ½ oz.
Broccoli ½ oz.
Cabbage, Early 3 oz.
Cabbage, Savoy ½ oz.
Cauliflower ½ oz.
Carrot 2 oz.
Celery 100 plants.
Kale, Curly ½ oz.
Leek 1 oz.
Lettuce 1 oz.
Mint 3 plants.
Marjoram 3 „
Onion (Autumn-sown) 100 „
Onion 3 oz.
Onion, Potato 1 stone.
Parsnip 2 oz.
Parsley 1 oz.
Peas 3 qts.
Potatoes, Early (to be boxed) 4 st.
Potatoes, Late (to be boxed) 4 st.
Rhubarb 6 plants.
Sage 3 „
Thyme 3 „
Turnips 2 oz.
Vegetable Marrow 1 packet.
_Flowers_
Candituft 1 packet.
Canterbury Bells 1 „
Dahlias 2 plants.
Larkspur 1 packet.
Lupin 1 „
Mignonette 1 „
Nasturtium 1 „
Roses 4 plants.
Sunflower 1 packet.
Wallflower 1 „
Sweet Pea 1 pint.
_Artificial Manures_
Muriate of Potash 3 st.
Nitrate of Soda 3 st.
Superphosphate 4 st.
APPENDIX
USEFUL INFORMATION FOR LADY GARDENERS
HINTS FOR LAYING OUT FLOWER BEDS
A Lady Gardener may have to arrange new ornamental flower beds, and
a few hints about pegging out the shape may be useful. It does not
always follow that a design for a formal flower plot works out as well
in reality as it does upon paper. In order to gain a good impression
of what their effect will be when finished they should be marked out
with pegs and _white_ tape or string tied round these to show the
outline of the future beds. That is, if ground that has already been
broken up is being dealt with.
Should, however, a wide stretch of lawn have to be marked out in flower
beds, a capital plan is to draw the outline of them with a whitewash
brush upon the grass, in the same way that a lawn tennis court is
marked. Having ascertained that no improvement or alteration will be
necessary, work can then be commenced with the turf cutter.
It is convenient, for drawing circular or other beds, to have a garden
_compass_. Should this not be handy, a couple of stout iron pins
and a length of rope will answer the purpose.
The compass consists of a stout iron pin and a light, flat rod of wood
six to ten feet long, with holes drilled the whole length, one inch
apart. One end of the rod has a perfectly round ring, which will turn
easily on the pin. A second pin or rod about three feet long is needed
as a marker.
[Illustration: FIG. 1]
In making a circular bed (Fig. 1), the centre is first determined on,
and the stout pin is driven in through the ring. The marking pin is
then placed in the hole corresponding to the required radius. With it
the circle is drawn.
[Illustration: FIG. 2]
[Illustration: FIG. 3]
When using a cord, instead of the wooden marking pin, it must be
stretched tight on the centre pin, and the radius measured along it
from the pin. The marker is then passed through the rope and bound in
place with a piece of twine or soft wire. Care should be taken, when
marking, that the rope rests either on the ground or parallel to it.
A circular bed is the easiest of all to set out, but it is the
foundation of several others. The easiest are polygons of four, six,
and eight sides. To lay out a four-sided polygon (Fig. 2), equal a
square: Lay off the diagonal A B. Lay off C D at right angles to A B,
and join A D, D B, B C, C A.
To lay out a six-sided bed (Fig. 3), equal a hexagon: From the centre
C draw a circle with radius C 1. Then from 1 with the same radius cut
the circle at 2, from 2 cut it at 3, and so on. Then join 1 2, 2 3, 3
4, etc. To lay out an eight-sided bed, equal an octagon (Fig. 4): Draw
a circle, lay off the diameters A B, C D at right angles to each other.
Next bisect the four right angles at E F G H, and join A E, E C, C G, G
B, etc.
[Illustration: FIG. 4]
[Illustration: FIG. 5]
[Illustration: FIG. 6]
These three are the most usual figures, but it is easy to draw any
number of sides to your polygon you may require.
First draw a circle, and lay off any diameter A B. Divide A B into as
many equal parts as you want sides (in Fig. 5 it is five, as that is
the most usual number required, but it may be seven or nine or any
other number). From A and B with radius A B describe the arcs cutting
each other at C. From C draw a line to figure 2 on the diagonal and
produce it till it cuts the circle at D. Then from D with radius A D
cut the circle at 2´, from 2´ cut it at 3´, and so on, and join 1´ 2´,
2´ 3´, 3´ 4´, 4´ 5´.
With a circle, too, it is easy to lay out a star bed with four, six, or
eight points (Fig. 6), or a half moon.
Rectangular beds are also most easily set out by means of a circle.
In a diamond the line should bisect the diagonal.
The only other shape in general use is an oval, and this is not built
up on the circle. First determine the length and breadth A B, C D
(Fig. 7). Bisect A B and make C D perpendicular to it at the point of
bisection O. From C with radius O A, cut A B in E F. These points are
the form of the oval.
[Illustration: FIG. 7]
Drive a stake in at E F and C, and put a cord round the three stakes.
Tie the ends together, and take out the stake at C, and keeping the
loop of cord taut, draw C B D A, which will be a perfect oval.
The shape of the flower beds having been decided and cut out, attention
will not only have to be given to drainage, soil, and manure, but the
proper shape and building up of soil will have to be considered before
planting takes place. This is a matter rather insufficiently studied.
It varies according to the surrounding position, arrangement of the
garden and soil.
In some herbaceous borders where height at the back of the border is an
advantage, it is well to build the soil up so:--
[Illustration]
By this means tall flowers like hollyhocks, sunflowers, etc., have
additional height given to them.
In formal beds, circular ones or others, the building up of the soil
takes place from the sides to the centre--so:--
[Illustration]
In other long, narrow beds the appearance is so:--
[Illustration]
I have to thank Miss J. S. Turner for many of the above
notes.
HOW TO MARK OUT A LAWN TENNIS COURT
The following are the laws laid down by the Lawn Tennis Association for
the year 1907.
[Illustration: SINGLE-HANDED COURT]
[Illustration: FULL COURT]
For the single-handed game, the court is 27 feet in width, and 78 feet
in length. It is divided across the middle by a net, the ends of which
are attached to the tops of two posts, which stand 3 feet outside the
court on each side. The height of the net is 3 feet 6 inches at the
posts, and 3 feet in the centre. At each end of the court, parallel
with the net, and at a distance of 39 feet from it, are drawn the
Base Lines, the extremities of which are connected by the Side Lines.
Half-way between the Side Lines, and parallel with them, is drawn the
Half-Court Line, dividing the space on each side of the net into two
equal parts, called the Right and Left Courts. On each side of the net,
at a distance of 21 feet from it, and parallel with it, are drawn the
Service Lines. The marking of the part of the Half-Court Line, between
the Service Lines and the Base Line, may be omitted, with the exception
of a small portion at the centre of each Base Line, as indicated in the
plans.
The plan here given is not the most generally used, but it may be the
best adapted to the ground or to the requirements of the owner of the
garden.
For the three-handed and four handed games, the court is 36 feet in
width. Within the Side-Lines, at a distance of 4¼ feet from them,
and parallel with them, are drawn the Service Side Lines. In other
respects, the court is similar to that which is described for a
single-handed game (Fig. 1).
Fig. 2 is the plan most generally used in private grounds; it is usual
to continue the “Service Side Lines” as far as the Base-Lines, as shown
in the dotted line B in the plan.
Keep the net loose from the posts when the ground is not used. For
instructions as to the rolling, mowing, and general treatment of lawns,
croquet and tennis courts, read Sutton’s “Management of Lawns.”
The following is the best way of making a mixture for marking boundary
lines upon grass courts. Dissolve ordinary lump whitening in water, and
use it when it is about the consistency of cream. A tumbler of milk
or a small quantity of builders’ size, mixed with it, will preserve
the lines from being washed out and destroyed by rain. The mixture is
made in a pail or watering pot, and the tank of the marking machine
is filled from it. After using the washer, the whitening should be
emptied, and the tank washed, for if allowed to remain, it hardens
and has to be broken up.
[Illustration: PLAN OF CROQUET LAWN]
HOW TO LAY OUT A CROQUET GROUND
The following regulations are those laid down in 1907, and are
authorised by the Croquet Association.
The ground shall be rectangular, 35 yards in length by 28 yards in
width, with a defined boundary. A flag shall be placed at each corner,
and corner spots, 3 feet from both boundaries, shall be accurately
defined.
Points on the boundary, 3 feet from each corner flag, shall be marked
by white pegs, not exceeding ¾ inch in diameter, and 3 inches above
the ground.
The above is for a full-sized ground, but for smaller ones any multiple
of 5 × 4 is correct.
The _hoops_ shall be of round iron, not less than ½ inch, and not more
than ¾ inch in diameter, and shall stand 12 inches out of the ground,
and be firmly fixed. The crown shall be straight, and at right angles
to the uprights, which shall be not less than 3¾ inches, or more than 4
inches apart (inside measurement) from the ground upwards.
The turning and the winning pegs shall be of wood, a uniform diameter
above the ground of 1½ inches. They shall stand 18 inches above the
ground.
The setting of the hoops and pegs shall be in accordance with the
diagram given. Permission for publishing this has kindly been given by
Messrs. John Jaques & Son, 102, Hatton Garden, London.
Measurements:--Pegs in centre line of ground, 7 yards from the nearest
boundary; hoops up centre line of ground, 7 yards from peg and 7 yards
apart; corner hoops, 7 yards from centre line and 7 yards from the
nearest boundaries.
It is important in lifting the hoops for rolling and mowing, to fill up
the holes with a mixture of fine dry earth and sand before replacing
the hoops. By this means they are kept rigid and upright.
When the croquet season is over the hoops are put away and painted
during the winter.
The best way to do this is to rub the hoops down well with fine
sandpaper, and repaint them with good oil colour. Use it thin, and put
on two or three coats. It is preferable to one thick coat.
* * * * *
The following notes may be useful to ladies who are seeking posts:--
THE CENTRAL BUREAU FOR THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN,
9, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, HIGH HOLBORN, W.C.
(2nd Floor)
Two minutes from British Museum, Central London Railway; two minutes
from Piccadilly and Brompton Railway, Holborn Station.
Telegrams: “Einheit.” Telephone: 4858 Central.
_Chairman_: THE MARCHIONESS OF SALISBURY
_Vice-Chairman_: MRS. W. E. HAITLAND
_Hon. Treasurer_: H. JOHN FALK, ESQ.
_Secretary_: MISS M. G. SPENCER
OBJECTS OF THE CENTRAL BUREAU
1. To prevent unemployment, and the evils resulting therefrom.
2. To help women, especially those of good education, to help
themselves, by guiding them into suitable permanent work.
3. To promote the training of the unprepared, and thus raise the
general standard of efficiency.
4. To maintain records of women desiring employment, and of employers
having vacancies.
5. To collect and circulate information as to various occupations.
6. To study and record the fluctuations of demand and supply in various
occupations.
7. To publish advertisement lists, newspapers, and other printed
matter, by which the purposes of the society may be advanced.
8. To promote and co-operate with other bureaus and societies having
objects wholly or partly similar.
_Nature of the Work._--The work of the Central Bureau consists
largely in counteracting those evils of social prejudice and defective
training which have hitherto prevented many women of the educated class
from being able to earn their own livelihood. It therefore includes
not only what is ordinarily understood to be the work of an employment
registry, but also the more laborious and less immediately remunerative
business of investigating possible openings for employment, promoting
sound schemes for apprenticeship and training, and so advising and
helping women as to enable them to make their services of genuine
value to the community. Did space permit, it would be possible to
give a long list of those women who have been enabled, through
guidance received at the bureau, to fill satisfactorily positions of
considerable responsibility and importance. By a carefully considered
system of indexing and tabulation, the Central Bureau is able to make
the results of its work available for the purposes of the statistician
and the economic inquirer. The advantages of this system have been
recognised by the committees of other women’s employment bureaus, which
have now, with few exceptions, adopted the same method of tabulation.
But while endeavouring to introduce improvements in method, the council
of the Central Bureau are far from losing sight of the individual
needs of each employer and applicant for work, realising that upon the
full comprehension of individual circumstances the success of the work
depends.
REGISTRY FEES FOR APPLICANTS
(_Those for employers seem unnecessary for our purpose here_)
Registration, covering a period of three months, 1s. 6d; Suiting fees,
permanent posts on salaries not exceeding 10s. per week, non-resident,
2s. 6d.; resident, 5s.; not exceeding 15s. per week, non-resident, 3s.
9d.; resident, 7s. 6d.: not exceeding 20s. per week, non-resident,
5s.; resident, 10s.: not exceeding 30s. per week, non-resident, 7s.
6d.; resident, 15s.; not exceeding 40s. per week, non-resident,
10s.; resident, 20s.--being half per cent. on first year’s salary,
non-resident; and one per cent. on first year’s salary, resident.
Temporary posts not exceeding three months, one per cent. on salary
for the term, but not _less_ than 2s. 6d. Temporary post not
exceeding one week, 1s. 6d. Suiting fees in every case are payable
on engagement. Hours of interviews, 11.30 to 1, and 2.30 to 4.30,
excepting Monday mornings and Saturdays. In order to save time, callers
are asked to write for appointments. Fees for consultation, 6d. and 1s.
_Publications._--The Central Bureau publishes _Women’s
Employment_ (price 1d., post free, 1½d.). The issue of this
publication, which appears on the first Friday in the month, contains
articles on employment subjects, written by experts, together with
advertisements, and information as to training. Intermediate lists
of vacant situations and _workers_ disengaged are published
fortnightly at the same price. _Women’s Employment_ (including
the intermediate Lists) may also be obtained from the Secretary of the
Central Bureau on payment of 3s. per annum. The Central Bureau has also
published a pamphlet entitled the _Finger Post_ (price 1s. 6d.),
containing 70 articles, written by experts, on professions for educated
women.
* * * * *
WOMEN’S INSTITUTE,
92, VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, S.W.
Here, information is given of every kind upon social subjects, training
for professions, board, education, etc. A member is entitled to have
six questions a year answered free; non-members pay a small fee.
Recreations of various sorts are also given, and three programmes are
issued yearly of lectures, conferences, debates, social and musical
afternoons and evenings. The library is well provided with books on
subjects of interest to women, and on sociology.
The institute was founded in 1897, in the hope, which has already been
fulfilled, that it might be able to provide something of the nature
of a central office or “clearing house” of the various departments of
woman’s work which are now scattered over the whole field of English
social life. It is no part of the aim of the institute itself to take
up any department of work in competition with existing societies, much
less to interfere in any way with their management. Its object is
rather to make the work of existing societies better known, through
its Information Bureau, through the circulation of literature, through
meetings and conferences held within its walls, and lastly, by bringing
the workers in one department into touch with those in another, by
means of frequent social gatherings.
WHAT THE INSTITUTE OFFERS TO INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS
The social side of the institute has been organised with the double
object:--
1. Of bringing workers into friendly communication.
2. Of offering to isolated workers some of the recreation to
which all workers are entitled.
SOME OF THE FEATURES ARE:--
1. A weekly “At Home” held by the executive committee.
2. Lectures and debates.
3. A musical society.
4. An art society.
5. A recreation department.
6. A circulating library of special books.
7. A voluntary workers’ association for philanthropic work.
It is not desired that women should join the institute in the
expectation that it should be a direct means of enabling them to
obtain work, but a register is kept of members’ requirements, and the
institute co-operates with the Central Bureau for the Employment of
Women in the interests of its own members.
CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP
Men, as well as women, are eligible for membership.
Agreement to abide by and be subject to the rules and bye-laws of the
institute for the time being in force.
Terms for general members (men and women): Annual subscription, £1
1s. Terms for American, Colonial and Foreign members (men and women):
Annual subscription, 10s. 6d. Office hours: 10 to 6, except Saturdays,
when the institute is open 10 to 1.
The institute is closed on Bank Holidays and for one month at the end
of summer.
* * * * *
Those who are strangers in London and are doubtful where to stay while
they are seeking for posts may be glad to know of the following:
BRABAZON HOUSE, LTD.
Hopkinson House, 88, Vauxhall Bridge Road, S.W.
Brabazon House, Moreton Street, S.W.
Single rooms, with use of sitting-rooms, piano, and papers, 7s. 6d. to
18s. 6d. a week; double rooms, 12s. to 18s. 6d. a week; cubicles, 5s.,
5s. 6d., 6s., 6s. 6d., and 7s.
Ladies are expected to provide their own soap, towels, toilet covers,
and serviettes. Each lady is required to give two references. By the
night: room, 2s. to 3s.; cubicle, 1s. 6d. By the meal: breakfast, 6d.;
lunch, 9d.; tea, 4d.; dinner, 1s. Hours of meals: breakfast, 7.45 to
8.45 a.m.; lunch, 1 p.m.; tea, 4.30 p.m.; dinner, 7.30 p.m. Sundays:
breakfast, 8.45 to 9.30 a.m.; dinner, 1.30 p.m.; tea, 5 p.m.; supper,
8.45 p.m. Tariff: breakfast and late dinner with full meals on Sundays,
8s. 6d. per week; lunch and afternoon tea provided if required; full
board (by the week), 10s. 6d. A reduction will be made to those unable
to be present at all the dinners.
_Managing Director and Secretary_: MISS LINDSEY.
PRINTED BY
CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED, LA BELLE SAUVAGE,
LONDON, E.C.
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
corrected silently.
2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the
original.
3. Superscripts are represented using the caret character, e.g.
D^r. or X^{xx}.
4. Italics are shown as _xxx_.