GIRLS AS GARDENERS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2484, 23 March 1882, Page 4

GIRLS AS GARDENERS.

| A correspondent of the London " Garden " ! writes the following :—lt has often struok mo as a real waste of physical power to see a six | foot man sitting on a bench sponging plants, ; or pricking out seedlings, or putting in outtings, or doing, in fact, many things that girls or women could do quite aa well, and in some oa=ea better. For ipstanoe, in handling small seedlings their generally taper fingers could manipulate them much better than the often nnwieldy paws of the stronger sex, and most assuredly where plant-cleaning is in question, their touch would be gentler and progreis quite as rapid. This is no new _ theory, but one which has been praotised here for a long time. I use a large amount of female labour here; in fact, everything that can be is performed by them. I have one girl who for six or seven years has had sole charge of a house 100 ft long. In this house the bulk of the indoor propagating is done. She puts in all and makes most of the cuttings, and she pots off all, having a little boy to help her. Not only does she pot off small plants with rapidity and in good style, but pots on to specimen size, mixes her own soil, waters, and does all the work of the house of every kind. I have no one here who can surpass her at rapid potting, no do I see any difference between the general style and appearance of the plants in this house and in those under more muscular supervision, unless, indeed, that it is rather the best of all.