Gardening for women

by Viscountess Frances Garnet Wolseley

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.