It is intelligence and enlightenment that are needed, brains that are wanted more than hands. We are told that it takes three busy months to prune fruit trees on a large Cape Colony farm. These fruit trees make only moderate growth, as in England, but in Natal growth is tropically luxuriant, and in pruning much wood has to be left for shade, otherwise the fruit becomes sunbaked. To carry out properly such operations intelligence is necessary. Then, again, we know that fruit packing and grading are large undertakings on many farms. We read of a farm with 30,000 fruit trees and several vineyards, and can readily understand, not only the number of hands needed to sort and pack fruit, but the necessity of having clever overseers to speed on such work. Old inhabitants assure us that large profits could be made in dairying, poultry-rearing, bee-keeping, or flower-growing by English ladies who were earnest and adaptable, and possessed of capital as well as brains. The climate does not allow a white woman to dig or to undertake heavy work, but her services should be valuable to organise work for the natives. Until we have more definite examples of success, it is unwise to urge ladies to go to South Africa as gardeners. The safest course is, perhaps, to relate the steps that have up to now been taken, and leave all decision to the good judgment of those who contemplate taking up a profession which holds out decidedly good prospects to ladies who can face some degree of adventure. Much depends upon the natural taste and ambition of a woman. With good health, energy, and intelligence, people usually succeed in any country.
The most important matter that has so far been undertaken is the organisation of a colonial branch of training at Swanley College for lady gardeners. Here, students are put through a course, intended to fit them, to a certain degree, for posts on fruit farms, dairy farms, and private gardens in South Africa. This training at home, excellent as it is, must, however, be supplemented by apprenticeship in the colony itself. The difficulties of a foreign land cannot be grasped in England. A college for lady gardeners in South Africa itself is what is really needed, and no doubt in time it will be started. Meanwhile, until it is in existence, it is necessary for those who contemplate going as gardeners to the colonies to learn as much as possible at home. A two years’ course should be taken in fruit-growing, packing, jam-making, bee-keeping, etc. These subjects, if thoroughly understood in our climate, will present fewer difficulties, and will be easier to deal with in new surroundings. An application to Mrs. Hopkinson, chairwoman of the South African Colonisation Society’s Agricultural Committee, and of the colonial branch of the Horticultural College, Swanley, will secure all necessary information. The South African Colonisation Society offers advice as to climate conditions. It is also constantly looking out for possible openings in South Africa, where experience of soil, climate and cultivation can be acquired.
THE YEWS AT HUTTON JOHN, CUMBERLAND.
WHICH THE SPEAKER AND MRS. LOWTHER HAVE RENTED. THE ARTISTIC ARRANGEMENT OF THE BORDERS IS MRS. LOWTHER’S SPECIAL CARE.
However successful one may be in out-of-door pursuits in England, the knowledge will still be inadequate in the colonies. The chance of success will lie in undertaking work with a spirit of pure humility. Only after a thorough course of instruction in the country itself can the management of a post of any degree of responsibility be attempted.
One considerable source of difficulty is the question of a white woman as overseer being left unprotected among Kaffirs. In small gardens, with only one “boy,” this danger is reduced, but in large ones it is almost a necessity that two ladies should protect each other. The proportion of men to women is about seven to one, and, therefore, some may consider that South Africa will not be, as regards lady gardeners, a woman’s country for another fifty years. That it will be so then, we who are anxious to see the better cultivation of our great colony, upon lines indicated for us by Cecil Rhodes, venture to hope. When Englishwomen have firmly established a good reputation as landscape gardeners, directing experts and teachers in the mother country, they will doubtless be welcomed with enthusiasm in our colonies.
To those who are not deterred from making an attempt at gardening in South Africa by these few difficulties, I venture to give the following practical hints, which I am allowed to publish by the kindness of the South African Colonisation Society:—
BOARD AND LODGING
| In Cape Colony | from | £5 | to | £8 | per month |
| In Natal | „ | £4 10s. | „ | £8 | „ |
| In Rhodesia | „ | £9 | „ | £11 | „ |
| In the Transvaal | „ | £7 | „ | £10 | „ |
| In Orange River Colony | „ | £6 | „ | £8 | „ |
| Laundry in Cape Colony costs from 8s. to 10s. per month. | |||||