Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women - Wise Acres Yearbook (Ambler, PA)

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den Club of America’’; Prof. F. Warner, State College, Pa., subject: “Broilers for Profit”; Miss Elsie McFate, Turtle Creek, Pa., subject: “Hardy Flower Culture ; Mr. Bertrand H. Farr, Wyomissing. Pa., subject: “Raising Rainbows. All who beard the program were most hearty in their praise land everyone felt the future of the association was assured. The Woman's National Agricultural and Horticultural Association was formed in New York in December, 1913, and at a later meeting in Philadelphia officers were elected and the association became a reality. No call for members was sent out until March of this year, and )to date nearly five hundred members are enrolled from all over the United States. New names are being added daily and before the next meeting it should reach a thousand. Everywhere the idea of a national organization to rouse an interest in agriculture and horticulture among women is hailed with the greatest enthusiasm and all who attended the conference felt the progressive spirit manifest at the meeting. SOME SCHOOLS OF GARDENING ABROAD Of late years there has arisen, both at home and abroad, an especial interest in the training of women in horticultural pursuits, and many women are turning to these as a means of livelihood or as a matter of interest. As in many other educational departments, England and Germany have been aniong the pioneers in founding schools of practical horticulture women. Swanley College, in Kent, England, has the distinction of being the oldest school of this kind, for it was founded in 1889. Its purpose is to provide for women a sound training in gardening and allied subjects. The estate contains forty-three acres, divided into flo ver and kitchen gardens, orchards, wall fruit and meadow land, with glass and forcing houses. 'I'lie college accommodates sixty students, and it prepares them both for practical gardening in England, and for emigration and colonial life. The courses of study include all branches of horticultural science, and the school is always full. Over 50% of its graduates are self-supporting in some branch of horticulture. The school at Studley Castle, founded by Lady Warwick, was opened in 1898 as a hotel for women students in connection with the agricultural college at Reading. In 1903 the beautiful estate of Studley Castle, 350 acres in extent, fifteen miles from Birmingham, was purchased, and here the college has prospered exceedingly. Rose and flower gardens, a rock garden, an orangery, orchards and 400 feet of glass in a walled garden half a mile distant from the castle, offer every facility for practical training in horticulture. Fruit, melons and tomatoes are grown under glass and marketed at a profit. The Studley jams and bottled fruits are a popular specialty, and are exported even to the Far East. Another school was opened in 1901 at Glvnde, in Surrey, by Lady Frances

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ing, the fact that one has been taught for four years by eminent teachers does no more make one a good teacher than watching an acrobat qualifies one to repeat the same feats. Lately, however, men’s and women’s colleges have been compared rather sharply, and it was realized that whereas a woman-graduate was considered “ready for the world,” a man-graduate who wished to follow a specific vocation began his training after college days were over, the would-be doctor has years ahead of him, the embryo lawyer has to study against the day when he must face the bar, and the engineer takes a year or two at some technological institute. We approve of vocational training in all lines, at all ages, and for both sexes. It seems to us that the child who is not to have the advantages of a specific “higher education” should have as much as is practical during his school years. If he is only to be educated to the compulsory age of fourteen, let him then leave school not only able to read and write, but equipped with a working knowledge of some trade—a skilled, not an inefficient, laborer. School years are supposed to be the years when we fit ourselves for life, when we learn valuable habits of self-control, concentration and punctuality, when our characters form and when each lesson learned is an asset in after years. This training is indeed invaluable, but why not add to these mental and moral advantages with which we debit ourselves upon leaving school the material asset of a sound training in some line that will permit us to enter the ranks of the skilled wage earners? The trend of today is to specialize, and “specialists” in all lines of work are sought after in preference to the desired Jack-of-all-Trades of yesterday. HOPE BUTLER. MAY SIXTEENTH AT AMBLER, PA. The first conference of the Woman’s National Agricultural and Horticultural Association was a great success. It was a perfect day and every one of the four hundred and fifty people here enjoyed it thoroughly. On account of the illness of the association president, Mrs. Francis King, of Alma, Mich., which prevented her attendance, Mrs. II. R. Fullerton, of Medford, L. I., presided charmingly as chairman. Mrs. King's address, “The True Role of the Horticultural Society.” was read by the secretary, Miss Hilda Loines. Mr. David Fairchild was unavoidably detained in Washington. His subject was, “Foreign Food Plants,” and it was with real regret that the chairman announced his absence. Mr. Fairchild one hundred of the Japanese Udo plants to be distributed among the vis-..ors. Mr. George T. Powell, New York city, gave a most instructive talk on “Small Fruit Culture for Women”; Miss Martha Van Resselaer, Cornell University, subject: “Farm Housekeeping”; Mr. W. P. Hartman, Medford, L. I., subject: “The Grangers’ Market Bureau”; Mr. W’alter P. Stokes, Philadelphia, Pa., subject: “Seed Growing for Women”; Mrs. J. Willis Martin. Philadelphia, Pa., subject: “The Co-operation of the W. N. A. and H. A. and the Gar-

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YVolseley. It is conducted on a smaller scale and with rather different methods, but aims at giving gentlewomen, at a moderate rate, a practical training. At Thatchani is a scnool of gardening where a specialty is made of Frenc.i gardening methods. Hotbeds, cloches and intensive cultivation are the special points, and 28 students are active all the time on five acres of ground. In all these schools, as well as those elsewhere in Europe, a minimum of lecture work and a maximum of pracical work is the rule, the ratio being about two hours of lectures to six hours in the garden. They aim to be especially training schools of especial practical value. Both Swanley and Studley attract students from abroad, Germans, Bus sians, Swiss, a few Americans, and even a Japanese having found their way there. The fees average from $430 up. In both Germany and England, there are several schools presided over and taught by graduates of the large colleges, and often trained women with their own commercial undertakings will take pupils and apprentices to train as gardeners. In Germany there are at least three important schools of gardening for women. Marienfelde, near Berlin, was founded in 1894 by Fraulein Dr. Castner Over 50 women from German), Austria, Russia, Italy, Holland, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Roumania, Norway and even from America are in attendance, and this school has become a pioneer and leader in the work of horticultural education for women in Germany. Frauenschule Maidburg, situated close to Kempen in Posen was opened in 1904 by Der Verein fur wirtschaftliche Frauenschule auf dem Lande. It is designed primarily for educated women, and the courses include beside gardening, dairying, domestic economy, etc. Godesberg on the Rhine has a school of gardening of which one of the coprincipals is an English woman from one of the English colleges. Here on a small estate 50 students are taught practical gardening and fruit growing, all the work being done by the students and their teachers, for no men gardeners are employed—only a couple of laborers for the heavy work. The lectures on horticulture are given by those members of the staff who take the same subjects in practical gardening, and for pure theory visiting lecturers from Godesberg or Bonn come in. In Russia, as long ago as 1889, Baroness Budberg established an agricultural school for women on her husband’s estate at Ponicruove in Courtland. As well as horticulture, this school i Produced teaching in dairying, domestic economy, etc., and many women have passed through it. The example of the founder stimulated other women of rank to similar efforts in Poland (18941 and in Bavaria (1895) where graduates of her school have been engaged to start institutions of the same kind Tn Hungary. Austria and Spain the movement has been taken up, in spite of conservative resistance. At Niguarda. near Milan. Ttalv, Miss Aurelie Josz opened a school of horti-