It is doubtless true that, in very many cases, the man does his work
better than the woman; but it is not less true that, in a majority
of cases, the difference in price grows out of the difference in
sex.
So of the school. A male teacher receives a thousand dollars a year,
not because his moral influence is better, not because the pupils
learn more, but because he is a man. A woman teaches a similar
school, and receives four hundred dollars, not because of the
inferiority of her moral influence in the school, not because the
pupils learn less, but because she is a woman.
Now, happily, all this is avoided in gardening. A man who would sell
a beet is not obliged to put on a label, "raised by a man, ten
cents," and upon another, "raised by a woman, four cents," but the
article brings its market value. This is a great advantage, and one
affording a special gratification to women of spirit.
Besides, gardening is an occupation requiring very little capital,
and, except in the fancy departments, comparatively little training.
Near any of the cities a woman can earn more upon a half acre of
land, with four months' work, than she can earn by sewing twelve
months, saying nothing of the healthfulness of gardening, and the
unhealthfulness of sewing. A young woman, tired, disgusted with the
difficulties which hamper her on every side, asks:--
"What can I do to be saved?"
I reply, "Cultivate a half acre of ground."
You can sell the products of your garden to one of the market-men
who make it their business to purchase garden vegetables where they
are raised, and convey them to market. Nearly all of our men
gardeners sell at their doors, and have nothing to do with the
market.
I do not know of another opening which women can enter so easily,
with so little wounding of their sensibilities, and which promises
such sure and generous remuneration.
A year ago I urged some young women who were out of employment to
engage in gardening. They said they had no capital, no experience,
but would be willing to try if the way could be made smooth for
them. I spent a couple of days in driving about among the gardeners,
in the neighborhood of Boston, and asked the following questions of
some fifty of them:--
"Is there any part of your work that women can do?"
"If so, what compensation would you give to attentive, quick-
fingered American girls?"
The answer to the first question was uniformly,--
"A large part of the work of a garden, or 'truck' farm, can be done
as well by women as by men."
To the second question, the answers ranged from five to eight
dollars per week.
A CAPITAL INVESTMENT.
Persons possessing capital, and interested in the welfare of women,
could hardly make a wiser or more beneficent investment of their
means, than in the purchase of small farms in the neighborhood of
cities, for the use of women.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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