HORTICULTURE, AGRONOMY, SOIL SCIENCE

Horticulturists and agronomists both do research in the breeding, production, use, processing, storage, and shipment of crops. Horticulturists work on fruits and nuts, garden vegetable crops, flowers and ornamental plants, and nursery stock; agronomists, on field crops. Although agronomists are concerned with variety testing, crop rotation, and many other problems, their chief techniques are largely those of plant breeders. Agronomists are primarily plant geneticists, devoting themselves to the application of genetical principles and procedures to practical ends. Soil scientists concentrate on problems of soil and their relation to crop production (38)

Courtesy School of Horticulture for Women, Ambler, Pa.

Figure 4.-Students in training at a school of horticulture.

Although, with forestry, these specialties include almost 80 percent of all the plant scientists, as already noted (see table 2) women are very rare in these fields. The actual farm work involved may be a deterring factor to some women, although United States census figures, which for 1940 show over 300,000 women as farm laborers, seem to contradict this impression.

Teaching and research are the chief occupations of Ph. D.'s in horticulture. In 1940 almost half of the 119 employed persons who had received doctorates in this field in the preceding decade were doing research. About one-sixth were teachers, and over one-fourth combined teaching and research (12). In the 330 institutions of higher education referred to earlier, there were 7 women teaching horticulture, 1 of them teaching horticulture and forestry. This indicates that there were about 23 women teachers of horticulture in all colleges and universities.

Figure 5.-A pomologist examining potted seedlings in connection with a peach tree breeding program.

Training in horticulture can be obtained at agricultural colleges, which are usually connected with State universities. Some botanical gardens, including the New York Botanical Garden, offer 2-year courses in horticulture. In addition, there is a school of horticulture,

at the junior college level, established especially for women, the School of Horticulture for Women in Ambler, Pennsylvania. Established in 1910, this school offers 2-year courses in agriculture, horticulture, and landscape design (22). Alumnae are employed in a variety of jobs that include, among others, library work, teaching, writing for trade publications, landscape designing, and farm and garden work. One graduate is employed as a garden consultant by a seed company; another is a research assistant at a State agricultural experiment station; and one is a horticultural therapist at the United States Naval Hospital (19).

Outlets for women trained in horticulture, however, are limited. In the Federal Civil Service there are not many appointments in this field, nor are there many applicants. In 1940 only one man qualified as a horticulturist; in this same year, only one assistant horticulturist was appointed (23). In 1946 only one woman horticulturist, with the title of pomologist (specialist in fruit crops), was employed by the United States Department of Agriculture in the Washington area. (See p. 3-75 for minimum requirements for Federal Civil Service positions as horticulturists.)

A survey of industrial laboratories, made by the Women's Bureau, shows that, as in Government, there are few women doing horticultural work in industry. Women horticulturists were employed in only 2 of the 78 industrial research laboratories visited in connection with this study. Both of these were chemical companies; one employed two women horticulturists, and the other employed one; all were permanent employees.

There are relatively few openings in the Federal Government for women agronomists. In 1940, 89 people, only 1 of them a woman, qualified as agronomists; 31 men were appointed that year. At the junior professional assistant level in agronomy, there were 228 qualified applicants, including 1 woman. Only 55 were appointed, all of them men (23). (See p. 3-76 for minimum requirements for Federal Civil Service positions as agronomists.) Only 1 woman agronomy teacher, a woman Ph. D. with the rank of associate professor, was listed on the faculties of the 330 institutions of higher education mentioned earlier.

Like horticulturists and agronomists, soil scientists are employed primarily by State agricultural experiment stations, the United States Department of Agriculture, colleges and universities, and manufacturers of various agricultural products (38). However, no women soil scientists were employed by any of the Government agencies or by any of the industrial research laboratories surveyed by the Women's Bureau. (See p. 3-76 for minimum requirements for Federal Civil Service positions as soil scientists.)

Forester as Defined by the National Roster of Scientific and Specialized Personnel (25)

"The forester is concerned with the operation, management, protection, utilization (recreational and economic), mensuration, logging, and reforestation of public and privately owned forest lands. The profession of forestry usually includes the subordinate or related areas of silviculture, range management (or science), and wood technology (the properties, anatomy, identification, preservation, and industrial utilization of wood)."

Forester as Defined by the United States Forest Service

"The forester is concerned with the operation and management of wild land, commonly called forest areas.

"The profession of forestry includes a knowledge of the underlying natural sciences basic to an understanding of problems involved in correlating the uses of the five principal resources, namely, timber, water, forage, wildlife, and recreation."

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FORESTRY

Forestry, like geology, is usually thought of as a man's province, largely because of the attendant field work, much of it in isolated. places. One government official estimated the amount of such work as 90 percent of the job of the average forester, during the first 10 years of his professional life. The few women in forestry are employed by forestry organizations, although most of the men are engaged in jobs that include field work with Federal, State, or local forestry departments. The Federal Government is a major employer of foresters. Others are employed by lumber companies, manufacturers of wood products, and other timberland owners. However, almost half of the 61 persons who received doctorates in forestry in the decade preceding 1940 were teachers, and more than a third were doing research (12). Only 5 of the 151 women botany teachers on the faculties of the 330 schools in the Office of Education sample were teaching forestry, and 4 of these taught forestry and wood technology. If this sample is representative of all college and university faculties, then there are fewer than 25 women forestry teachers on all faculties.

Figure 6.-Employed in the U. S. Forest Products Laboratory, this scientist, called a xylotomist, identifies wood specimens by their microscopic structure.