WOMEN ON THE LAND!

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3029, 16 March 1917, Page 3

WOMEN ON THE LAND!

FIGHTING THE FARMERS' PREJUDICES There is a species of Man which does not like Woman. It is confined at present to farmers. This is what they havo against woman :— She is expensive. She does not like getting up early. Sho does not believe cows want milkSng on Sunday. She is no good with horses. , She cannot Btand about in wet clover. She cannot plough. Sho has to be taught to work on the land. She needs a proper homo. ' Labourers will not work with her. ■ The Farmer's v ßoy is evidently following 'in the footsteps of his master, for he does not like women either; he will not work with them. Certainly ho has a'little reason for his dislike. Women workers come and do the lighter jobs which,,were formerly to him . tho only relief from the heavy work. . ' ' 1 ...

He also thinks the war will soon be

over and he is not going to encourage competitors in _ petticoats. With Ills 'master's opinion, "Schoolboys over twelve aTo superior to women," ho fully agrees. But he is beginning to be a little doubtful of ,his master. Did not Farmer X say twelve months ago that ho would not have a woman at any price? And has not he got ten now, and boasting of it? Cs.n it co that women are "getting over" the farmer as thoy have done over every other man since Adam ate the apple? The Farmer's Boy himself puts up with two women on the farm, but then they are "exceptions": they can do a day's work snd "stick" the bad weather. Every woman who proves her worth on the land is an 'exception" to every Farmer's Boy.

His doubt as to the farmer is to bo explained in this wny. Farmers are of three kinds. There is the man who has said his last on women— they ar6 no good—so far as work on the land is conoerned. He would rather—arid does—let his land go out of cultivation than'' employ women. His objection to women on the land is a principle, arid he intends to abide by it, Government or no Government.

| The_ second man sits on the fence watching. "I can size up the masculine gender in two minutes,J' he confesses,- "but the feminine has taken

mo a week. J_ have Watched tho woman from a. biased point of view, being completely against her, but after a week I've coino to tlio conclusion that sho'll do good work on the laud, and, what's more, will make money at it." The third man is tho progressive farmer. lie was interested to sec what women could do on the land. In his heart of hearts he really likes women, although it is tho gospel of his kind to keep them off the land. Ho is not really sorry to engago them, and ho very soon becomes proud" of their work.

_ Other farmers who liave no conscientious objection to women do not, however, give in as easily as he has done. They prefer boys to women, even when tho worth of the latter Ms been demonstrated. Boys can bo hired for ss. per week. Women set too high a value on. themselves; they are "too wbll off for milking."

In this perhaps they are right. Some women's organisers think 6tl. a milking, with no other work promised, too littlo for which to bring women to tho country. Others cannot persuade farmers to give moro than 4d. a milking.

No wonder the farmer lias a grudge against woman. She is turnips; up her noso at his prices and teaching the Farmers' Boy to be "saucy." In fact, farmors are complaining that tho men who are left thorn are irregular and indifferent, and they are afraid to soy a word to them in case thoy give notice. And wliilo tho farmer' is trying to swallow his prejudice against woman she is turning her hack upon him. Munition factories set up near to his land eagerly snap up ihe labour he despised, and' by and by he finds that even if he advertises 4s. per day wages be cannot get tho women whom once lie would not havo "at any price." Now, unless someone can persuade tho woman worker that the farmer really likes her very much and wants her more, it will be very serious for the country. ...

It stands to reason that if women can do the work on some farms thoy can do it on others. "Women are no good for ploughing,V is the general opinion, hut a girl of fourteen years is learning to plough on a Yorkshire farm, and is doing very well.

"Women cannot manago horses," is another fallacy which has been refuted bv the Army Remount Department. Women have been successfully employed in this Department for months.

The fact that wom£n are actually employed, in the following farm occupations proves that they could be more Generally engaged(l) General farm worker Cleaning land, stone pioking, weeding, thistle ci;'j,'ng, manure spreading, singling and hoeing turnips,' potato setting and lifting, vegetable planting and transplanting. (2) Milking. (3) Stock tending and rearintr. | (4) Butter making. (6) Cheese making. _ (6) Poultry rearing. (7) HsyI making. (8) Harvesting. (9) Sheep shearing. (10) Thatching. (11) Stackj inc. (12) Ploughing. (13) Londititr and I unloading. (14) Threshing. (15) Fruit picking. (16) Hod picking. (17) Reed stripping. _ (18) Baric peeling. /19) Timber felling. (20) Gardening: JoboniE, market, allotments, co-oporative. In Qctober there were 80,600 wholetime women' workers and 66.000 casual workers on tho land. Close upon 140,000 women have registered for work. Tho shortage just now is generally for experienced women. Those already at work have been orgnnised very largely by Women's Agricultural Committees, formed in tlie countieß under the auspices of the Board of Agriculture and the Board of Trade. Theirs has been the task of introducincline woman to tho farmer. Now he calls her "a treasuro" in writing to the National Land Council, an organisation which has put some thousands of women on tho land. "The I hisrhlv educated girl of gentle birth between; the aces of 18 and .30 needs no training, and very little trouble on the part of the master puts lier in the way of doing things. The sreat point is to curb her energy at first* never let her do more than three hours the first day, four the second, and so on. I had nine of this brand last summer: nil wore successes, and without them I couldn't have got through. I hope to have a goodly team next summer!" 1

—Peggy Scott, in the "Daily Mail. 1 '