AWAY WITH PREJUDICE

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 23, 26 January 1918, Page 5

AWAY WITH PREJUDICE

THE COUNTRY'S NEED

iWOMEN AT THE PLOUGH.

Xfrom our own correspondent.)

LONDON, 30th November. Since the early days of January, 1916, 9000 women have registered themselves as land workers. A good proportion of these may be said to have been more or less associated with farm and country life, in a small way, for years. But then the work they did was chiefly a matter of their environment, a normal part of their everyday round. Now it ! is a matter of stern necessity, and these j women mean business. With them are associated the members of the Women's Land Army—voluntary workers—whose origin dates back only as far as March, 1917,' and in the county of Kent alone there are already from 300 to 400 of these latter digging, and tilling, and hoeing in association with the county natives. Its members have probably never previously been in the habit of going on. the land at all, and it is doubtful whether serious work of any kind ever entered into their lives. But the end of 1917 sees a complete metamorphosis, as all residents in country districts well realise. The worker and dweller in the city has not much chance for acquiring visual knowledge. Therefore, the opportunity was made him. this week by the Kent Women's Agricultural Committee, who issued invitations for a demonstration of women's farm work, held at the Allington Farm, a very extensive property, situate near Maidstone. Competitors—all women j workers—came from Surrey, Sussex, and I Hampshire, as well as from local farms, i to the number of nearly two hundred. '■ Competitions started' early in the morning and lasted till nightfall, and the tests j included every branch of duty associated | with land-work—tilling, planting, hoeing, pruning, fruit-spraying, grading, and, packing,- milking, thatching, and all the other details connected with a healthy and useful country life. The old town ; of Maidstone was very much en fete, and was the centre of attraction from sur- ■ rounding districts as well as the magnet drawing numerous Londoners. THE NEW ARMY. The girls, in fresh smocks of white ' or buff, with slouch hats, gaiters, or leggings, or gum-boots, some with short skirts, others in trimly tailored breeches of corduroy, all wearing the official armlet—greenf with 'the scarlet crown—con- : stituted a picturesque young army, keen I as mustard, full of earnest vigour. In i pairs they were ploughing in first-class '' style with the kerosene-driver English- j built motor tractors, three deep furrows at one operation, managing the machines, with complete ease, and well versed in the machinery. Occasionally an engine got sitlky and refused to budge, but it was soon brought to its right mind, by the girl mechanic, who will not allow the display of idiosyncrasy on the part of her engine. ' Again, another- girl was making a good test with an old Ford ca.r, linked 1 up to the. plough attachment, and claiming good results at the cost of £90, as compared with treble the price for the motor-tractor, with an average working cost of 2s per acre. It had not the power to take the steep hillside with the same assurance of its modern rival, but its work looked efficient when complete. Singly, there were attractive girls walking_ with quiet dignity behind pairs of mnssive farm horses, turning up the ground in a distinctly more leisurely and less up to date" way. Their management of the horses called for much admiration. ■ CONTRASTS. In groups, or "gangs," girls were grading fruit, pruning and spraying the fruit trees, planting strawberries, and trussing fowls. There Was a very attractive quartet dressed in brown tweed, with green silk kerchiefs arranged close round the head, known as the-"gang" from Swanley Horticultural College, the initials of their training sohool being embroidered in green on the brown woolly coats. These girls were keen contestants in all the events, and they had to pass through the ordeal of viva voce examination as to why they had lopped off a certain twig or a very spiky branch from a very unkempt-looking tree. In contrast to these youthful scientificallytrained young lady students, who have future hopes of good positions in many distant, parts of the Empire, one could not help noticing their fellow competitors—hefty, bronzed, healthy, and hardened countrywomen, stoutly shod, warmly dressed, and aproned in clean, coarse canvas, supplied with massive pockets to accommodate the pruning knife, The Swanley girls carry their instrument in the breast pocket of their coats. These women looked very self-reliant and quite at home in theii work of lopping branches from apple trees and prickly gooseberry bushes. Maybe they could | not have stood" the vocal text as to the ! reason of the faith that is in them, but what they had trimmed seemed to have been the work of capable people ' knowing what they were about. RAPID EFFICIENCY. In the milking test, fifteen women scored over 90 marks of the possible 100, and in the thatching work two women were adjudged the winner's who had Jiever attempted the art till five weeks ago. All of which goes to prove that, given the opportunity, the women are capable in every capacity as, farm workers, and they are determined to show to the world a reserve of grit and ability which hitherto has been allowed to lie latent. PASSING PREJUDICE. Mr. A. D. Hall, F.E.S., secretary to the Board of Agriculture, went down to Maidstone, and plainly told those assembled that up to a. great measure the future of England Tests in. the hands of the farmers. The country is dependent on the farmer for the food that will be needed during the next few years, and the farmer is dependent on the women to enable him to carry on the increased amount of work necessary. At the present .time there are serious difficulties in the matter of food supply. It is not merely a question of the submarine cutting off numbers of our shipi. It i»> the question of a .real deficiency of food all over, {lie Western world, for none'of the Allies have in sight the amount of wheat tnat is expected in normal years, and th"c outlook is more aerious inasmuch as there are no reserves to draw upoii. We have to trust to a large extent to what each nation produces from its own sou in order to carry on. Every man in France who is fit is fighting, and the farm labour has been carried on up to now by the grey beards »nd by the women; In England we cannot afford to carry on at the same pitch as before the war—we have to get more out of the soil than ever before, and woman is thu only reserve before the farmer by which it can be done. The farmers of the country did not take the proposition of woman labour seriously enough in the early day's of tho war; many of them turned their faces against the idea of bringing in the women to work on the land, and they did not put themselves oiit at all to make conditions suitable for woman labour; instead, they had continued to go on holding back the men. Fortunately that prejudice has novt passed away, and fanners all over the country realise that worrieft can do hu honest cluy's work, A lange^jiieasui'B m thanks -syas due, to.-ihe .iWoimalfl-Land '

Army—voluntary workers—because if; was one of the moist unkind »in'd difficult jobs they could take up. At first, instead of helping- the women, the farmers h»d laid little traps for them, and even a cow knew how to exercise the privileges of her sex when handled by strange people. Hitherto the girls who cam© out from, the ' towns and started duty «ts fa* labourers had not received the support to which they were entitled by virtue of their courage. But now they have proved their quality to farmers all 1 over the country, and the farmers are greatly appreciative of the valuable help they are getting from these town girls as well as from the local women.' England* safety in the next two or three yeais hangs on the fanner; the results he gets will depend oiitthe labour available—woman labour—and whether he will make" the fullest use of it on his land. "STILL AS KENT CLAY." Mies Muriel Talbot, formerly secret tary of the Victoria, League, but now ! direction of the women's branch of the Food Production Department under the Board of Agriculture, said that the war had opened our eyes in many directions, not the least being the important part that women could take, and must take, in the cultivation of the land. Work on the land was no longer despised. It was recognised as of absolutely prime importance to the country. Eyes had been opened to the capacity of women for doing such work ac they have been called upon to do in farming. The need was a very urgent one. The time had been very short for preparation, and the need for pressure upon ■ all was great. The pressure that had heen put on the country had made us hurry things, and short, emergency classes were held to meet those pressing needs. "We have been up against a number of stiff old English prejudices," said Miss Talbot,' "stiff as the Kentish clay, but we are goj ing to get the better of them all. Woi men are going to do still better work i than in the past, and there must be no ; more room for prejudice of any kind, either on the part of the farmer or of the ! ! women. Farmers are going to find that | the women's labour is better a. good deal than they thought it was going to be." Altogether, it was an interesting day, supplemented by a small exhibit of vil- ! lage industries—such as butter-making, : basket-making, bee-keeping, vegetablegrowing. Your representative asked the bee expert why honey was so dear always in this land, where clover and heather and sweet-smelling flowers abound. "We are proud of our English honey," was the response, "and we ' thing its quality is so good that its price ought to be higher than foreign honey." He graciously admitted a moment later that he had tasted New Zealand honey, and had no fault to find with it. Climatic conditions, he con--1 tinued, were somewhat against bees in !• England, and the past summer had been ! anything but helpful to the busy iiii sects.