WOMEN ON THE FARMS.

Marlborough Express, Volume LI, Issue 97, 26 April 1917, Page 7

WOMEN ON THE FARMS.

[to the emvok.]

Sir, —I do not know how we women will mmmgo ii; oui- husbands are ciilled up. Some of us are up after the «'ows with v lantern now. Mr Fell writes in your paper of the 17th hist, that women can do ploughing. Well, I have done almost all kinds of hard workj but ploughing on many a Marloorough farm is too hard for any woman. We hear a lot about what women can do, and it sounds so funny, alter the way men have always .said what women can't do. Now they want us they would put it on our shoulders.

I am only stating my own case, and I think more women ought to be xip and state theirs. Xt is because 1 have done most work; I know what is too hard. I read lately of road repairing being a suitable /job for women. That is too- much. IJiave mustered and worked on a sheep farm, cooked for shearers and harvesters, and pulled a "paddle for hours in the days before launches, and I have worked with my wrist bound up through strain. But the hardest work I have struck is on a mixed farm with 28 cows, with no help but one's husband and three children, one of these the size you put on your back because it can't go quick enough while you drive the pigs out of the potatoes, or sit it on a post while you i drive the bull from tho home pad» J dock gate Avith a hay fork. \ Once my husband was % away, and ] try aa I might I could only do the j very necessary jobs and fix things temporarily, it being the slackest time. It was not long before the stock knew there was no man abWt the place. E^en the horse took to galloping off when badly wanted, and the do/>;. slunk off home and left me standiii^ at 5 a.m.'in the dark and. damp of a oow paddock, with; the job before me of finding and driving in the cows. You ax*e lucky if the weather is fine; it is, not always. Your comfort is knowing your kiddies are warm in bed, and will be till you get home to get their porridge^ for children prefer bod to the cold stove and comfortless kitchen wfeile mother is doing her bit. My time was taken up with calves, and stock feeding. Why, many a timel had not time to comb my hair, for in spare time I dug carrots and prepared the cows' night feed, or went tearing off to drive the cows out from *the tutu, with a packet of soda and a knife in case of IXHson-.

I have done most jobs, jobs I willnot mention here, so I know there are some that beat a woman. Some women may do what I couldn't, for stumping and cutting firewood and hauling from the bush are beyond me too. But if they take the men and the little farm is carried on it must be done, eh? I just wonder how many of our kind of farms Mr Fell and his friends can manage. The milk must be at the factory at 9 sharp. I reckon he would not stdp to strip the cows, any more than I irould if they were his or any one rise's. I wonder how women would get a horse out of a well if they lived where we live without a neighbor in sight, or if they could not get it out, <;art earth to bury it there. Or if ft couple of your best cows got blown on the lucerne, skin them and haul them away and dispose ofHhem. These things have happened, and I have found myself thankful many a time that' there is still a man i;o do whot I cannot.

Mr Fell says the places are as productive as last year. It is not so here: labor was scarce (our men enlisted) and the work_ was not done. If women helped with the harvest tliey only did the very necessary work, *md did not look round for more, either.

I don'- think much of the idea of your neighbor, doing your work. Neighbors have such a poor opinion of your ground. They really don't think tiro crop will repay the trouble, don't you knowl

ONE OF THE WOMEN