WOMEN ON THE LAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22421, 18 May 1936, Page 3

WOMEN ON THE LAND

EFFECT OF MACHINERY ENGLAND AND CANADA Returning from a world tour which included visits to most of the leading countries of Europe and to the British Isles, Canada and the United States, Mrs. E. J. Burton passed through Auckland last week by the Monterey on her way to Australia, where her husband is a prominent grazier and stock breeder.

As Mrs. Burton and her husband are naturally interested in cattle farming and stock they seized every opportunity for visiting farms of this type abroad and noting different methods of management and working. Mrs. Burton said that she had always been interested in the lives of the women who lived on farms and her visit abroad had left her with a great respect for thoso who spent thoir years on small farms, facing with such courage tho ever-recurring duties that such a life entailed.

During her stay in England Mrs. Burton visited many of the farming districts, such as Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Monmouthshire, Shropshire, Devon and Somerset, and was greatly impressed with the picturesque appearance of many of the old farm houses and cottages. Debt to Machinery

In Mrs. Burton's opinion the use of machinery had made the lives of tho women living on farms considerably easier. Whereas a few years ago they had taken part in much of the farm work, helping with the manuring, planting, sowing, clearing and harvesting under the most trying conditions, to-day there were very few who actually worked in the fields of England. Although machinery had certainly thrown out of employment a number of women labourers it had given the farmers' wives a little more leisure to attend to their families and their homes without the drudgery of working for sis or seven hours every day planting potatoes by hand. There were also a number of women who were making a success of farming their own land, employing labour and doing much of the manual work themselves. In Monmouthshire, Yorkshire, and Shropshire Mrs. Burton had been greatly impressed by the wonderful country scenery and described these counties as the true England." In Europe women worked a great deal more in the fields than they did in England, she said. In tho country districts of France and Spain, on the stock farms of Hungary, and in the fields of Rumania, they shared a great deal of the actual labour with the men, working from dawn until dark. Even then their work was not finished, meals had to be prepared, washing and mending had to be attended to and the children cared for. Generally speaking these women worked harder than the men for their work began first of all in the house before, the farm work started, and ended again in the house long after the men's work was done. Ranch Life in Columbia "In British Columbia cattle are counted, not in hundreds, but _in thousands," said Mrs. Burton. A visit to a big ranch, in the North of Canada had given her the impression that even the large Australian cattle stations were like comfortably sized farms in comparison. While there she had taken part in a round-up, an event- which was regarded as one of the features of the season. It lasted usually for several weeks, although Mrs. Burton took part for only two days. Waggons and pack-horses followed the party with tents, food and blankets, and almost everyone on the ranch assisted in the rounding up of the cattle. Much of the work on these large ranches was done by Indian labourers who were employed on contract, said Mrs. Burton. Here again, women played a large part, whole families sharing the work among themselves. She had often seen children working beside their mothers and as many as sixty or seventy Indian labourers and their families camped in tho meadows where they lived until the work of cutting and stacking the short thick grass was done.