“I do not pretend that work on the land is attractive to many women. It is hard work—fatiguing, backaching, monotonous, dirty work in all sorts of weather. It is poorly paid, the accommodation is rough, and those who undertake it have to face physical discomforts. In all respects it is comparable to the work your men-folk are doing in the trenches at the front. It is not a case of ‘lilac sunbonnets.’ There is no romance in it: it is prose.”
But in spite of all the difficulties which agricultural work presents for women, they are taking it up in ever-increasing numbers, in view of the country’s necessity. The success of women in agriculture is largely due to a splendid organisation, the Women’s National Land Service Corps, formed privately, but now working in close co-operation with the Government departments. This corps first advertised the necessity for the employment of women on the land, and initiated opportunities for their training on a large scale.
WOMEN ON THE LAND: (1) MOTOR THRASHING MACHINE:
(2) MISS MATHEWS WITH A CULTIVATOR
Alfieri
To face page [115]
Miss Dorothy Mathews and Miss Margaret Hughes are two typical workers, educated women used to comfortable surroundings, who have come forward to fill the places of the men who have gone to fight. Miss Mathews and Miss Hughes are engaged in the heaviest forms of agricultural work, which, however, they report to be quite within the power of women. The healthy outdoor life and the work itself naturally tend to increase strength, “and,” said Miss Mathews recently, “we are astonished at the ease with which we do things that seemed almost impossible some months ago.”
The usual farm day starts with milking, and when this is done the serious work begins, varying according to the season of the year. The field work is of course the heaviest, but Miss Mathews and Miss Hughes each takes out her own team of horses for ploughing and harrowing, and as they are working in a very hilly part of the country, in Herefordshire, this is exceptionally hard. Writing to a friend recently, Miss Hughes said: “On our first morning at the farm we were put straight on to ploughing a field up on the hills, with a glorious view across the Wye Valley and right on to the Malvern Hills. Happily, we managed quite well, though we were in a ‘blue funk,’ having only our one month of training-college experience to go on. We went on ploughing practically every day, and our last piece of work before the frost set in was to help plough up an eight-acre piece that had been under grass for eleven years—it was a business!”
As well as ploughing and sowing the fields, these girls do manure carting and spreading, grinding, and root-pulling. They also groom the horses, mix the food, feed the stock, and clean out the cowsheds and stables. Describing another branch of her work recently, Miss Mathews wrote: “During the severe weather we had a strenuous time thrashing. All hands were requisitioned, and the engine was kept going from 7.30 a.m. till 6 p.m., with only an hour’s break for lunch. This, of course, meant very hard days and long hours, not to mention the dust. Miss Hughes and I were put on to pitching from the rick, and mighty strenuous work it is. It was amusing to discover that we had the most tiring job; naturally there wasn’t a rush for it by those who knew.” In addition to their farm work, Miss Mathews and Miss Hughes do their own cooking and housework; therefore they are really doing a man’s work outside, but without the prepared meal and the immediate rest that most men can look forward to after work.