New Britain herald., 1915-11-19

field-guns had passed, we stopped to examine the road, to see if this splen- did macadam had been cut by the constant passing of artillery and the digging of cavalry hoofs. But there was not a dent from the passing of these twenty-ton guns and tho well-made road showed no more ef- feet than from the passing of several automobiles. The officers said this condition was general, and that the famous roads of France were pas sing through this ordeal of artillery and cavalry without appreciable im- pairment.
 Women of all Work.
 The women's work in the farm regions is not confined to the fields, but covers the whole range of work incident to agriculture One stretch of country was particularly abundant in straight young saplings, and here the women were at work hewing the saplings, piFing them like cord-wood along the road ready for the carts to take to the station. Further on, at the station, women were on the far- cars receiving saplings from other women on cars, and thus this product for telegraph poles, railway ties, etc.,
 
 away. In the country inns, too, wom- en are doing everything; not only the cooking but running the estab- lishment, and even taking the places of the garcons in the village cafes. Occasionally a few men are seen in the fields but they seem out of place sprinkled among the ranks of the robust women. They are eith er1 old men, usually bent and crippled who go at their work unsteadily, or very young men and boys, not yet in the class of 17-year-old recruits. But these men are more supernumeraries nowadays, much as the women were before the war, when they gave helping hand when the harvest pres sures was greatest.
 Babies Are Few
 The new babies, too, are very few in the farm regions. In the three days through the farm region only two farm women were seen carrying young babies. With the men all away at the war the birthrate must necessarily fall off as these women are turning from the cares of mater nifty to the cares of the soil But the little children are everywhere pres ent, and are helping their mothers in gathering the crops. In one field two little girls were guiding the ox-carts, and in another a group of little tots were polishing off the leaves of cab bages so as to make each one look fat and profitable.
 Curious detail: Even the farm beasts-the cows-are bearing the burden of the war in the farm re- gions, while most of their male | brethern-the oxen-have been mo- 1 bilized at the front for the supply i wagons, Two beasts labored along l the road, drawing a heavy cart Of 1 farm produce, as the army chautfeurs l stopped to repair a tire. The anl- 1 mals strained under the big wooden yoke, but instead of being oxen they ! were sleek young cows, their bags 1 heavy with milk. A woman driver guided them and they sank under the yoke like the farm women bearing their panniers of carrots.
 'Is that usual-to yoke milk COWS
 for burden? was asked.
 "Yes, in wartimes even the COW:
 must carry their share" was the re
 ply. And it was further explained
 that the few horses seen in the field
 were mares, as the heavy stallion were needed for the artillery, excep . the few retained for stud purposes
 and the geldings were used for cav 7 airy and supply trains. Thus wa . l mobilizes the male animals for tn 1 battalions, and turns the female ami
 mals into beasts of burden.
 1 TaTrOr TS ScarceSt