Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-12-03
WOMEN ON FARMS
TRIUMPH OVER WAR
French Government Gives Them Di-
pIomas in Recognition
of Work.
SOIL REPAYs THEIR EXPORTS
Crops i'm Brie Sown Almost Entirely
by Women, Girls and Boys Too
Young to Fight - SeIf-Bindcrs
Play Part.


MoRET SUR LONG. SEINE EFT
MARINE. + r y y G L, December q
Among the war recompcnscs that will
be handed down with greatest pride
from generation to generation i'm
French families arc the diplomas. now
framed and hanging on the walls OF
many farmhouses. attesting how the
peasant women and farmers wives,
widows and daughters overcome war
difficulties. The soil has we'll repaid
the effort, and. thanks TO them. France
is sure of another year of ample living.
The actual cash returns will equal a
record year in time of peace. although.
excepting oats and potatoes, the yield
was below the average
This country OF the Brie. which Is
generally second only 10 the Rcauce
in wheat production and first of all
TOT oats, stands at the head for both,
yet this crop was sown almost entirely
by women, girls and boys too youn =
10 shoulder rifle. There is a good
example of what was done OH little
farm just outside tho shade of the
forest OF Fontainchleau. Mt Villemcr
where in modest farmhouse hang the
framed diplomas accorded by tho
Syndicat Central des Agriculteurs Gle
France Central Union of French
Farmers) I'm the names of Madame
Beaujouan and her daughters. Ray
mond. aged twelve. and Jeanne, aged
fourteen.
Reaujouan was modified while the
grain was still standing in 1914.
Madame Beaujouan and her daughters
nave harvested three crops from that
farm since. The third is the best OF
the three, for they lacked the twist
OF the wrist" as Jeanne Bcauiouan
puts il. until they had had the expert
encc of two crops
HEROINES BEHIND LINES
TAKE NO PRAISE INDIVIDUALLY
They are proud of tho crop for the
crops sake. but they don't seem to be
aware of the remarkable effort it re-
CURED OF them to do tho rcrtilizinE,
blowing. narrowing. seeding and har-
VeStinE. When one talks to them about
II. they tell him to go and see the
crop that Madcmoisclle Marthc Bon
Feve got from a scvcnty-acrc farm at
Serrienye n Bressc. which promises to
constitute the record for girl farming
during the war. wlrcn the yield finally
France, these hcroincs Of the rear take
no praise individually; there arc so
many. they say, who have done as
we'll
Red tape. the paralyzing force that
even the reawakcninE Of this epic
period has not yet vanquished. with
held from the farms the aid the gov
eminent wished to supply, excepting in
In hn ~ft u,
German prisoners of war. volunteers
from the camps of interned civilian
Austrians and Germans. Annamitcs
brought from the mountains of Algeria,
senegIese from the West African
coast. few tcrritorials on leave. a
good many Partisan schoolboys and
last. hut not least. tho American self
binder. helped with the harvest, but.
with the exception of the self binder.
the help was available only in scat
tered spots
y majestic German porter Of Il
Riviera palace hotel. who. in time Of
peace. wore more gold braid than any
general in the war. and one OF the
head walters of the known restau-
rants in Paris, bound wheat side by
the gold braided uniform. the porter.
with his fellow prisoners, wore suit
Of blue overalls with the letters ~ c."
standing for Interncd civilian) on
their backs to identify them as Tcutons
in case of disposition to escape
They earned the equivalent of 45 cents
day. and were clothed. lodged and
fed by the farmer. Their fare was eX-
actly the same as that of the farmers
hiring them and OF the soldiers guard
ing them. That they were satisfied APP
pears from the fact that. out of sew
eral thousand, only three tried to get
away.
The several thousand German SOL
diers employed in the harvest gave no
trouble at all. To the great majority
of them French farm life was Il revela-
ton, and n satisfaction that found cx-
preston in frequent inquiries as TO
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