The Washington times., 1917-05-09
FRENCH SOLDIERS
ARE FARMERS, TOO
Cultivate Soil When Not En-
gagged IN Fighting.
WORK DONE BY SECTORS
Special Officers Detailed By Gov
eminent to Supervise Tillng.

WITH THE FRENCH ARMIES,
May 9.-The service Of agriculture
is now one Of the regular branches
OF the French army.
1t is Just as much an integral part
of the French military machine as
a whole as is the Infantry, the cav
airy, the artillery, the engineers or
the aviation.
Militsry agriculture is one of the
latest developments Of modern war
fare along with such things as gas
masks, the rehearsing Of battles be-
fore they are fought and aerial tor
pedoes. While the present great Eu-
ropean conflict has demonstrated
that war must ever be destructive.
and possibly more destructive than
ever before, yet the constructive,
conservative basis on which the
French seek to conduct IL has de-
Veloped numerous possibilities for
lessening and repairing the destruc-
tiveness.
In a general way the object OF this
service of agriculture is to keep the
farming in the entire war zone and
especially in the immediate vicinity
of the front lines up to its nomal and
maximum productiveness. 1t is now
as much the duty OF every soldier in
the French army to help in these
agricultural labors, as II is to fight,
while the army as a whole contrib
utes not only the farm lsborer but
also the horses, and even part OF
the implements necessary.
Divided Into Three Glasses.
The agricultural work to be done
A. fN9a1f into
three general classes. First Of all
the extending of enough help to the
farmers still living In the zone to
enable them to plant and harvest
their crops. Secondly, nearer the
front where the civil population has
been obliged TO flee entirely, and
where the farms are completely
abandoned, the army must take over
all this ground and cultivate it itself
in precisely the same manner as
though the farmers themselves were
still there. Thirdly, as fast as French
soil is won back from the Germans
the agricultural service must under
take the restoring OF this ground to
a state of fertility and the planting
OF IL in crops at the earliest possible
moment.
Every general commanding on the
French front is required to divide
his portion of the war zone into sec
tors, each one comprising on an aver
age twenty to twenty-five villages
or farming communities. In addition
to the general officers that are des-
ignated for the administration of
the agricultural service an under-of-
ficer, who Is chosen because of his
agricultural fitness, is assigned to
each sector and remains permanent
~ in charge of the agricultural work
there, REGARDLESS OF where his regt-
ment may be moved afterward.
Provide Tools and Grain.
In the meantime the project of
each department in the war zone is
required to make out a list of all
agricultural work that neds to be
done, together with the degree of
urgency, and place il at the dispose
ton of the military officer in charge
of each sector. The project must also
provide the tools and the grain and
seed for sowing.
Entirely regardless of whether the
troops stationed in a given sector are
there for repose or whether they are
there for fighting, they must perform
the agricultural labor that Is waiting
TO be done. Likewise, when troops
- Gr4AA AAAG GAAH II AAGg EAOp III any
sector even for only two or three
daySEethey must participate in farm
labor under way.
When the troops move on they leave
a report with the permanent military
agricultural officer in charge, showing
just what they have done, so that
when the next troops come along they
can take up the work where the
others left OF.
One and only one ironcIaJ rule has
been adopted by the military authori-
ties, and that is that under no cir
cumstances whatever must a military
troop, whatever its size may be, pass
ing through a given sector where
there is agricultural work to be done,
leave that sector without the work be-
ing further advanced than when 1t
came in.
Must Also Furnish Horses.
The army must furnish horses,
either from the cavalry. the artillery,
or the supply trains. whenever horses
are needed. The mechanics attached
to the army are also required to as
sist the farmers in the shoeing of