Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-05-11
AGRICULTURE IS IN.
REGULAR SERVICE
Of FRENCH ARMIES

Ii lie SSIFlSC Vi aoiASuAtUAS - -
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 in the infantry, the cavalry,
the artillery, the engineers or the avn
alton.
Military 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 torped-
oes. While the present great Euro
pean conflict has demonstrated that
war must ever be destructive, and
possibly more destructive than ever
before, yet the constructive, conserva-
tive basis on which the French seek
to conduct it has developed numer-
Gus possibilities for lessening and re-
pairing the destructiveness.
In a general way the object OF this
service of agriculture is to keep the
farming in the entire war zone and es-
pecially in the immediate vicinity Oh
the front lines up to its normal and
maximum productiveness. 1t is now
as much the duty of every soldier III
the French army to help in these ag-
ricultural labors, as it is to fight, while
the army as whole contributes not
only the farm laborer but also the
horses and even part of the imple-
ments necessary.
The agricultural work to be done
in the war zone divides itself into
three general classes. First Of all the
extending of enough help to the farm
ers 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
fee 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
we're still there. Thirdly, as fast as
French soil is won back from the
Germans the agricultural service must
undertake the restoring of this ground
to a state of fertility and the planting
of it in crops at the earliest possible
moment
War Front Divided in Sectors.
Every general commanding on the
French front is required to divide his
portions of the war zone into sectors
each one comprising on an average
twenty to twenty-five villages or
farming communities. In addition to
the general officers that are designated
for the administration of the agricul-
tural service an under-officer, who is
chosen because of his agricultural MT
ness is assigned to each sector and
remains permanently in charge OF
the agricultural work there, regard
less of where his regiment may be
moved afterwards.
In the meantime the project of each
department in the war zone is requir-
ed to make out a list of all agricul-
tural work that needs to be done, to-
gether with the degree of urgency and
place it at the disposition of the mil
itary officer in charge of each sector.
The project must also provide the
tools and the grain and seed for SOW
ing.
Entirely regardless of weather 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
are on the march, if they stop in any
sector, even for only two or three
days they must participate in farm Ia
Der under way.
When troops move on they leave
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 off
One and only one iron clad rule has
been adopted by the military author
tiles and that is that under no cir
cumstances whatever must a military
, troop, whatever it's size may pc, pass
ing through a given sector where there
is agricultural work to be done, leave
that sector without the work being
further advanced than when it came
in.
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 shoeing of their