Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-10-29


Maryland State Normal School, l be-
came very much interested in the ac-
tivities of the "Woman's Land Army
of America" better known as the far
merettes," and so | determined TO
make my vacation a patriotic one by
doing my bit in raising food to win the
war. Accordingly, / found myself one
day in the latter part of June on the
train bound for MacDougall, n. Y,
where my particular unit was located.
The Land Army has organized this
unit system TO meet the social needs OF
the young women who are engaged in
farm work, and also to relieve the
farmers wife of any bother in board
ing or feeding the farmerettes. They
all live at a central camp which may
be either a house or a group of tents.
Ny unit was able to boast of nice
large house for its headquarters. 1t
was the home of Miss Marion Allie
man, our leader, and she had kindly
given il over to the Land Army for the
summer. Most of the members of the
MacDougal unit were Barnard College
girls and lived in New York, Hanover,
Md, New Jersey, Virginia, Wes' Vir-
ginia and Massachusetts were also
represented and a nice lively bunch
we had Farmerettes are required to
enlist for at least a month, but a ma
jority serve two months, and some
three. New girls wereAlways coming
and going and our number varied any
where from five to fifteen.
Most of us were from the city and
needed a little training before we
could work out on the neighboring
! farms. 1t was on our own farm OF
several hundred acres that we receiv-
ed our preliminary instructions and
got hardened up bit. Mr. Garlic, our
genial overseer, saw to this and usual
| " turned us loose in his cornfield for
the first lesson in hoeing. And that
same corn flourished under our efforts,
and was the finest in that part of the
county, according to the Farm Blu
reau who asked to use it as seed corn.
When / arrived in New York the
cherry season was in full sway, and
so it was cherry picking that was my
first job as a farmerette. / put in
about six hours that day, which will
always stand out as an important one
in my mind. We picked from big high
| ladders and can remember how eau
tiously / watched my step on the very
| top, for my shoes were somewhat slip
perry. On the third day / tried little
/ haying which is quite different prop
osition. How hard / labored with the
unfamiliar pitch fork out in the hot
sun. 1t was no easy task to keep my
balance on the loaded wagon every
time the horses started up, but man.
aged to stick on somehow. After
every load there was a little we'll
earned rest while we rode from the
I field to the barn stretched out on the
soft sweet hay which made such an
ideal couch. All, that was solid com
1 fort! Haying is good heavy work, even
girls cannot do it, but we certainly
proved ourselves successful at it. OF
all the jobs, haying seemed the most
popular among us.
/ We rose every morning at 6, had
breakfast at $50, and were usually on
for work by seven Eight hours was
our regular day. but we had a Ford to
take us to and from our work and one
of the girls drove. Strange to say,
Henry was often on balky mood
and gave us no end Of trouble. He
boasted of a self-starter, tbs true, but
| ii proved a snare and delusionfi for we
usually had to start out in the morn
/ ing by pushing Henry to get him
warmed up. The farmers would call
up in a day ahead what out work
would be- Frequently we had more
calls that we could answer, for after
| the farmers once overcame their pre-
judice enough to try us out, they were
glad TO use us again. We always took
our lunches, though frequently the
farmers invited US to eat hot dinner