The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-06-17
Women As Farm-Hands
(By Jesse Lynch Williams of The
Vigilantes)

Vigilantes)
II had to hire them for my farm
because I couldn't get men. Neigh
boring farmers who borrowed some
of them later hated to admit that
they were more efficient than men
workers, but had to-"
The farmer who wrote those words
employed twenty-five girls last sum-
mer to get in his crops, some Of them
girls from the seasonal trades" out
of a job, others students or college
graduates out for vacation, but few,
If any, of them experienced farm
hands. He made two important dis
coveries. First, that they were good
workers. Second, that this kind OF
work was good for women, and as
this farmer is none other than DR..
Sargent, the Director of Physical
Training, he ought to know.
He adds that he did not have a
chance to try them at blowing or hea-
w work, though they can do that, but
at other kinds of farm work he
found them in all ways the superior
of men. They do not average as
strong as men, though in proportion
to their weight they are, but they
made up in care and thoroughness
what they lacked in theft, and they
did not loaf on the job when the boss
was not looking. Women are near
" always more conscientious than
the superior SEX.
"The Woman's Land Army of Am
erica is still a new thing in most
parts of the country, but it has come
to stay and the sooner the farmers OF
America get that idea through their
heads and live down their old-fash-
toned prejudice against this new
tangled notion" the better for them
and for the country. Every man re-
leased from the farm means one more
man for the army or for other war
work not done by women.
A year ago. almost every farmer in
the country shared this impractical
and unpatriotic prejudice. Such pre-
: iudices die hard, All our prejudices
r about women die hard. | will give al
t amusing illustration. Last summer g
4 number of units" were employed II
n various parts Of Westchester county
i New York A unit means squat
: of women workers "a gang, w
$ might call it, if they were mem wit
Q live and work together under tn
]. charge of competent older womal
n experienced in agriculture, a sort 0
r, forewoman who manages the who'll
le outfit, which includes their own cool
l. and food and bedding. The farme
'r does not supply anything except tn
i wages and possibly place to put u
!, few tents. The farmers wife ha
y no bother or extra work in the ma
~ ter at all Well, every one of thes
re units in Westchester county mad
s. good, and there were exactly as man
te surprised farmers in Westcheste
&c county as there were units. AT tn
n en- dof the season each employer wa
Il asked. "Will you employ women farl
hands again next year, Each farl
" err made exactly the same reply, Eye
~ if can get the same women"
" Each thought that he had happene
nc to have the luck to get the only GOO
NC bunch Of girls? Sly, shrewd fellow
" those farmers! For 1t seemed
. them quite obvious that women as
NC class could not be good farm laborer
~ A perfectly natural prejudice, Nj
r. as a class have always had the san
certainty that women could never
good at anything Outside of Il
home" until they went out and MAJ
good at everything from voting al
ana doctoring to driving ambulances, al
M NJ. even at fighting in the trenches VIII
in the necessity arose over in poor
Ju- trayed Russia.
lOf ., American farmers, however, a
ub. the most enlightened in the wor
de-. Perhaps 1t will not take them so 10
sMn,iit to get the idea into their heads as
the required to beat 1t into the Britt
.M'' brain. In England, even after
!. :" scarcity of farm labor had becol
more acute than it is here now,
" "Woman's Land Army" movem'
was almost blighted by mascul
prejudice until the Government
came alarmed and turned a Gle
oLk trick. Prizes were offered at
!. county afr for public competiti'
d all H.
ainst TOT WOMEN WoTkeIs III val iooo uop'
,,a., ments of farm work. This arou
de- considerable curiosity and created
have MT. =
ynes great zeal Oh uiscussloh' iho W
IN, the ton. however was not whether G
could do farm work, but which
could do it best! Big crowds G;
TX cred. Bets were made. Rivalry