The sun., 1918-08-02
WIN
PLACE IN THE sun
Have Made Good So Vigorous
~ That Former ScOffers
ClamOr for En-.
COMPETITION WAVES FAST
Some Lure Them With Swim
ming Pools and Running
Water in Shacks.

II there are any skeptics who still
refuse to believe that girl can handle
roe as efficiently as she can a broom
or drive a moving machine with the
same facility that she can manipulate
a typewriter they will do well to visit
the headquarters OF the Department for
Women Farm Workers in 0 East Eighth
are pouring in from the various agri-
cultural districts OF the country for
farmerettes.
Then il the skeptic is still unconverted
he might take run up to the berry
growing section OF New York state. any
where from Marlboro on the-Hudson to
Highland. and ask the farmers There
what success they have had with the
units OF women farm workers supplied
to them by the department.
The farmers themselves once scoffed
at the idea of putting petticoats to
work in the fields" and only consented
to employ the farmerettes because OF the
scarcity of male farm hands Now,
however. they have had to humble them
selves to the extent Of reengaging the
women they employed last year, and in
many cases have asked the Department
for Women Farm Workers to double or
treble their allotment OF workers for
next sea son.
In fact the farmers are no thoroughly
convinced of the practicability OF en-
ploying women that they have begun to
compete with one another in the way
OF providing working conditions that will
appeal to the somewhat "fastidious''
tastes of the girl farm hands. Some Ok
IN t,,,,., gv,,y 10
and bathrooms and installing running
water in the shacks where the farmer
cites live. Under these comparatively
ideal conditions a squad OF forty women
will begin work this week at Highland
picking and clipping beans, hoeing and
helping out generally on big truck
farm which supplies the Poughkeepsie
canneries.
Another place where the Maude Mullers
have won merited recognition Is on the
tobacco plantations in Connecticut. Al
East Windsor Hill there are now 125
women working in the fields and in the
tobacco sheds. Although they left New
York city as recently as July 81, these
girls have learned to string. hoe and
, sucker tobacco as eXpertly as their
brother workers. Their progress has
been such revelation in fact that the
owners OF surrounding plantations. who
at frst watched the experiment with
amusement. now are clamorinR for pISh
tation maids Of their own.
The Department for Women Farm
Workers likewise has placed forty
women on the largest truck farm In the
world at Bridgeton. y. ]. II has also
placed units numbering from ten tc
thirty workers on various other farms
on Long Island. in Connecticut and New
York
For the most part the farmerettes are
city bred girls who never did a days
work on a farm before In their lives
and wouldn't be doing it now II theii
country DIDN'T need them TO take tbs
place OF the male farm hands who have
been sent to France to garner In q bis
crop 81 Germans Few OF the girls were
accustomed TO witnessing the sunrise
Now, however. they get UP At 40 A. NJ
and work from A NJ until p NJ
with al hour for luncheon. They like
| wise make their own beds. wash theii
| own dishes and provide their own enter
tainment
AS rule. however. they md the sac.
rlfce worth while and return 10 theil
typewriters, their homework or their So
cial duties with greater reserve supply
| OF health and energy than they evel
| brought home with them from a vacation
| before