EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN IN FORESTRY. 57 



from early youth. The latter proved, invariably, the most 

 adaptable, and often attained to a commendable degree of 

 proficiency. 



Recently several of the larger wooded estates in the south- 

 east of Scotland have had recourse to female labour to eke out 

 the forestry staff, with, of course, varying degrees of success. 

 Timber merchants, in the same area, have also been employing 

 women in various capacities in connection with their operations. 

 What is probably a unique instance of what women are 

 capable of doing came under the writer's observation recently. 

 A number of women have been employed for some time on the 

 Hendersyde forestry staff, the male members being in the 

 minority. Among other operations the felling, snedding, and 

 cross-cutting of a few hundreds of very heavy hardwoods (ash, 

 oak, beech, elm, etc.) was undertaken by the staff, the women 

 performing the major portion of the work, even to the sawing 

 off of the roots of trees with cubic contents up to 230 feet ! 



Contractors for felling pit-wood have also been employing 

 women at this work, and they are giving every satisfaction, 

 their work being done in a " workman "-like manner. In some 

 cases the heavier trees are "laid in" and snedded by men, 

 but there are areas being mostly operated by women. 



It has been suggested that women cannot be employed on 

 routine work on a wooded property, but the writer's experience 

 is that employment can be continuous. It is admitted that they 

 can be usefully employed during the planting season and on 

 nursery work, but this does not by any means exhaust their 

 capabilities. On recently felled areas their work in clearing 

 and burning brushwood is probably more economical than that 

 of men, particularly skilled woodmen. The erection of netting 

 fences for protection, with some skilled assistance, can be 

 undertaken by women. The cleaning out of surface drains, on 

 ordinary forest soils, has been proved not to be beyond their 

 strength. The digging of pits does not require the skill that 

 notch-planting entails, to be a success, and on average soils this 

 can be well done by women. The clearing of young plants from 

 rank herbage, cutting bracken, rushes, etc., are operations that 

 require a quick eye more than great strength, and fall in periods 

 when men can be more usefully employed on heavier work. 

 Thinning and light pruning, although not much practised at the 

 moment, fill up part of the round. 



