312 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



and hundreds of ladies never brought up to farm work were proud 

 to don the " Land Army " uniform, shortf rocked, with their nether 

 limbs encased in leather leggings, to perform work which in not a few 

 cases, having been brought up in luxury, entirely without any 

 necessity laid upon them of " roughing it," they found scarcely suit- 

 able. Country women, more particularly, of course buckled to their 

 new task, busking and booning. Now that they have taken it up, one 

 may hope that, so far as they are young and strong, and to the rustic 

 manner born, and are not needed at home for more urgent woman's 

 duties, and as the work demanded is suitable, they will stick to 

 it. Eve, we know — or are told to believe — helped in trimming the 

 garden before she took to her traditional work of " spinning." 

 Spinning only came in after the fall. Her daughters of the present 

 day need not therefore be ashamed of following her example of the 

 time when she was still Eve " angelical." There is very much work 

 that women can do, without danger to their constitution, and any 

 approach to unseemliness or un womanliness, both in the field and 

 in the farmyard. And with the citizen's rights, which they have 

 secured, there must be supposed to have come also citizen's responsi- 

 bilities, one of which is to see the nation nourished. In any case, 

 even though man's wages have bounded up to previously undreamt 

 of height, so as to suffice, as one would think, for the support of a 

 family, nevertheless an additional pound or two earned by their 

 womanhood will be sure to be acceptable — more particularly if the 

 ideal of a " ladder " is held fast by, the " ladder " which is to lead 

 up to an independent and more affluent position. 



However, the main work for which woman is needed in the country, 

 and in which man cannot possibly replace her, is that of " home- 

 making." We have on the European Continent many examples 

 of women toiling in farm work — and toiling too much, often for 

 pay the moderateness of which ought, in some cases, to shame 

 employers. They toil everywhere all round. And even in the 

 United States — a country which has set an example of better things, 

 for which it deserves to be quoted as a guide — a recent inquiry 

 instituted by the Department of Agriculture has revealed an amount 

 of drudgery such as one would have believed impossible in the 

 present day. That is not what we want here. However, home life 

 we do want and must have. And home life is the one thing that 

 above all others country life requires to make it endurable. There 

 is no such for our rural labouring folk under present conditions. 

 And one consequence of this is the habitual and justly complained 

 of steady drift to the towns or to other countries, where, even if 



