INTRODUCTION 



BY LADY WARWICK 



THE Lighter Branches of Agriculture is a 

 convenient expression which has been used 

 to denote that field of labour in agricul- 

 ture which is more specially the province of 

 women than of men. Readers of Mr Hardy's 

 novels know, of course, that much of the 

 rough work of the farms is often done by 

 women, even in this country. Tess was not 

 only a dairymaid : she had also to dig and 

 hoe, and bind the sheaves after the reaper. 

 But the rougher work is after all done by the 

 men in England. 



The greyer skies of the north seem to 

 temper the despotism of man, and the farm- 

 labourer's wife is not the beast of burden in 

 this country, that she so often becomes 

 abroad. Indeed her daughters nearly always 



