DISTRIBUTION OF WORK 245 



Also, we only employ men and youths in forestry 

 work, when there is a large amount of work which 

 could be performed at least equally as well, and some 

 of it perhaps better, by women. 



We hear a good deal and read a good deal about the 

 registration of women for employment during and after 

 the war. Surely one direction in which women could 

 find employment in this country is in the lighter 

 portion of the work connected with the industries of 

 the soil ! And one of these is forestry, a business whose 

 importance to us and our industries in this country 

 will be one of the factors which the war will bring into 

 great prominence. 1 



Stress has been laid above on the cheaper rates at 

 which work in the nursery and elsewhere could be 

 undertaken by the employment of woman labour. 

 The cheapness, however, is a relative one only. It is 

 not suggested that the woman should necessarily be 

 paid at a cheaper rate than the man for the individual 

 piece of work done. Provided the work were equally 

 well accomplished, the rate paid should be a uniform 

 one to be earned by whoever performs the job. 



So far as forestry is concerned, the disparity be- 

 tween the sexes is one of physique only. In forestry 

 operations the labour supply is usually a difficulty. 

 Thus, men have to be taken off their heavier, equally 

 important, and more legitimate work in the woods at 

 certain seasons to perform the lighter and cheaper 

 forms of work in the nursery, etc., which the women 

 could do equally well, if not better, in some cases. 



1 This was written in April 1915. There can now be little 

 doubt after twenty-two months of the war, of the importance of 

 the forestry industry to this country. 



