THE GREAT WAR PERIOD 



can say is that mine was the easier task and certainly 

 the most agreeable. 



Farming during the War years was not clear of 

 difficulties. The call to the Colours stripped us of 

 all our young men. Labour demands in every 

 direction forced up wages ; farm horses were required 

 for the Army ; tractors had not arrived and when 

 they did, towards the end of the War, it was several 

 years later before they became reliable as an 

 approved implement of the farm. To-day they have 

 arrived at a state of efficiency which puts them into 

 the category of real usefulness. Like self-binders 

 and threshing machines, they seem now to have 

 reached a more or less static stage of development, 

 and in this present effort they are playing a greater 

 part in our work of food production. 



The Land Girls in those days did yeoman service 

 in filling the posts vacated by the young men called 

 to the fighting forces ; they drove tractors and horses. 

 I must pay tribute to two girls who did great service 

 by taking on the work of horsemen, driving teams 

 regularly for several years, and when hostilities 

 ceased both were happily married. Girls, too, were 

 employed on fodder-baling gangs, but I seem to 

 recollect that this proved to be rather a mistake 

 owing to lack of proper supervision, and eventually 

 they were replaced by prisoners of war. 



Many of these men proved to be capital sub- 

 stitutes to fill the gaps caused by the great demand 

 for the Army. In order to have these men close 

 to their job I took empty cottages, one in Aldbourne 

 and one at Shepherd's Rest, and put six men in 



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