XVI 



the employment of women in forestry* 



The Manual Part of Forest Work 



There are few industries in which conservatism is so 

 strong as those connected with the soil. The con- 

 servative nature and strong prejudices of the farmer, 

 and the grave suspicion with which he regards the 

 employment of new methods, have become a byword. 

 What is, perhaps, not so well known is the attitude of 

 the forester with respect to innovations. We foresters 

 are, in many respects, very much, if not quite, as 

 conservative as the farmer. As a general rule, the 

 forester looks with suspicion at new methods of sowing 

 seed in the nursery, of lining out young transplants, 

 planting out the young trees to form woods, and so on. 

 There is, of course, a good deal to be said in his favour. 

 If he has won success in the past by employing his own 

 or certain well-recognised methods, why imperil such 

 success in the future, even if the prospect is held out of 

 greater returns — returns which he himself cannot hope 

 to live to see ? For the forester's life and work are 



1 This and the succeeding article appeared in the Englishwoman 

 for June and December 1915. They deal with the subordinate 

 or manual and executive or supervising branches of forest work. 

 I have deemed it best to leave them in their original form, although 

 this involves some slight repetition of the preceding article. 



236 



