242 EMPLOYMENT OF WOxMEN IN FORESTRY 



would be less, we could raise, buy, or sell our plants at 

 cheaper rates per i,ooo, and they should have at least 

 equally good roots as those transplanted by men, and 

 in all probability would have better ones. 



Transplanting and sowing work over, there comes the 

 heavy work involved in weeding. A great part of this 

 work is done by lads, and it would be interesting to 

 know the proportion of seedlings pulled up with the 

 weeds during a season's work. Admitted that one 

 finds occasionally a clever-fingered youth ; but the 

 average in this respect could in nowise compare with 

 the average in the other sex. Moreover, a number of 

 the seedlings of our trees are excessively small when 

 they first germinate and during their first year's growth. 

 Surely if there is a work at which women and girls 

 should excel, it should be this job — a most important 

 one in a large nursery. There are numberless other 

 operations in the nursery which could be equally well 

 performed by women and girls with at least as good 

 results. 



Turning now to the woods: it may appear that 

 here at any rate is man's work, if only for the 

 reason that the manual labour connected with fell- 

 ing, converting and carting of timber, making roads, 

 fencing work, and so on, is heavy. It may be at once 

 admitted that this side of forest work is particularly 

 that of the man. But there is a variety of light work 

 in which there does not appear any adequate reason 

 why women should not find employment. This work 

 varies, both in nature and the season at which it has 

 to be done. For instance, in planting out young trees : 

 the manual work connected with the preparation of 



