224 WOMEN AND FORESTRY 



Scotland. A decade or so ago women were employed 

 in some of the Scottish nurseries, but they gradually 

 fell out and gave up the work. Since the war com- 

 menced they have taken up the work again. During 

 the season of 1914-15 complaints were made by the 

 nurserymen that the attendances were very irregular. 

 But in one instance at least the women were exonerated. 

 -The weather was bitterly cold and wet and the nursery 

 was several miles — three to four — from the town in 

 which they lived. If women are to be employed in 

 forestry work it will of course be necessary that they 

 should be suitably housed in the vicinity of the nursery 

 or woods, and further — an important point in my 

 estimation — that the hours should be so arranged that 

 they can get home to have good meals and to perform 

 that household work which is of such enormous im- 

 portance in the welfare of the home and in the up- 

 bringing of the children. It is, I think, more than 

 probable that the question of the employment of 

 women in occupations connected with the soil has 

 never been approached from the proper standpoint 

 in this country. Conditions different from those 

 suitable for men will have to be introduced if success 

 is to be assured, and a question of the very first im- 

 portance is, and I am sure every woman will agree, 

 that both in housing accommodation and in the hours 

 allowed for meals and household duties, their necessities 

 should be studied. This is one direction in which 

 women can greatly assist, for unless it receives adequate 

 recognition it is difficult to perceive how much progress 

 can be made in this question of the employment of 

 women and girls in forestry operations. 



