A GARDEN NOTE-BOOK 



les encountered by the farmer, Aristotle's dictum 

 comes to one with a special meaning: "The culti- 

 vators of the soil are the least inclined to sedition 

 and to violent courses." It is an occupation to 

 steady, to quiet, as well as to provide. It is an 

 occupation which, in many of its forms, is growing 

 attractive to women, and in all but its heaviest 

 physical aspects farming is a calling suited to 

 women as well as to men. 



The great forward impetus to the movement of 

 women workers on the land came, of course, from 

 the work of the two armies of women land- workers 

 during the war in Great Britain and America. 

 And the first step taken in this country to organ- 

 ize the Women's Land Army was taken by the 

 Woman's National Farm and Garden Association. 

 The association had been slowly building up a 

 foundation for work of this kind. In December, 

 1913, before war was in the minds of Americans, a 

 group of twelve women met in Philadelphia, and 

 decided that the banding together of women whose 

 interests lay in out-of-door work might serve both 

 as a stimulus to others to go out upon the land 

 and as a centre for mutual help through exchange 

 of knowledge in making known our agricultural 

 institutions, and in bringing together — please 



S60 



