November, 1906 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



307 



A Woman's Farm in England 



By Amelia Roy 



^RULY it was such, for the whole of the 

 work, even the heaviest, was done by the 

 bevy of girls whose home it was and whose 

 farm it became in a very literal sense on the 

 death of their father. It was a brave and 

 venturesome thing to do, trying to work a 

 farm of more than three hundred acres, working it com- 

 pletely, engaging in every sort of farm-work that needed to 

 be done, and then, after two years of unremitting effort, 

 realizing that the labor had been successfully expended. The 

 record may not, indeed, be unique, but at least it is an instance 

 of unusual energy and courage unusually applied. 



Brockwell Farm is at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, in the 

 Vale of Aylesbury. It includes about three hundred and 

 twenty acres, and originally belonged to a Captain Scott. On 



I must yield to the temptation of making a catalogue of 

 these brave young women. First of all is the eldest, Miss 

 Scott — Queenie. She transacts all the business of the farm. 

 attending the markets, and buying and selling the corn and 

 cattle. She is the business-woman of the estate, and the first 

 word of censure or of fault-finding has yet to be uttered by 

 her sister-associates. At home she assumes special care of 

 the pigs, and permits no interference with this branch of 

 her work. 



Miss Maggie comes next. She is the dairymaid — and an 

 expert, if you please, for she treasures more than fifteen 

 prizes and certificates for butter-making and milking at pub- 

 lic competitions — no slight achievement for a young girl not 

 long in her twenties. And she adds a variety of other accom- 

 plishments to her list, for some of the best hay-ricks in her 

 country were built and thatched by herself, and in main 

 ways she has displayed a marked leaning toward mechanical 

 pursuits. The raising of poultry is another department that 

 belongs to her. 



Talcing Hay From a Hay-rick 

 Built by the Girl Farmers 



his sudden death his 

 daughters found them- 

 selves confronted with 

 the problem of earning 

 their livelihood. Accus- 

 tomed to farm-life from 

 earliest childhood they 

 were familiar with every 

 detail of farm manage- 

 ment, and their land 

 seemed to offer the best 

 opportunity for the fu- 

 ture. Feeling that 



familiar work might be more successful in the end than that 

 of which they then knew nothing, they bravely set about their 

 self-chosen task and became farmers in the most literal sense 

 of the word. 



Were one making a philosophical study of this interesting 

 estate it would be easy to indicate the elements which have 

 made it successful. First, of course, is long and intimate 

 familiarity with the work to be done. Then comes the un- 

 bounded enthusiasm with which each detail of this work was 

 performed. The girls brought to their work broad knowl- 

 edge and deep interest, and were delightedly interested in 

 everything they did. Not to make the present study too pro- 

 found it will be sufficient to point out a third reason for their 

 success in the subdivision of labor that was adopted at the 

 outset, and which speedily turned each young woman into a 

 specialist in her own department. 



Feeding the Chickens 



Miss Mabel is the third sister and attends to the live stock. 

 At the present writing she has five horses and a colt under 

 her care, and she has general supervision of the cows and 

 fowls. The flower-garden is hers also, a spacious plot of 

 ground that she carefully tends early in the morning or in 

 the evening, for there is little time in the middle of the day 

 when this delightful spot may be cultivated. 



Miss Winnie, the fourth, makes a specialty of rearing 

 calves, as many as six being brought up in a single season. 

 Very varied, also, are the things she turns her hands to. 

 When occasion needs she is dairymaid or plow-woman, and 

 from early morning until dusk her small figure — for she is 

 the smallest of the family — knows no rest and is as busy 

 as a bee. And so are all of them, for not an hour of the day 

 but finds one in earnest occupation — the occupation consist- 

 ing of recreation as well as hard work. 



