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House & Garden 
THE GROWING FARMS OF FRANCE 
A Survey of Soil 
Recovery 
I N June, 1917, General Henri Petain 
took a group of ten American women 
into the invaded region of Northern 
France, and established them in the little 
village of Blerancourt, a scant fifty miles 
northeast of Paris, half-way between the 
Aisne and Sarre Rivers and just at the 
western edge of the Department of the 
Aisne. This is the district that in 1914 
the German wave rolled over in the rush 
that carried the gray hordes almost to the 
gates of Paris. 
Headed by Miss Anne Morgan and 
Mrs. A. M. Dike, these pioneers were au¬ 
thorized to set up their headquarters in 
the old chateau at Blerancourt. They 
were requested to wear the French Army 
uniform and ordered to report to the com¬ 
manding officer of the Third Army Corps, 
thus operating under army authority and 
direction. In the beginning some thirty 
villages were given to the American Com¬ 
mittee for Devastated France to supervise, 
and in six months they had charge of 
Vegetation springing up from the shell-torn 
ground shows that the soil is still fertile. 
Indeed, the throwing up of the sub-soil by 
the explosions will residt in ultimate im¬ 
provement 
sixty; their territory now covers one hundred 
and thirty villages. The immediate object of 
their work was to reinstate the returning 
refugee upon his own land and help him to 
become, as quickly as possible, self-supporting. 
That intangible something called “spirit” is 
possessed to an extraordinary degree by the 
French people, and there is no evidence of 
pessimism among the French farmers about 
their land. Both men and women have un¬ 
usual mechanical ability. The small farmer 
or market-gardener does not spare himself, nor 
does his family. They work from early dawn 
until nine and even ten o’clock at night, taking 
full advantage of France’s long twilight period 
to produce the family food, before and after 
their day’s work on the roads, bridges, in¬ 
dustries and shelters. The French country¬ 
man is a strong individualist, but the present 
conditions have made co-op- 
The great need is for eration his only salvation. 
implements, especially With the lack of man-power 
tractors and other farm _ one se ldom sees a man be _ 
eZ^e’branecessZy tween nineteen and thirty- 
to reclaim large areas five in Northern France— 
With the help of the Government and the 
American Committee, the indomitable 
courage of the French is bringing the land 
back to productiveness 
The shattered homes are being 
patched to make them habitable 
for refugees. By the American 
painter, Harry B. Lachman 
