Freeing Five Million Men for the Army Women in France do not tear uniforms in war-time, but they are more directly affected by the war than the women of any other country. Five million men are in the Army, and the work in the rear has largely to be done by women. This is particularly true of agriculture, for as in the last war so also today it is rural France which provides the highest proportion of soldiers.
Although agriculture is the largest single occupation in France, there is not one branch of agriculture which figures among the "reserved occupations."
"Agricultural leave" is given to soldiers on a large scale, but only at certain periods of the year, and during the greater part of the year the whole vast agricultural machine of France is entrusted to the hands of women, old men, and young boys.
The French peasant woman has always been a hard worker; now she works twice as hard, and long as her working day always was it is longer still. The simple jobs, such as taking out the cows to graze, are now often done by the old grandmother who had retired from active work.
Always there is, apart from the question of money, a strong motive among the peasant women of France to do the utmost "to keep things in good shape," the desire not to cause any disappointment to the men when they return. To quote a woman's letter from the centre of France:
"My husband is so fond of the animals, I hope very much he will find them just as they were when he comes back."
And here is a quotation from the letter of an elderly woman who herself ploughs her field whenever a neighbour lends her a horse, "My son would be so disappointed if he found I had made a mess of the field arid the farm, and if he found all the implements going rusty" But however hard the peasant women work it is all a serious problem, and the Government is making every effort to maintain agricultural production at a high level. In the last war wheat production declined by over a half between 1913 and 1917, and this must be avoided now. If the war lasts long rationing, however distasteful to the French, may become inevitable for all agricultural produce.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.