Show with food supply expected to be tighter than ever women s land army faces its greatest challenge 0 I 1 city girls and women are urgently needed for every sort of farm J job b women have done an I 1 ing ilig job in this war and nowhere have their efforts been more important than in helping with the larm farm harvest until complete victory is won there must be no letup on the home front in this critical year of the war the high rate of food production must be continued at the same time the farm labor shortage will be even more serious in many areas the answer is for town and city people especially women and youth to step into the breach as they have done for the past three years farm people themselves are working harder and longer hours than ever before but they need extra helpers especially during the harvest season that group of women doing emergency wartime farm work comprise the land army their patriotic efforts have saved farm crops in thousands of cases the land army is a movement rather than an organization it is mainly a seasonal army in each state it is under the direction of the state extension service with headquarters at the state aa agricultural ri college most states have a a land army supervisor who works closely with the county agricultural agents and their farm labor assistants in most localities the county agent administers the emergency farm labor program recruiting and placing workers on farms last year these local placement offices over the country placed about women in farm work and about as man many y other women were recruited directly by farmers or found their her husband is fighting on some pacific island and she is doing her bit bit on the home front by working on a connecticut dairy farm her duties include milking cle cleaning arting the barn b arn and caring for the calas calves own jobs these women received prevailing farm wages for the amount and type of work done besides these a great many farm women worked on their own and neighboring farms who are workers all women who help in the wartime production of food feed or fiber are a part of the land army women from farms cities and towns farm women who work longer hours than ever before women from offices factories and stores women whose husbands are overseas housewives ves college girls and teachers they are women of all ages who spend all summer all year or only a few hours a week end or a vacation period helping bring through the farm crops our country must have north south east and west women do all kinds of farm work singly and in groups they pick beans tomatoes and other vegetables they corn shock grain pick potatoes pick and pack berries apples peaches grapes other fruits and nuts they work in cotton grain tobacco and flax drive tractors farm trucks and combines milk the cows and care tor for poultry flocks la in brief as and where needed n eed women help plant cultivate and harvest harvest the food and fiber crops and care tor for the live livestock all so necessary in the war effort farm wives and daughters hundreds of thousands of them do a magnificent job helping with haying milking feeding livestock they handle just about every farm task Z V 41 ir al 4 4 7 Z probably the greatest need for seasonal help is in harvesting perish ible able vegetables and fruits it is particularly important that all of thi the tomato omato crop be brought to market as this vegetable is a cheap and abundant source of vitamin C many of which they have never done before putting in long hours at the double job of housework and farm work typical is one midwestern farm woman who during corn planting time drove a tractor from 4 to 8 a in each day and then did the farm chores before starting her regular housework which she does without benefit of electricity and running water town women prove capable even though town women were at first accepted reluctantly by many farmers they have now proved themselves in farm work their help is especially valuable v 1 at harvest time for crops like apples peaches and other fruit for beans tomatoes potatoes peanuts and cotton teachers and college girls often spend two or three summer months in farm work business women work part of of their their vacation time evenings and week ends harvesting tomatoes beans and carrots detas corn and picking apples peaches and grapes homemakers also answer the local call for pek peak season harvesting for example in an oregon county last year homemakers helped save the bean crop each day they boarded the housewives special buses leaving for the field at a rn and returning at 3 p in this gave ga e them time to do the family breakfast before leaving and to market for supper in the late afternoon in washington as in other states women joined groups of twilight pickers working evenings in the big berry crop and in a california county women working 7 to 11 p in m as peach cutters to help save tons of peaches by drying were known as the victory shift underlying motive for doing farm work is for the most part patriotism a deep desire to help to have a part in feeding our soldiers and our allies and an intense conviction that no food should go to waste As a 60 year old woman oman said after picking 3 tons of beans im glad to do it you see I 1 have a son in the air corps of women who do farm work by far the greatest number live at home and work by the day or part time on alarms farms nearby spend vacations on farms some women especially college girls teachers and business women spend part of their vacation time in labor supply camps working on surrounding farms for one week two weeks or the entire summer they cultivate and pick vegetables or harvest fruit many smith college students as a part of their colleges summer plan of work or study formed groups which lived as one household in the farming area where they worked camps for women workers are operated in many states last year new york states camps included about new york city women mid and girls on their vacation time life in camp is not all work women find it interesting and broadening with the companionship ot of women from many different places As one worker said after an eve ning of recreation in camp we were re a all H friends and what wha t were fighting for it 11 even more interesting than picking cherries was the contact with different people wrote another camp worker on returning home her fellow campers included an italian teacher a woman who had fled from germany college students a librarian a magazine writer a governess and a mother of 12 children in some cases women live right on the farm for the summer they do such work as taking care ot of the garden planting hoeing and harvesting onions carrots or other vegetables or helping do a hired mans job typical of such workers are a emans wife who has full care of the poultry lock flock on a large general farm and a woman who has charge of the milk room on a daira farm some women serve as hired hands 1 I they milk take care of the poultry flock feed livestock and work in the field of the approximately women placed for year round work in 1944 many of them were wives of men employed on the same farm how dow to get a farm job A woman who can work for the entire summer or for several weeks should consult her county extension agent or local farm employment office immediately these offices 4 1 at t ZA A student from william and mary alary college spends part of her summer vacation picking grading and packing peaches in a virginia orchard ally are located in the county courthouse or federal post i ing if she cannot find this local office she may write to the women a land army supervisor at her s tate state agricultural college or to land army united states department of agriculture washington 25 D C A woman who can work for only short periods of time should stand by for the cau call in her community it will come through her lo 10 local cal newspapers and over the radio she will then be told when and where to apply 11 business women and housewives r of sinai S D shock oats during the harvest season A 44 AVA eui 44 0 W |