With Food Supply Expected to Be Tighter Than Ever,
Women's Land Army Faces Its Greatest Challenge
I
City Girls and Women
Urgently Needed for
Every Sort of Farm Job
Women have done an out
standing job in this war, and
nowhere have their efforts
been more important than in
helping with the farm har
vest.
Until complete victory is
won, there must be no letup
on the home front. In this
critical year of 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.
TTie 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 work
ing harder and longer hours than
ever before. But they need extra
helpers, especially during the har
vest season. That group of women
doing emergency wartime farm
work comprise the Women's Land
army. Their patriotic efforts have
saved farm crops in thousands of
cases.
The Women’s Land army is a
movement rather than an organiza
tion. It is mainly a seasonal army.
In each state, it is under the direc
tion of the state extension service,
with headquarters at the state agri
cultural college. Most states have
a Women’s 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 place
ment offices . . . 12,000 over the
country . . . placed about 350,000
women in farm work, and about as
many other women were recruited
directly by farmers or found their
Her husband Is fighting on some
Pacific island, and she is doing her
bit on the home front by working
on a Connecticut dairy farm. Her
duties include milking, cleaning the
barn, and caring for the calves.
own jobs. These women received pre
vailing 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 WLA Workers?
All women who help in the war
time production of food, feed, or fiber
are a part of the Women's 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 hus
bands are overseas . . . housewives,
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, wom
en do all kinds of farm work. Singly
and in groups, they pick beans, to
matoes and other vegetables. They
detassel corn, shock grain, pick po
tatoes, pick and pack berries, ap
ples, peaches, grapes, other fruits
and nuts. They work in cotton,
grain, tobacco and flax; drive trac
tors, farm trucks and combines;
milk the cows and care for poultry
flocks. In brief, as and where need
ed, women help plant, cultivate, and
harvest the food and fiber crops and
care for the livestock—all so neces
sary in the war effort.
Farm wives and daughters—hun
dreds of thousands of them—do a
magnificent job, helping with hay
Probably the greatest need for seasonal help Is In harvesting perish
able vegetables and fruits. It is particularly Important that all of the
tomato crop be brought to market, as this vegetable is a cheap and abun
dant source of vitamin C.
ing, milking, feeding livestock. They
handle just about every farm task,
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. m. each day, nnd 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 them
selves in farm work. Their help is
especially valuable at harvest time,
for crops like apples, peaches and
other fruit; for beans, tomatoes, po
tatoes, peanuts and cotton. Teach
ers and college girls often spend two
or three summer months in farm
work. Business women work part
of their vacation time, evenings and
week ends harvesting tomatoes,
beans and carrots, detasseling corn
and picking apples, peaches and
grapes.
Homemakers also answer the lo
cal call for peak-season harvesting.
For example, in nn Oregon county
last year, S00 homemakers helped
save the bean crop. Each day they
boarded the "Housewives Special”—
buses leaving for the field at 8; 30
a. m. and returning at 3 p. m. This
gave them time to do the family
breakfast before leaving and to mar
ket 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 Cali
fornia county, women working 7 to
11 p. m. as peach cutters to help
save 20,000 tons of peaches by dry
ing were known as the “Victory
Shift.”
Women’s 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 said, after picking 3 tons of
beans, “I'm glad to do it . . . you
see. I 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 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 sur
rounding 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 college's
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 op
crated in many states. Last year,
New York state’s WLA camps in
cluded about 3,000 New York City
women and girls on their vacation
time. Life in camp is not all work.
Women find it interesting and broad
ening, with the companionship of
women from many different places.
As one worker said, after an eve
ning of recreation in camp, "We re
all friends, and that’s what we're
fighting for, isn’t it?’’
Even more interesting than pick
ing cherries was the "contact with
different people,” wrote another
camp worker on returning home.
Her fellow campers included an Ital
ian teacher, a woman who had fled
from Germany, college students, a
| librarian, a magazine writer, a
governess, and a mother of 12 chil
dren.
In some cases, women live right
on the farm for the summer. They
do such work as taking care of the
garden, planting, hoeing and har
vesting onions, carrots or other vege
tables, or helping do a hired man's
job. Typical of such workers are a
serviceman’s wife who has full care
of the poultry flock on a large gen
eral farm, and a woman who has
charge of the milk room on a dairy
farm.
Some women serve as "hired
hands." They milk, take care of
the poultry flock, feed livestock, and
work in the field. Of the approxi
mately 9,000 women placed for year
round work in 1944, many of them
were wives of men employed on the
same farm.
How 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 of
fice immediately. These offices usu
A student from William and Mary
college spends part of her summer
vaeation picking, grading and pack
ing peaches in a Virginia orchard.
ally are located in the county court
house or federal (post office) build
ing. If she cannot find this local
office, she may write to the Women's
Land army supervisor at her state
agricultural college, or to Women's
Land army, United States Depart
ment of Agriculture, Washington 25,
D. C.
A woman who can work for only
short periods of time should stand
by for the call in her community. It
will come through her local news
papers and over the radio. She will
then be told when and where to
apply.
Business women and housewives of ]
Sinai, S. I)., shock oats on farms near
town during the harvest season.
tyCLARK MCMEEKIN
THE STORY THUS FAR: While voyag
ing from England to America, I-ark Shan
non’! ship goes down. She Is saved by
Galt Withe, a bound servant, but made
prisoner at tbe inn to which he takes her.
She escapes, and is found by her sweet
heart, David North, who Is disguised as
a gipsy to get a line on Dr. Matson, a
slave pirate. Lark and Galt fall Into the
hands of Dr. Matson, but escape at
night, and after weeks of hardship, ar
rive In Norfolk where Lark expects to
meet David. Finally she meets him at
a state fair, but he is with Mara Hastings,
who had previously told Lark he was her
fiance. Lark rides Red Raskall. a fine
horse she managed to hobble after the
shipwreck, and wins the race.
CHAPTER XIX
Lark stood quietly waiting. She
had hoped that Matson would not
single her out by coming over to
speak to them. She felt that people
were staring at her curiously as he
made his way directly toward the
spot where she and Galt were stand
ing. She wished now that she had
gone out of the room immediately,
for though she was delighted that
David had won his case she had no
feeling of triumph or revenge.
"Miss Shannon,” he bent forward,
bowing from the waist, "may I con
gratulate you?”
"On what, sir?” She laid her hand
on Galt’s arm and stood erect and
poised beside him.
Suddenly, as Matson turned, there
was a silver flash like a bird flying
through the air. Lark’s eyes caught
it but, for a stunned second she
didn’t realize its significance. Then,
as Matson doubled over in agony,
trying to draw out the knife that
was buried, hilt-deep, in the breast
of his jacket, realization came to
Lark, realization and remembrance.
"Galt,” she screamed, “Galt!
Galt! Matson’s wounded!” Her
scream was lost in the general up
roar. The judge was down from
his desk, bending over the crum
pled form, shouting for a barber
surgeon to be summoned. One of
the farmers’ wives had fainted and
had to have a feather burned under
her nose. The court room was in
pandemonium.
Matson was dead now. past any
human help, and the sergeant-at
arms bawled "gangway” and car
ried the body into the judge’s small
inner sanctum.
A black-coated preacher In the
crowd said, "Lord, have mercy on
his soul!” spectators echoed"amen.’’
"Galt,” Lark said, "I’ve got to
get outside, away from all this. I
can’t stand it. I just can’t.”
He nodded and took her arm,
wedging a passage through the mill
ing, hysterical crowd.
Outside, in the court-house yard,
Lark said, “Galt, what do you think
we should do? We know it was
Mother Egypt who killed Matson.
Must we tell the judge that?"
"No,” Galt said thoughtfully. “I
don’t think we ought to tell him.
This is the way I look at it. Lark.
Matson got what was coming to
him. It was fair justice. Remem
ber Dosta. Remember the black
bearded sailor. Remember my fa
ther and dozens of others, likely
enough, that we don’t know about.
I look on this as rightful punish
ment. It’s best we just forget it."
“I'll try, if you say so, Galt.”
Galt said, “I’m hungry, Lark,
aren’t you?” and led her toward one
of the Negro women who called her
wares in the soft Gullah speech.
It was then that Lark noticed that
the old lady who had spoken to her
in the court room was beckoning
imperiously from the near-by table
where she sat alone.
When Lark hesitated for a mo
ment she saw that a Negro butler
was coming toward them with a
message. With Chesterfieldian polite
ness he conveyed his summons. Lark
and Galt followed him to his mis
tress, who nodded with satisfaction
and told them to sit down beside her.
"Too bad about that shocking
scene in the court room a while
ago,” she said, "but the man rich
ly deserved his punishment. 01'
course I saw which gipsy flung the
knife, just as you did, and it wouldn’t
surprise me any if Ben Tavner saw
it, too, but he’s a wise man, in spite
of the fact that he’s a judge. I
think we’ll all just forget it. That’s
the agreement you two young peo
ple came to, isn’t it?”
Lark and Galt nodded.
"There's not much my old eyes
miss," Madame Farrington boasted,
"or my ears, either. You’d be sur
prised how much gossip I’ve picked
up about the two of you, for instance.
My sympathy’s with you. It was
because of that that I came here to
day. A little bit, perhaps, it was
due to curiosity, too. We Virgin
ians are inordinately interested in
anything that concerns a thorough
bred. The whole countryside’s been
agog these past weeks over Jarrod
Terraine’s loss of Greatways on that
bet. For the horse which would
have saved him to turn up now when
it’s toe late seems very unjust and
very cruel.”
“We tried as hard as we could,”
she explained quickly, “to return
the horse sooner. We knew he be
longed to Squire Terraine and we’ve
been trying for weeks to return
him.”
“Yes,” Madame Farrington said,
“I believe you. Plascutt Dawes
started the ugly rumor that you
had heard th; t Jarrod had lost his
place and had been hiding at Mat
son’s rendezvous up the coast until
the Terraines left for Kentucky.”
“But why then,” Lark asked an
grily, “should we ever have come
here at all? If we wanted to steal
the horse, surely this would have
been the last place we would have
come to?”
"Plascutt says you wanted to hold
him up for a huge reward, more
than double the value of the horse.
There's no telling what lies a man
will tell, or what shabby tricks he’ll
stoop to, when he once makes up
his mind that he wants a particular
horse.”
Galt said frankly, "We were aim
ing to get the reward, the amount
Squire Terraine posted. It seemed
fair and right to us.”
"Jarrod Terraine would have paid
you, too, without any argument,”
Madame Farrington said with as
surance. “But Plascutt Dawes, he’s
a horse of another color!” The old
lady laughed at her joke and the
two young people smiled politely.
A vivacious-looking black-haired
girl excused herself from the group
of fashionable young people who
were gathered under a striped mar
quee and came toward them.
“I want you to know these young
friends of mine,” Madame Farring
ton said to her granddaughter.
"They’ve taken pity on a lonely old
The two young people smiled po
litely.
woman and let her reminisce to her
heart’s content.”
Sherry smiled and held out her
hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you
both,” she said. "I saw you ride at
the Fair. Congratulations!”
“There’s the bugle” — Madame
Farrington's voice was eager as a
child’s. “Give me your arm, young
man. Help me up the steps. I don’t
want to miss a word of this trial.
Take me up near the front so I won’t
miss a single trick!”
When Lark and Galt, deep in con
versation with Madame Farrington,
entered the court room, Minnie nod
ded with satisfaction.
“My young protagers got class,”
she commented to her neighbor
whose fried chicken and home
brewed ale she had been sharing.
“ ’See they’re already been took up
by the grandest old lady in the
county, wouldn’t surprise me none
if she axed ’em to lead the next
ball she held.”
Minnie saia, misn, now. xnings is
about to get going,” as Judge Tavner
rapped with his gavel to quiet the
general hubbub. Presently the for
malities were completed, and the
two lawyers who were to have
charge of the case of Dawes versus
Shannon and Withe took over.
Plascutt was called on and stated
that he considered the thoroughbred
horse, Lancer, to be without doubt
his property since he was in posses
sion of a document from Jarrod
Terraine deeding Greatways and all
his property, real and personal, tan
gible and intangible, enumerated
and unenumerated, to him.
Lark’s lawyer interrupted to ask if
Mr. Dawes had claimed the very
clothes on the backs of his old friend,
Mr. Terraine, and his daughter, Mis
tress Dana?
"I am a reasonable person," Plas
cutt stated with an air of offended
dignity, "and would not consider
forcing such a claim. I allowed the
Terraines to keep all small family
effects, traveling clothes, a trunk of
heirlooms, and certain inherited por
traits. I considered that I acted
generously as well as justly in this.”
A murmur of "for shame” went
round the court room and Plascutt,
Junior, blushed and shifted uncom
fortably in his chair beside his moth
er who looked straight ahead with
her nose in the air.
Minnie said, “Judge, could that
document be examined by anybody,
me, for instance?”
"Why, yes, I suppose so. It is
properly a public exhibit.”
Plascutt produced it with some re
luctance, and it was handed down
the line.
Minnie said. "Squire’s writin’
looks mighty shaky here, a whole
lot shakier than on a piece I’ve got
receiptin' the transfer of a couple
of acres from him to me that same
week. D’ye s’pose Mr. Dawes could
of made Squire drunk afore he
signed this here, Judge Tavner?
There was talk goin' round he filled
him up afore he provoked him into
agreein’ to the substitute race.”
“Objection!” Plascutt’s lawyer
yelled.
“Objection sustained,” Judge Tav
ner ruled, with a twinkle in his eye.
He knew that Minnie had already
made her point with the jury.
Lark was called to the stand next
and established the identity of the
horse. She told how she had been
familiar with him on the boat be
fore the storm and recognized him
at once when she had found him in
the quicksands on Ghost Island.
She was excused from the stand
and Galt took her place. He stated
that the horse had left the Island
with the ponies and returned to it
from time to time. He said that he
had seen the handbill offering a re
ward for its capture and return to
Squire Terraine, and that he and
Lark had, after a good deal of dif
ficulty, managed to secure the horse
and to hide him with the eventual
plan of taking him to shore and re
turning him to his owner.
“When you found his ownership
had changed hands, why did you not
give him at once to Mr. Dawes?”
Plascutt's lawyer demanded. “You
and your companion were clearly
evading the law by harboring prop
erty which did not belong to you.”
“Here, here, now!” Minnie heaved
herself to her feet. “Judge, I’ve got
a word or so to add to this case.
Any time a long-nosed, thin-shanked
shyster begins to sling mud about
Minnie Buxtree's friends—”
“Whether or not these young peo
ple happen to be friends of yours has
no bearing whatsoever on the case.
Miss Buxtree,” the judge said se
verely.
"Don’t call me Miss Buxtree,”
Minnie said serenely, "or I’ll think
you don’t like me. I’m Minnie to
my friends and admirers, and
there’re plenty of them in this here
court room.”
She let her eyes wander slowly
over the room, pausing for a mo
ment on several prominent mascu
line figures, as the judge, on whom
her gaze lingered for an appreciable
moment, said hurriedly.
“Well, Minnie, I guess we’ve all
known you for a good many years.
You have a reputation for . .
(he paused for a second to choose
his words carefully) "loyalty and
good sense. If you choose to take
the stand and tell us what you know
about this affair, the court will listen
to you. You were a passenger aboard
the Tempora, I believe, and doubt
less befriended the young lady who,
I understand, was crossing by her
self which is a somewhat unusual
procedure.”
Minnie swished her silken petti
coats through the crowded aisle and
hauled herself onto the platform with
the greatest of pleasure. It was ob
vious to the crowd that she was in
her element now as the center of
attention.
She bowed to Judge Tavner, to
the two lawyers, and to the court
room in general, settled her flounces
and began. “Judge,” she said, “La
dies and Gents. I have a word to
speak as character witness for this
young couple. Galt Withe was
named as codefendant. Now what
that means I don’t know, no more
than most of you do; but I don’t like
the sound of the word. No decent
man would want to have it tagged to
him, and he’s decent, hard-working
and self-respecting. You can tell
that by the looks of him.”
She pointed to Galt who blushed
furiously and looked self-conscious
and uncomfortable.
mm, ana tins gal here, did ev
erything within reason, and beyond
it, to return the horse to its rightful
owner, and when they found he’d
removed hisself acrost the moun
tains, they carried out his expressed
desire in racing the horse against
that fish-horse. Thunder Boy.”
“Just a moment, Miss Buxtree,”
Plascutt’s lawyer interrupted. “You
say ‘expressed desire.’ Just what
do you mean by that term?”
"I mean I heard the first bet
talked about and entered into on
that old tub of a Tempora,” Min
nie said with great satisfaction. “I’d
gone down to the hold for a bit of
a private chat with my feller Dan,
and, not finding him there I stayed
to hear the argument between the
two gents as you would have done
yourself. My two ears wuz aflap
ping and I heard every word said
Mr. Dawes wuz mad as a hornet
and Squire was a-shouting like a bull
of Basham. I could tell you all about
that bet if you’d like me to.”
“The bet has no bearing on this
case.” Plascutt was on his feet im
mediately. “The question the judge
asked you, my good woman, was
whether or not you had befriended
this young woman on the boat. Was
she one of your bound yrls? Did j
you connive with her to steal the
horse so that she might have money
to pay you back for the passage you!
had advanced to her. I recall seeing [
her in the horse’s stall, chatting j
familiarly with one of the common!
grooms. Possibly ali of you were J
working on a plan to steal the horse
from Terraine when the boat land-j
ed. The storm and shipwreck played
into your hands very nicely and pre
sented the opportunity you may have
been looking for.”
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Stitched Bluebirds
In Color on Linen3
7181
— the symbol of
iiayyiucoo—what more appro
priate motif for a prospective
bride’s linens? Do them in nat
ural color.
• • •
Birds and flowers are In easiest possible
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Inches.
Due to an unusually large demand and
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Send your order to:
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564 W. Randolph St. Chicago 80, m.
Enclose 16 cents for Pattern
No_
Name
Address_
Learns Swearing
And Pumping Has Meaning
In the old days of sailing ships,
a bishop was crossing to America.
The vocabulary of sailors has al
ways been a lurid one, and the
swearing habits of the crew hurt
the good bishop deeply, writes W.
J. Brown in “So Far . . .” One
night at his prayers, he was inter
rupted by a burst of profanity of
more than ordinary color and in
tensity, and was moved to com
plain to the captain.
The captain replied: “ Bishop,
you may not know it, but this ship
has sprung a leak. Those men
you can hear swearing are at the
pumps. While they’re pumping
and swearing you can reckon
you’re all right! But if they stop
pumping and start praying you
can reckon it’s all up!”
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NEBRASKA BEAUTY SCHOOL
4707 So. 24th St.
Omaha 7 - - Nebraska.
Do This When
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Costs little. Always demand Mexsana.
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