BACK TO THE LAND.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1292, 22 November 1911, Page 11

BACK TO THE LAND.

Nowadays women aro invading nearlv all tho businesses and professions, anil there aro not very manv in which a few, at least, aro not successful. An American millionairess (whose accumulated dollar* aro evidently burning a hole in her pocket) has decided in her own mind that women would make snlendid farmers, and has started a school on her estale, where everything to do with farming is taught. Iho school is lor women-and thev must bo Suliragettos. Also, thev must bo prepared to work, not staph- live bv fheorv. They do tho milking, butter-mating, and cheese-making. They reap, and plough, and sow. The training lasts a vear at least, and after tho first month* or two it the iarmeress in embryo shirks her responsibilities, or goes back on her vocation, she is packed off to her people, anil her place filled by someone with more grit.

,lhe girls lead the "simple life" iu the simplest, way.. They are up with the lark, aud go to bed with the sundown. Their garbuig is peculiarly their own. Full bloomers, short to (ho knee, take the placo of tho bothersome skirt, aud tree, doin of hnibs, so essential, is guaranteed by tho adoption of such rational dressing. The cravo for farming is spreading in America, as well as in England. So far as Australia is concerned (says an Austialian writer, our girls have- neglected to appreciate the delights of hav-making and turnip-growing, though there is a farm near Moss Vale eutirelv managed bv two certificated farmeresses," who served their apprenticeship to this branch of work. In America, fagged societv women are trying a week or two at farming, as a sort of rest cure, possibly urged thereon by faith in the precept that change of work is as good as a rest. Farming for our sex as a wage-earning occupation is worth the consideration of those whose health and physique will stand the heavy demands made on it. There is a glut in the market of shop girls and factory girls arid typists and tea-room attendants, and the trend appears to be towards centralisation. The farm for women is a wide question, and one of many aspects, and its acceptance as an avenue of labour is a definite stop towards leavening the domestic help question, which is so übiquitous that solution should form the basis ot a national prize, founded on the lines of the Nobel Peace Prize, which, by tho way, came the way once of a woman—the Uaroness Orzacy.