READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



the beet fields of California. In Colorado " immigrants from 

 Old Mexico compete with New Mexicans (i.e., born in New 

 Mexico), Russians, and Japanese." Indians from the reserva- 

 tions have been employed in Colorado. At one time, convict 

 labor was used in Nebraska. In some parts of Colorado, in 

 Montana, and at the beet fields of the single factory in Kansas, 

 refugees from German colonies established long ago in Russia 

 are employed. In Michigan, the main labor supply comes from 

 the Polish and Bohemian population of Cleveland, Buffalo, Pitts- 

 burgh. The circulars issued by the Department of Agriculture 

 and by the state boards and bureaus repeatedly call the atten- 

 tion of the beet farmers to the possibility of employing cheap 

 immigrants. The troublesome labor problems, it is said, need 

 not cause worry : here is a large supply of just the persons 

 wanted. "Living in cities there is a class of foreigners 

 Germans, French, Russians, Hollanders, Austrians, Bohemians 

 who -have had more or less experience in beet growing in their 

 native countries. . . . Every spring sees large colonies of this 

 class of workmen moving out from our cities into the beet fields." 

 The sugar manufacturers, who buy the beets and make the 

 sugar in their factories, play a large part in bringing this labor 

 to the fields. Indeed, they play a large part in every phase 

 of the industry on its agricultural side as well as on its manu- 

 facturing side. They supply seed ; give the farmers elaborate 

 directions on methods of cultivation ; employ supervisors to visit 

 and inspect the farms and to spur the farmers to the needed 

 minute care ; of necessity they test the beets at the factory 

 and pay according to sugar content ; and they often undertake 

 to provide the labor. Sometimes the factories contract to attend 

 to the field labor themselves, receiving from the farmers a speci- 

 fied price so much for bunching and thinning, so much for 

 each hoeing, so much for topping. The farmers then have noth- 

 ing to do but supply " reasonable " living accommodations. More 

 often farmers not thus provided for secure their laborers through 

 contractors, at a fixed price of so much (varying from $15 to 

 $20) per acre for all the work ; these middlemen being hunted 

 up or selected for the farmers by the factory managers. Such 



