98 AGRICULTURAL LABOR 



expected him (the farmer) to say something, but he did not. If he had I 

 certainly would have told him what was on my mind. And then another 

 thing that made me sore was that they served beer at the table. 



When we started harvesting we got up at four bells and worked in the field 

 until eight. Then I had ten horses to care for so I never got to bed before 

 ten P.M. I was about all in. 



"I am undecided just what to do, but think I will come to Minneapolis 

 and get work. 



Sincerely," etc. 



The second letter, from the Chicago social worker, follows: 



"Your letter indicates that you do not fully understand the situation 

 with unemployed men. How are these men to reach Minnesota? Will you 

 send the railroad fare for ten men and take your chances as to whether the 

 ten are good men, and as to whether they will stay after they reach you? Do 

 you realize that more than two-thirds of these men have never worked on 

 the farm, and that if you and your friends found them to be incompetent you 

 would dismiss them? Usually when they are dismissed they are without 

 money for railroad fare to return to the city. These men are laboring men, 

 mechanics and their helpers, in so far as they work. Hundreds of them are 

 only temporarily out of work, and, for a variety of causes, have no money. 

 Not many of them are too lazy to work. A large number of them are inca- 

 pacitated by drink and other bad habits. 



"If you will send me the money for the railroad fare and take your chances 

 on these men, I will send you twenty men, or more. We will buy the tickets 

 ourselves and take the men to the train. 



" I know you will treat your men kindly, but I know, also, from personal 

 knowledge, that some farmers compel them to sleep in the attic, or in the barn, 

 give them poor food, and work them, without any privilege of going to the 

 town, or seeing anything but the farm. These men are human and they want 

 to see other men have some amusements, and be treated with some respect. 

 Hundreds of farmers show them positively no consideration and give them the 

 same care that they do their mules. If the farmer does not like them, he dis- 

 charges them at once, but he grumbles if they leave him because they do not 

 like him. 



"I can pick out a number of men that I think will work, but I have often 

 been mistaken, and may be again. Yours very cordially," etc. 



Seasonal Nature of Work. Let us now direct our attention to 

 some of the details of the problem of agricultural labor. The first 

 and one of the most important aspects of the problem is the seasonal 

 nature of farm work. Farm crops are planted, cultivated, and 

 harvested, as a rule, in the summer-time. The winter is the dull 

 season on the farm. Therefore, a very large part of the labor 

 which is necessary in the summer-time cannot find employment 

 on the farm in the winter-time. That gives us the pathology of a 

 floating population. This evil is greatly aggravated in sections 

 devoted largely to one crop such as the wheat sections of the North- 

 west and of the Middle West. Take for example the State of North 

 Dakota. In the winter season men find employment in the woods 

 as lumber-jacks. With the approach of spring logging operations 

 in the woods largely cease. These men drift into the harvest fields 



