HUMAN EFFORT AS A FACTOR IN PRODUCTION 243 



is a winning accomplishment an occupation that is substantially 

 an industrial picnic they are universally preferred and are paid 

 "by the job," or according to the measure of work done. In picking 

 grapes and other fruit, and in packing fruit for market, they excel, 

 and in some districts find agreeable employment in such service 



Most of the berries of New Jersey, grown so extensively for the 

 markets of New York and Philadelphia, are picked by girls and women 

 at a given rate per quart, and they often make more than men at the 

 same employment. 



In many districts of Pennsylvania very little outdoor employment 

 is undertaken by women, while in others, especially in those less 

 improved, or with a large foreign element in the population, much and 

 various farm work is done by women. In Butler County, which has 

 a large immigrant element, "the women assist in every outdoor 

 operation in which they can make themselves useful, so far as their 

 spare time from the kitchen and dairy will permit, while their com- 

 fortable homes show that they do not neglect their household duty." 

 These immigrants "not only do not lose their habits of industry, but 

 are stimulated by the prospect of being able to accumulate enough 

 to educate their children and for sickness and old age." Agricultural 

 machinery is reducing the proportion of female labor required in har- 

 vesting, yet a woman may occasionally be seen driving the teams 

 which are the motive power in reaping and mowing, and one who can 

 bind or gather grain with celerity and skill is not difficult to find. 

 The assistance of women in outdoor work is enjoyed in Delaware, 

 especially in "saving corn fodder," which is much used as a substi- 

 tute for hay, and in picking peaches for market. The wages paid to 

 women is said to be three-fourths of the rate allowed to men, and 

 "their efficiency is in the same ratio." . 



Among the poorer classes of whites in some counties in Maryland, 

 the Germans especially, the women assist in such labor as planting, 

 hoeing corn, weeding tobacco, and raking grain. Sometimes they 

 obtain men's wages, but usually about three-fourths as much. In 

 such work they are often quite as efficient as men. Negro women 

 have been accustomed to all kinds of farm labor, though generally 

 employed in the lighter branches. 



Women assist in farm labor to a very limited extent in Virginia. 

 Since the war, negro women object to field work. Very generally, 

 however, the "small farmers" have occasional assistance from wives 

 and daughters in most of the branches of service enumerated in the 



