8 10 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



257. SEASONAL DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR IN RELATION TO 



DEMAND 1 



BY W. J. SPILLMAN 



The American farmer has seldom solved the problem of distribu- 

 ting his labor through the year in such a way as to have it profitably 

 occupied at all seasons. Many farmers who have attempted to follow 

 a rotation have abandoned the effort. It is probable that the lack of 

 regular rotations is partly due to the fact that some of the most 

 important crops of the country, of which most rotations would 

 naturally consist, compete strongly with one another in the matter 

 of labor required at certain seasons of the year. For instance, in 

 central latitudes the cultivation of corn is still in progress when wheat 

 harvest begins, and timothy and clover, the principal hay crops of 

 the country, demand much labor almost simultaneously with wheat 

 as well as with oats. This makes it necessary to lay by the corn long 

 before the proper season and requires an enormous amount of work 

 during the latter part of June and the early part of July, but leaves 

 the latter part of the summer poorly occupied. This renders necessary 

 the hiring of extra labor in June and July, while at some seasons there 

 is not enough work to keep regular labor profitably employed. 



One of the hardest problems the farmer has to face is that of labor. 

 Reliable labor cannot always be had even under the best conditions. 

 Where the cropping system is such as to require an excess of labor 

 at one season and little or no labor at other seasons it is necessary to 

 depend on transient labor, which is almost always of an undesirable 

 character. In the North, where field work is precluded for a consider- 

 able portion of the year, because of the long winter season, the prob- 

 lem of finding employment for labor the year round has led to the 

 extensive development of winter feeding and winter dairying. The 

 winter feeding of beef cattle and sheep is particularly adapted to this 

 purpose. Dairying solves the problem as far as the winter season is 

 concerned, but it also consumes tune in summer when field work 

 is abundant and therefore does not balance up the work of the year 

 quite as well as winter feeding does, though in many cases it may be 

 more profitable. 



Many farmers have developed some form of employment as an 

 adjunct to their farming operations in order to give regular employ- 

 ment to their labor and thus be able to keep on hand dependable men 



'Adapted from Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, 1911, pp. 270-74. 



