HARVEST LABOR PROBLEMS IN WHEAT BELT. 15 



small-grain States who hire out to farmers in near-by territory; (2) 

 men who make contracts with farmers from year to year, and know 

 just when and where they can begin the season's work; (3) transient 

 laborers — farmers, mechanics, and others — who leave their regular 

 employment to work temporarily in the harvest fields ; (4) transient 

 laborers who are " professionals," in that the harvest is regularly or 

 frequently a part of their year's work. 



LOCAL AND CONTRACT HANDS. 



Residents of the towns of the small-grain States who hire out to 

 farmers in their own localities constitute a large fraction of the 

 total army of harvest hands. Part of these men follow the harvest 

 northward, but a large proportion remain in their own or neigh- 

 boring States. Most of them probably either obtain steady work or 

 else return at comparatively small expense to their homes and regu- 

 lar occupations. They are on the spot and in a better position to 

 locate work than those who come to the harvest from a distance. 

 They "know the ropes," and doubtless experience less unemploy- 

 ment than is indicated by the averages in Table 4. 



There are also thousands of good men who make contracts with 

 the farmers for whom they work for the following year. A large 

 proportion of these contract hands stay with the farmers hiring 

 them for the harvest through the thrashing and even for corn pick- 

 ing, fall plowing, and other work. Although some follow the har- 

 vest north after finishing their first piece of work, others accept 

 steady employment in the same neighborhood. 



Several farmers near Ellendale, N. Dak., stated that they had made 

 advance contracts with the same men for a number of years. More- 

 over, three of the most successful farmers in that community had 

 come there originally as migratory farm laborers, made advance 

 contracts for the following harvest, then contracted in advance for 

 the whole crop season, and finally had put a season's earnings into 

 horses and equipment, rented land, and taken up farming for them- 

 selves. One of these men had more than 400 acres of wheat in 1920. 



Working for from 45 to 100 days, sometimes more, at high daily 

 wages and spared the expensive railroad fares and hotel bills which 

 fall to the lot of the migratory harvest hand, the local and contract 

 laborers are the ones who really " make a stake " in the harvest. 



TRANSIENT HANDS. 



The transient harvest hands fall into two groups: (1) Farmers, 

 mechanics, and farm and other laborers who have left their regular 

 occupations temporarily to make the harvest; and (2) the seasonal 

 laborers, to whom the harvest is a regular or important part of the 



