20 - BULLETIN 1020, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



90 per cent of his preharvest correspondence with harvest hands 

 had been with college men. Three hundred college men were sent 

 in one group into the Woodward district in Oklahoma and over 800 

 were placed by the State employment service. Between one-third 

 and one-half of the harvest placements of the Enid office were col- 

 lege men. In the opinion of the labor officials and county agents, 

 the presence of these men had raised the tone of the harvest work 

 materially in the areas affected. 



To the majority of the harvest army the harvest means sustenance. 

 Of the 153 men interviewed 103 were of this type. Forty-eight had 

 regular occupations and either spliced harvest or other seasonal work 

 into periods of unemployment or came to the harvest because they 

 could thereby increase their annual incomes. For instance, one who 

 worked regularly in a brickyard was forced to seek other employ- 

 ment during the war. When the brickyard resumed operations he 

 returned to it. Another fed cattle for the market for stockmen, 

 and made the harvest largely for his health. A third worked in 

 steel mills, coming to the harvest because work in his regular craft 

 was slack. Many others were farm hands who hire out by the month 

 on farms, changing farms more or less frequently, and who had left 

 their places permanently or temporarily in the hope of making more 

 money. The other 55 of the 153 men interviewed were confirmed mi- 

 gratory laborers. To use their own expression, they were " on the 

 road " ; to use the designation common in the wheat area, they were 

 " floaters." The " floater " is a rover, who seldom works very long on 

 any job, having for his goal a " stake " to tide him over the winter 

 or furnish him with a good time. His preference is for work where 

 board and lodging are furnished by the employer. 



Every one of the 153 started life in an humble home ; 94 on farms 

 and the others in cities or villages. Sixty-two of the 103 migratory 

 laborers were born and raised on farms. Less than a dozen of the 

 153 came from homes that might be called comfortable. Seventeen 

 found their first emploj-ment in factories, 10 in grocery stores. 6 as 

 office boys, 3 in mines, and 94 on farms. 



Twenty-nine of the 153 were born in foreign countries. The ma- 

 jority of these men grew up on farms, although a few came from 

 cities and 2 from the families of sailors. Thirty-nine of the 124 who 

 were born in the United States came from the wheat belt States, 56 

 from States surrounding the wheat belt, and 16 from eastern and 

 Pacific Coast States. The remainder said simply that they were 

 "American born." 



The regular occupations of three groups of transient harvest hands 

 are given in Table 8. 



