HARVEST LABOR PROBLEMS LST WHEAT BELT. 21 



Table 8. — Regular occupation of transient harvest hands. 





Group l. 1 



Group 2.» 



Group 3. 3 



Occupation. 



Num- 

 ber. 



Per 

 cent. 



Num- 

 ber. 



Per 

 cent. 



Num- 

 ber 



Per 

 cent. 



Farmers and farm laborers 



844 



785 



173 



432 



242 



63 



57 



14 



40 



37 



13 



24 



11 



8 



6 



3 



2 



30.6 



28.5 

 6.3 

 15.7 

 8.8 

 2.3 

 2.1 



(<) 

 1.5 

 1.3 



(«) 



( 4 ) 



( 4 ) 



( 4 ) 



(*) 



(*) 



( 4 ) 



186 

 51 

 24 

 71 

 40 



46.5 



12.8 

 6.0 

 17.8 

 10.0 



5,360 



4,409 



8 



2,192 



818 



36.7 





30.2 





( 4 ) 





15.0 





5.6 









11 



2.8 



435 



3.0 









2 



( 4 ) 









379 



2.6 













4 

 2 

 3 













341 



2.3 

































190 



481 



1.3 





6 

















1 2,754 harvesters interviewed in 1920, in Oklahoma, Kansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota. 

 s First 400 harvesters placed by Sioux City employment office, in 1920. 



• 14,613 men placed by Kansas City, Mo., employment office, in 1919. 



* Less than 1 per cent. 



Some of the 153 harvest hands interviewed had acquired property, 

 but the majority had not. Nineteen had bought farms and 12 had 

 homesteaded farms, while 17 had rented farms. Four of those who 

 had bought land never farmed it, and 13 were farming at the time. 

 Most of the remaining 31 who had tried farming had made a failure 

 of it. Although some admitted that they lacked ability, most of them 

 attributed their failure to drought. Whatever the reason, the fact 

 remains that 27 of the 43 men who attempted farming were unsuccess- 

 ful and that 12 others came so close to failure that they were piecing 

 out their farm incomes with harvesting. Of course, this situation is 

 not always the fault of the farmer. Two Montana farmers inter- 

 viewed had been " hailed out," one three years in succession, making 

 it necessary for them to come to the harvest to support their families 

 through the winter. 



Fifty-nine, including the 31 who owned farm land, stated that they 

 owned real estate, Government bonds, or cash. The ages of 21 men 

 whose entire savings were less than $500, ranged from 35 to 70 years. 

 These 21 men had simply " a little nest egg against a rainy day," as 

 one of them expressed it. Three others were worth more than $500 

 but less than $1,000 ; seven had from $1,000 to $1,800 ; four from $2,000 

 to $3,000; one had a house and lot and $2,000; one had $5,000; one, 

 $7,100 ; one, a dairyman, $10,000 ; one, a section of land, $4,000 worth 

 of farm equipment, and $4,000 in cash ; one a flat building in Chicago 

 worth $35,000 ; and another some Pennsylvania coal lands and urban 

 property worth $43,000. The other 16 owned real estate of uncertain 

 value. Eighteen of the men who claimed that they had saved some- 



