22 BULLETIN 1020, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



thing were " floaters," whose savings averaged $345. The only one of 

 them possessing more than $500 had put $1,500 of his earnings in a 

 bank years ago. Three had less than $100. In contrast with the 

 " floaters," 11 farm hands reported average savings of $4,475 each, and 

 3 others owned farms or urban property. 



Only three had made an outstanding financial success as a result of 

 their knowledge of farming, and none was an operating farmer. One 

 had been a foreman on one of the largest wheat farms in North Dakota 

 for seven years, leaving it to operate a farm in Saskatchewan, which 

 he later left to enlist in the Canadian Engineers. He is worth over 

 $10,000. The second, skilled in handling purebred cattle, had been 

 able to earn more than the " going wages " and had saved over 

 $10,000. Although he had worked for 22 years on farms, he never 

 had operated one for himself. The third, raised on a farm, had ac- 

 quired a comfortable fortune by trading in real estate. Eleven other 

 farm hands had accumulated sums three or four times as large as the 

 savings of the industrial laborers. 



Very few criticized the farmers as employers. Nearly all of the men 

 said that the farmers had generally " treated them square." Many of 

 the older men qualified this statement by saying that they " treat labor 

 better than they used to do." The men were practically unanimous in 

 saying that they were well fed. Complaints against sleeping quar- 

 ters were more frequent. 



MOBILIZATION OF HARVEST LABOR. 



The outstanding labor problem of the wheat harvest is the mobili- 

 zation of an adequate but not excessive supply, followed by a proper 

 distribution of the workers over the harvest areas, not only once, but 

 again and again. This problem consists, on the one hand, of dividing 

 the available force in an equitable manner so that each wheat farmer 

 may have the number of men that he needs, and, on the other hand, 

 of helping each harvester to work as steadily as possible with a 

 minimum expense of travel and board. The number of men needed 

 varies year by year with the acreage planted to wheat, the condition of 

 the crop, the length of the straw, and the amount of unemployment in 

 the cities and towns in or near the wheat belt. 



FORECASTING THE NUMBER OF HARVEST HANDS NEEDED. 



Prior to the opening of the harvest many attempts are made to fore- 

 cast the number of harvest hands that will be needed from outside the 

 wheat States. Some of these estimates are wild guesses, based upon no, 

 definite knowledge of the amount of labor needed in the various por- 

 tions of the wheat area or of the number of harvest hands who move 

 northward, supplying labor to one section after another. The only 



