HARVEST LABOR PROBLEMS IN WHEAT BELT. 23 



known definite formula for computing probable harvest demands was 

 evolved at a conference of county agents at Manhattan, Kans., in No- 

 vember, 1919, and later used in Kansas. This formula gives a reason- 

 ably conservative estimate of the amount of labor needed. The office 

 of Farm Management and Farm Economics had found that the aver- 

 age header crew consists of 6 men ; the county agents of Kansas had 

 found that a county is usually harvested in about 10 days ; and it was 

 found that a crew harvests, on the average, 30 acres a day. Assuming 

 a supply of labor on the farm averaging 1.3 men to a farm, the follow- 

 ing formula was devised: 



Divide the number of acres of wheat in the county by 50, subtract 

 the man power on the farms and that available from towns within the 

 county. The difference represents the men needed from outside the 

 county. This formula may be expressed as follows : 



A — number of acres of wheat within a county. 



m/ = man power of the farms (number of farms multiplied by 

 1.3). 



mt— man power available from towns within the county. 



mo = number of men needed from the outside. 



— — {mf-\-mt) — mo. 



While this formula would not apply accurately to counties that 

 do not use. the headers, it is better than wild estimates for comput- 

 ing the demand in any wheat county. 



Applying this formula to the 8,943,000 acres of wheat harvested 

 in Kansas in 1920, the State farm demonstrator estimated a need 

 for 50,000 men in addition to those resident in the wheat counties. 

 If this figure be correct, Texas and Oklahoma probably needed from 

 20,000 to 30,000 men, at least half of whom would go north into 

 Kansas, while the Nebraska and South Dakota demand would not 

 exceed half of the Kansas demand. 



North Dakota's demand might require as many outside men as that 

 of Kansas, as there is more shocking in North Dakota and the Stat£ 

 is less densely populated than Kansas. John Hagen, commissioner 

 of agriculture and labor of North Dakota, estimated a need for but 

 from 15,000 to 20,000 men for August in North Dakota in 1920, 3 

 apparently a conservative estimate, but lacking the accuracy of the 

 Kansas method. Forty two North Dakota farms, with a total acre- 

 age of 56,908 acres, 20,642 acres of which were in small grain, em- 

 ployed 164 men, or one man for each 125 acres of small grain. On 

 this basis the 12,279,000 acres of wheat, oats, barley, and rye in 

 North Dakota in 1920 required a labor force of 98,000 men, in 

 addition to the families and regular hands on the farms. It must 



8 Hutchinson (N. DalO Tribune, July 20, 1920. 



