Beet Raising and Community Welfare 255 
EMPLOYMENT FOR CHILDREN 
In raising sugar-beets, considerable hand labor is re- 
quired. Much of this work can be done well by children ; 
in fact, children often can thin beets better and more 
rapidly than their parents. They can be used to ad- 
vantage also in weeding and in topping. This means that 
in regions where sugar-beets are raised, children who go to 
school during the winter can earn good wages in vacation 
times. 
In many irrigated districts of the West, where most of 
the sugar-beets of America are produced, persons live in 
towns and not on their farms. These towns provide many 
children who have no regular employment in the summer. 
These small communities lack the industries found in 
the large cities. Many of the inhabitants do not have 
land of their own; as a result, their children are idle when 
not in school. If the farms of the region produce only 
hay and grain, no work is available for children; but when 
sugar-beets are added, these young persons find healthful 
and paying employment instead of spending the summer 
on the streets. In this, as in other work for children, 
care must be taken to avoid the evils of child labor. 
WINTER EMPLOYMENT 
In all the farming communities work is more pressing 
in the summer than in the winter. In order to have suf- 
ficient help to care for crops during the busy season, 
there is an excess at other times. This means that or- 
dinarily some of the hands are idle and that winter wages 
are low. 
