DEMAND FOR HARVEST LABOR IN THE WHEAT BELT. 29 
32, 34, 36, and 40 inch machines being most numerous. Steam 
engines burning either straw or coal and gasoline engines were both 
being used for power. All of the newer outfits used gasoline tractors. 
A 40-inch machine in Kansas with a capacity of 1,500 bushels a 
day was using a total crew of 22 men, 14 of whom were furnished with 
the machine and 8 by the farmer. The thresher’s crew consisted of 
1 engineer, 1 separator man, 1 water jack, 1 cook, 8 field pitchers, and 
2 spike pitchers. The engineer and separator men were paid $8 a 
day and the rest of the crew $5 each, a total wage bill of $76 a day. 
The farmer provided 8 bundle wagons and drivers at a cost of $40 a. 
- day, exclusive of the teams. The total labor cost of this outfit was 
therefore $116 a day. 
A 40-inch machine in South Dakota with a daily capacity of 
1,200 bushels used a crew of 19 men, at a daily cost of $86. The 
engineer and separator man were paid $10 apiece; the oiler and 15 
pitchers $4 each; and the water boy $2. Another outfit employed a 
crew of 19 men at $90.25 per day, the 5 field pitchers being paid $4 
Fig. 9.—Forty-four feet at one cut. This stacker-barge works on somewhat the same principle as the one 
shown in Figure 3. 
a day and the spike pitchers and bundle-wagon men (teamsters) $4.25. 
A 42-inch machine, using a straw-burning steam tractor for power, 
employed 21 men—a separator man who also operated the tractor, 
a ‘“‘straw-monkey,” water jack, 2 spike pitchers, 8 field pitchers and 
8 bundle-wagon drivers. ‘The total cost was $96, the separator man 
receiving $9, straw monkey and spike pitchers $6, the water jack and 
bundle-wagon drivers $5, and field pitchers $3. 
A 38-inch machine in Kansas using a gasoline tractor for power had 
a crew of 16 men and 2 women; an engineer, separator man, oiler, 
water jack, 2 spike pitchers, 10 bundle-wagon men, and 2 cooks 
(women). The typical crew for a machine of 38 to 42 inch feed 
board in an area where shock threshing is practiced is therefore from 
18 to 22 persons, and the labor cost at 1921 prices ranged from $86 to 
$116 a day. 
The crews of the smaller machines were not so large. A 32-inch 
machine in North Dakota, with a capacity of 1,200 bushels, used 12 
men; an engineer, separator man, water jack, cook, and 8 bundle- 
wagon men. A 28-inch machine used 10 men. They had 2 field 
