DEMAND FOR HARVEST LABOR IN THE WHEAT BELT. 25 
other 893 (77.7 per cent) were threshed by “‘contract threshers’’ who 
went from farm to farm threshing either by the bushel or at a flat 
price per day. (See Table 5.) 
TABLE 5.—Numoer and percentage of farms which threshed with farm-owned or contract 
machines. 
me kl | 
Machines owned by ' Farmers’ | Machines owned by 
BecueGuaed threshers working on. owned threshers working on 
: contracts. machines— contracts. 
| 
Machine with | Total Machine with 
MeaBinE full crew or Srl Machinel full crew or 
State. SaEhs nearly afull crew.| Hert with 3 nearly afullcrew. 
is Co- | to4 farms. indi: Co- | to4 
vidu- | opera-| men. Crew | vidu- jopera-| men. | Crew 
ally. | tively. pare Farmer |brought ally. | tively. ee Farmer brought 
edcrew,| Doarded| cook | | edcrew.| 20arded) cook 
‘| erew. | caror | TeW-| crew. | car or 
shack. | shack. 
Eukisy 
Per Per Per Per Per 
| cent. | cent. cent. cent. cent. 
Oklahoma... 17 bo ae eee 60 201 ROOM oko es US ae ae 75.0 2.5 
Kansas...... 32 (CARES eS Re 2ST Aes cece eaoZO 9.8 PAA es aT ee SSOuU eee se 
Nebraska.... 32 21 123 Del eeeit ee | 198 16.2 10.6 62.1 21D 8 ba aI ee 
South Da- | 
KOtae Nees 27 8 58 62 265) Sy I1Sih|iet4e.9 | 4,4 32.0 34.3 14.4 
North Da- 
KOtze. ns 2 82 15 50 109 59 315 26.0 4.8 15.9 34.6 18.7 
Minnesota 1 a9 et See BOs ce ae On| agee ee 50 SOS ON pees 60.0 LOS OR aac 
| J | 
Total... 205 52 261 545 87 | 1,150 17.8 4.5 2254 47.4 7.6 
Total.. 257 R03} ae reas As Pues 1, 150 22.3 TT Tatars | ES 
Fic. 6.—Threshing into a storage bin in the field. Metallic grain storage bins have been erected in the 
fields on many wheat farmsin recent years. They constitute another labor-saving device. Ordinarily 
the wheat farmer has to have one or two men and teams to haul his grain from the threshing machine 
to town. 
Considerable difference in practice was found in the different areas. 
In Oklahoma and Kansas the standard practice of the farmers was to 
hire a machine with a full crew. The farmer boarded the crew and 
eed a contract rate for the grain delivered to him at the separator. 
he farmer provided only the teams and men to haul away the grain. 
