10 BULLETIN 1230, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
coming to subsequent harvests. Conversely, methods which use 
fewer men and spread the harvest over a longer period make the 
harvest more profitable to harvest hands and tend to attract more 
ambitious men. 
Tables 1 and 2 show that the percentage which harvest hands 
constitute of the total labor force varies considerably from State to 
State; that more than one-fourth of the wheat farms visited hired 
no harvest hands at all; and that individual farmers in the same area 
manage their harvest work in dissimilar ways. Table 1 also reveals 
Fig. 1.—Shocking wheat in the field. Bringing the sheaves to the shock (Oklahoma). 
a wide variation from county to county both in the total amounts of 
labor hired and in the percentages harvest hands constitute of the 
total labor force. These variations are of much significance to those 
responsible for mobilizing and distributing harvest hands. 
‘he Kansas counties exhibit more uniformity than those of the 
other States. Sedgwick County may be disregarded since informa- 
tion was obtained from only one farm in that county. Thomas 
County, then, in which 37 farms were visited, is the only Kansas 
county to vary sharply from the figures for the remainder of the 
State. On the average, the other 13 Kansas counties used 1.57 men 
; 
. 
ROY ME SD: 
