DEMAND FOR HARVEST LABOR IN THE WHEAT BELT. 9 
Pronounced differences in methods of managing the harvest work 
frequently obtained among farms in the same locality. An intelligent 
negro farmer in Ellis County, Kans., renter of 1,920 acres of land, 
with 800 acres of wheat in 1921, hired seven colored harvest hands. 
These, with himself and four sons, made two complete header crews 
of six men each, who harvested his grain at the rate of 60 acres a day. 
This gave his crew a two weeks’ ‘“‘run.”’ | 
Another farmer in the same locality cooperated with two neighbors. 
Each of the three farmers hired one man. This gave them a header 
crew of six, and they then cut the grain on the three farms with the 
same crew. ‘These farmers’ labor costs were reduced. Each farmer, 
in effect, worked as a harvest hand on the other farms to pay for part 
of the work done on his farm instead of paying cash. The three har- 
vesters who were employed, however, had a longer “run’’ on this 
crew than they would ordinarily have obtained hiring out in a crew 
cutting on a single farm. A third farmer in this area paid 75 cents 
an acre to a header operator for cutting his grain, and supplied the 
rest of the crew himself. Some owners in western Kansas who had 
small acreages hired their grain cut at approximately $2.50 an acre 
and hired no labor directly. 
In the other States all the farms which hired no labor cut their 
wheat with binders. This method of harvesting, as is shown in more 
detail below, permits a more varied practice than does harvesting with 
headers. Grain can be cut with a binder before it is entirely ripened, 
while headers and combines can be used only on ripened grain. This 
hs the farmer cutting with a binder a longer harvesting season if 
e needs it. He can cut his grain more slowly, that is, with less labor 
in the fields. Some farmers cut their grain, allowed the bundles to 
lie until they had finished, and then went back and shocked them. 
(See fig. 1.) Some hired a man to shock behind one binder; others 
hired a shocker to two binders, the binder men helping the shockers 
as necessary. Others used two shockers to three binders. On some 
farms each binder was pulled by horses or a tractor; on others from 
two to six binders were drawn by a single larger tractor. 
In Oklahoma, southern and south-central Kansas, western Ne- 
braska and northern South Dakota the farmers frequently began 
cutting with binders before the grain was ripe enough to head and 
then changed to headers as the grain ripened. It is possible for the 
farmer to transform certain types of headers into binders at will, 
which facilitates this method of harvesting. A few farmers in Kansas 
and Oklahoma started with binders and finished with combines. 
These various methods of managing the harvest work call for 
different numbers of hired laborers.. A farmer using one method may 
hire as many days’ work done as a farmer using another method. 
But the first farmer may use 2 men for 21 days and the second may 
use 3 men for 14 days. The second farmer creates a stronger demand 
upon the labor market during the harvest in his county. He like- 
wise returns his men to the labor market more quickly, giving them 
a shorter run of work and forcing them to seek work elsewhere at an 
earlier date. 
Methods which call for a number of men for a short run increase 
the demand for men at the peak of the harvest, but throw the men 
out of work so frequently that the harvester’s earnings are seriously 
reduced and the best classes of harvest hands are discouraged from 
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