20 BULLETIN 1020, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
90 per cent of his preharvest correspondence with harvest hands 
had been with college men. Three hundred college men were sent 
in one group into the Woodward district in Oklahoma and over 800 
were placed by the Slate employment service. Between one-third 
and one-half of the harvest placements of the Enid office were col- 
lege men. In the opinion of the labor officials and county agents, 
the presence of these men had raised the tone of the harvest work 
materially in the areas affected. 
To the majority of the harvest army the harvest means sustenance. 
Of the 153 men interviewed 103 were of this type. Forty-eight had 
regular occupations and either spliced harvest or other seasonal work 
into periods of unemployment or came to the harvest because they 
could thereby increase their annual incomes. For instance, one who 
worked regularly in a brickyard was forced to seek other employ- 
ment during the war. AYhen the brickyard resumed operations he 
returned to it. Another fed cattle for the market for stockmen, 
and made the harvest largely for his health. A third worked in 
steel mills, coming to the harvest because work in his regular craft 
was slack. Many others were farm hands who hire out by the month 
on farms, changing farms more or less frequently, and who had left 
their places permanently or temporarily in the hope of making more 
money. The other 55 of the 153 men interviewed were confirmed mi- 
gratory laborers. To use their own expression, they were " on the 
road"; to use the designation common in the wheat area, they were 
" floaters." The " floater " is a rover, who seldom works very long on 
any job, having for his goal a "stake" to tide him over the winter 
or furnish him with a good time. His preference is for work where 
board and lodging are furnished by the employer. 
Every one of the 153 started life in an humble home ; 94 on farms 
and the others in cities or villages. Sixty-two of the 103 migratory 
laborers were born and raised on farms. Less than a dozen of the 
153 came from homes that might be called comfortable. Seventeen 
found their first- employment in factories, 10 in grocery stores, 6 as 
office boys, 3 in mines, and 94 on farms. 
Twenty-nine of the 153 were born in foreign countries. The ma- 
jority of these men grew up on farms, although a few came from 
cities and 2 from the families of sailors. Thirty-nine of the 124 who 
were born in the United States came from the wheat belt States, 56 
from States surrounding the wheat belt, and 16 from eastern and 
Pacific Coast States. The remainder said simply that they were 
"American born." 
The regular occupations of three groups of transient harvest hands 
are given in Table 8. 
