UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
% BULLETIN No. 1020 gw% 
iVf 9 Contribution from *%Ji V ^^y^*i/ 
£? the Office of Farm Management and Farm Economics %3l>^l££? 
OVV^^JT* G. W. FORSTER, Acting Chief SV&'QSi 
m 
Washington, D. C. ▼ April , 2 1922 
HARVEST LABOR PROBLEMS IN THE 
WHEAT BELT. 
By D. D. Lescohier, Collaborator. 
CONTENTS. 
Scope of the investigation 
Fluctuations in harvest labor 
mand 
de- 
rage. 
2 
3 
14 
Mobilization of harvest labor ._ 
Distribution of harvest labor 
Harvest wages 
Tage. 
22 
26 
30 
Character of harvest labor 
Conclusions 
34 
SCOPE OF THE INVESTIGATION. 
The small-grain harvest of the area lying between the Mississippi 
River and the arid districts east of the Rocky Mountains, from Texas 
to the Canadian border, is one of the most dramatic episodes in 
the economic life of the United States. Each year it calls more than 
_ 1 00,000 men from various parts of the country to aid in harvesting, 
thrashing, and storing or shipping nearly 450,000,000 bushels of 
wheat and 600,000,000 bushels of other small grains (Tables 1 and 2). 
It is more than a local venture ; it is a national enterprise. Not only 
the people, resident or transient, who cut, shock, and thrash the 
grain, but the entire country feels its effects. Because of this and 
because farm-labor problems in general are becoming more urgent, 
data on labor conditions throughout the wheat belt in the harvest 
season of 1920 were collected by the United States Department of 
Agriculture. 
Most of the information presented in this bulletin was obtained 
by field agents of the office of Farm Management and Farm Eco- 
nomics, who interviewed nearly 3,000 harvest hands, many farmers, 
county agricultural agents, employment officials, chamber of com- 
merce secretaries, bankers, merchants, and other citizens in the har- 
vest area of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and the Dakotas. 1 
1 The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance given by A. L. Barkman. in charge 
of the United States Employment Service at Kansas City, Mo. ; A. C Albert, in charge of 
the State free employment office at Sioux City, Iowa; and E. L. Rhoades, farm manage- 
ment demonstrator, at Manhattan,, Kans. The cooperation of county agents, bankers, 
local employment offices, and many other persons and organizations has added greatly 
to the value of this report. 
70061°— 22— Bull. 1020 1 
