TRUCK-FARM LABOR IN NEW JERSEY, 1922 
33 
to hunt shelter even in box cars on more or less distant railroad 
sidings. Sanitary accommodations were available to the farm hands 
on two-thirds of farms reporting on the matter. Half of these were 
separate from farm family accommodations. Farmers in southern 
New Jersey reported providing each type of accommodation :?aore 
commonly than those in northern Xew Jersey. 
Very few farmers reported providing shelter or other accommo- 
dations for families forming part of casual and occasionally of non- 
casual farm labor. Almost no farmers boarded those families. On 
the other hand, such families were likely to take for themselves what 
they needed of the farm crops. Sleeping quarters for them were 
usually in farm outbuildings or shacks which afforded the most 
meager accommodations. Into them one or more families, usually 
foreign born, with their children, were crowded with little or no 
Fig. 10. — Shack occupied by an Italian couple employed as casual farm hands. This 
shack was used by a married Italian couple of an intelligent and well-Americanized 
type. Cooking was done on the old range under the shelter. The place was neat 
and clean. If it had not been that ill health prevented the husband's working at his 
usual occupation, this couple would never have left the city. This place offered them 
little inducement to remain on the farm 
chance for privacy and comfort (fig. 11) . In some cases only a board 
set on edge marked off family spaces on the floor where straw and 
rough bedding were laid, whereas in other cases rough curtains were 
used. Old bedsteads were occasionally furnished. Some farmers 
had special shacks for such labor, others cleared out parts of'barns 
or tool sheds which were used for other purposes most of the year. 
Little protection is needed against heat or cold most of the time 
these workers are on the farms. Usually there was no protection 
against flies or mosquitoes, which are often very troublesome. Cook- 
ing facilities, often inadequate for the number using them, were 
sometimes afforded by old ranges set under the sheds or rough shelters 
or even in the open. At other times the workers had to construct 
rough open-air fireplaces from materials they could pick up. Water 
