32 
BULLETIN 1285, l\ S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEK'ULTL'EE 
About one farmer in six gave fuel as a perquisite to some em- 
ployees. "Where a value was placed on it the average was $5.67 per 
month. 
Milk was given less frequently as a perquisite. Its value as esti- 
mated by the farmers reflected local conditions. In southern Xew 
Jerse}^, more distant from large consuming centers, its farm value 
was not over half that near New York. The average value from all 
reports was $4.10 per month. 
The average monthly value of fruit and vegetables given em-, 
ployees was reported as $5.06. Many farmers gave their workers con- 
siderable quantities of their products to say nothing of what the 
workers frequently took for themselves. Many migratory hands get 
most of their food in this way while Irving on the farms. 
Fig. 0. — Unusually good class of modern cottage for noncasual farm employees. One 
farmer had built two of these dwellings for his American year-round help as a means 
of holding a good class of labor. These farm homes and their surroundings were 
equal to those of many farm operators' homes in that part of the State. Each was 
occupied by a single family 
The remaining perquisites reported were varied in nature and 
value. 
LIVING CONDITIONS 
Occasionally farmers gave their men what they needed of the farms' 
products to prepare their own meals. Over half of the farmers re- 
porting upon the subject boarded part or all their noncasual single 
farm hands in their own homes and provided them with sleeping- 
quarters which varied from decent rooms in farm houses to the most 
meager accommodations in farm shacks or outbuildings. Casual 
laborers get poor accommodations more often than noncasuals. Oc- 
casionally the character of laborers hired for casual work such as 
potato picking in Monmouth County is such that some farmers will 
not allow them to stay on the farms overnight. They are then forced 
