G 
BULLETIN 1285, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Most Xew Jersey farmers hire casual workers for. general farm 
work, for operations involved in the starting of crops, such as plant 
setting, and especially for harvesting. The work is not steady, but 
usually sufficiently so that migratory casual workers often stay in a 
locality several months. About one-third of the reporting farmers 
stated that they kept such workers usually for not over two months; 
one-fourth kept them a month longer ; after that they dropped them 
rapidly. 
Farmers seldom hire casual workers in the winter (see fig. 2). 
The demand for this type of labor picks up quickly after March, 
especially on truck farms, but lags a month or two behind on potato 
Percentage of Farmers Hiring- Noncasual and Casual Labor 
PER CENT 
90 
— ^ 
/ 
<**•*""" 
V 
\ 
/ Nc 
I t 
ncosua 
.abor 
i 
/ 
/ 
/ 
\ 
\ 
\ 
\ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
\ 
\ 
S '^- 
i 
1 
1 
/ 
\ 
\ 
\ 
C 
asuol 
/ 
/ 
/ 
\ 
\ 
\ 
L 
abor 
V 
f 
\ 
\ 
\ 
i 
V 
/ 
\ 
\ 
4 
• 
** 
S 
K 
80 
70 
60 
50 
AO 
30 
20 
10 
JAN. FEB. MAR. APR. MAY JUNE JULY AUG. SEPT. OCT. NOV. DEC. JAN. 
Fig. 2. — Half of the farmers hire some noncasual lahor all the year, and practically all 
do from April to September, inclusive. The demand for casual labor is almost nothing 
in the winter: it reaches its peak in July and August. (Noncasual labor, 314 reports; 
casual labor, 304 reports) 
and fruit farms. It is at its height in July and August, when about 
three-fourths of the farmers are hiring casuals. The peak of de- 
mand for casual labor among potato farmers comes largely in August 
;m<( September. 
The total labor demand of TO farmers in 1921 is indicated in 
Figure 3. The information from which the graph was made was 
asked of only part of the farmers visited. It was expected that this 
information would be representative, but apparently these farmers 
hired more than the average at all times of the year. However, the 
illustration probably shows comparative seasonal fluctuations in 
farm-labor demand of all types of farms visited. The data of 
Table 1 support this conclusion. 
