FARM I^ABOR IN MASSACHUSETTS, 1921. 
17 
berry bogs or in the screening houses of the bogs made up to $6 per 
day. In tobacco-priming season of the Connecticut Valley women are 
employed mostly to string the Sumatra leaves for hanging in the dry- 
ing sheds. They earned on a piecework basis up to $4.50 per day, 
averaging $2.75. In Falmouth strawberry harvest pickers were paid 
by the quart, and earned sometimes $3 per day. 
Massachusetts farmers hire few minors incapable of doing an 
adult's work. Wage reports for any not thus capable were scattering. 
MONTHLY WAGES. 
Noncasual men employees are usually paid by the month by Mas- 
sachusetts farmers. Wages without board in 1921 averaged $82.51; 
$78 was the most common rate, but most of the market gardeners 
paid more than this, averaging $94.81, doubtless because of the 
semiskilled nature of much of the work, the higher cost of living in 
semiurban conditions, and the sharper competition of other employ- 
ers for labor. 
Monthly wages with board ranged mostly from $25 to $65 per 
month; the most common rates were $40 to $50; half the farmers 
who reported paid these rates. Much the larger part of farmers 
boarding their steady men were dairy and livestock and general 
farmers, the majority of whom furnished board. 
Board given the farm laborer usually included room and laundry 
work done in the farm home. Farmers commonly estimated the 
value of this at about $10 per week, or $40 per month, in 1921. 
Foremen's wages per month varied greatly, as did their perquisites 
and their duties. (Table 12.) The rates reported varied from $43 
to $225 cash per month; the common rates were about $100 cash per 
month. A third of the farmers reporting gave rates of $90 or less 
per month, but there were given also in nearly every such case val- 
uable perquisites such as house rent, fuel, farm products, or occasion- 
ally a bonus or commission upon farm operations. 
Farm foremen are seldom boarded by their employers ; most of 
such cases were reported by general farmers and dairy and livestock 
men. Monthly wages to these men averaged $83.87. (Table 12.) 
Table 12. — Monthly wages with and without board for foremen and noncasual men on 
certain types of farms in Massachusetts in 1921. 
Type of farm. 
Cran- 
berry 
bog. 
Dairy 
and 
livestock. 
General. 
Market 
garden. 
Tobacco 
and 
onions. 
All farms. 
Foremen, without board: 
Number of reports 
Average wage 
Foremen, with board: 
Number of reports 
Average wage 
Season men, without board: 
Number of reports . 
Average wage 
Most common wage 
Season men, with board: 
Number of reports 
Average wage 
Most common wage 
11 
$106. 94 
17 
$80.08 
$78.00 
1 
$43.33 
14 
$96. 43 
5 
$78. 20 
38 
$77. 38 
$78.00 
66 
$42.69 
$40.00 
29 
$100. 28 
10 
$85.50 
69 
$79.37 
$78.00 
124 
$44.35 
$40 or $50 
$122. 93 
2 
$87. 50 
38 
$94.81 
24 
$41.24 
19 
$111.13 
2 
$86.25 
54 
$82.27 
$78.00 
17 
$40.24 
92 
$107.41 
19 
$83.87 
216 
$82. 51 
$7S.0O 
232 
$43.25 
$40 or $50 
