22 BULLETIN 1220, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
town centers. All public-school pupils living over a mile from their 
schools are carried between school and points not over a mile from 
their homes at public expense. This makes the problem of daily- 
travel for school children much easier than otherwise. 
Conveyance available for the farm hand to points away from the 
farm is often a problem. Public conveyances, usually street cars, 
were near less than a third of the farms. Frequently the employee's 
only chance to avoid walking was to get rides from passers-by or to 
depend upon the employer to occasionally take him into town on 
Saturday or Sunday or whenever he himself went. 
Recreation is a vital need for the contentment of all workers. 
Half the farmers reporting in this study stated there is little available 
for the farm hand, especially if he is a transient stranger and has not 
social equality with other classes, except meeting with chance 
acquaintances among other farm hands. Consequently the men 
must hang around the farm for hours with nothing to occupy their 
minds except perhaps reading their employers' periodicals. 
The social standing of farm laborers depends largely upon them- 
selves in Massachusetts. Transient laborers make little place for 
themselves, except as workers in the temporary jobs for which they 
come. Nationality, especially of newly arrived immigrants, and 
color serve to set newcomers apart somewhat; but above all habits, 
industriousness, responsibility, and character of the workers have 
more than anything else to do to establish the position of an individual 
or a race among Massachusetts farmers. The foreign-born farm 
operators scattered over Massachusetts are likely to hire farm hands 
of their own nationality, often friends, and seldom do they consider 
their employees as other than respectable. 
SAVINGS AND FUTURE PLANS OF FARM EMPLOYEES. 
Farm employees were asked if they had bank accounts, personal 
property of value, or real estate. About a third of them were asked 
if they had life insurance. No inquiry was made as to amount or 
value. Two out of five had no savings whatever. One worker in 3 
had a bank account, and almost 1 in 4 held title to real estate. One 
real-estate owner in 5 owned a farm. Nearly half the laborers 
interviewed had one form of savings and just over one-fifth had 
two forms; none had more. 
Three-fifths of the farm workers intended to stay in agricultural 
work. One worker in 10 hoped to become a farm owner; a few already 
owned or rented farm land. The desire to acquire farm land was 
noted more among the American born, but a larger proportion of 
foreign born were actually operating land. 
Somewhat over 10 per cent of the workers intended to leave farm 
work; over half of these were waiting a chance to resume former 
occupations. The tendency to leave agriculture seemed stronger 
among the native born and the younger than among the foreign 
born and older. 
Those workers who had savings or property had distinctly the 
more definite aims in life. Three-quarters of them were planning 
to stay in agricultural work. 
Almost a quarter of farm workers had no plans. The job offering 
the most money would attract most of them to it. They were more 
likely to be single than married 
