24 BULLETIN 1220, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 
Of the farms studied, on less than half was help hired all year; on 
nine-tenths laborers were hired outside of harvest season, consisting 
largely of noncasual employees. During harvest, women and minors 
constituted a quarter of the hired labor; at other times nine-tenths 
of the hands were men. 
Massachusetts farmers get most of their labor locally, largely by 
acquaintance and personal search. They patronize employment 
agencies but little. The average farm hand gets new work by per- 
sonal search or acquaintance. 
There are no State regulations of employment agencies; their 
business methods vary decidedly; greater uniformity of their methods 
would seem desirable. The fees charged applicants for farm employ- 
ment or for farm help should be based upon the cost of rendering 
service rather than upon what the traffic will bear. Neither party 
to a placement transaction should be charged over half that amount. 
The typical employment agency official makes no effort to deter- 
mine an applicant's fitness for the work for which he applies. That 
there is need for it is demonstrated by its success where applied. 
Any agency could require or verify references or could use simple 
trade tests designed to bring out the applicant's knowledge of the 
work for which he applies. 
In some sections of Massachusetts the farm labor supply in 1921 
exceeded the demand. Most of the trouble in getting labor occurred 
among farmers that required care of livestock involving longer hours 
than field work. 
American-born workers alone were employed on a quarter of the 
farms reporting, foreign born alone on two-fifths of the farms. 
Nationalities hired varied greatly, but within a given district usually 
one or two were predominant. 
A third of the farm laborers interviewed had schooling equivalent 
to less than five grades of grammar school; another third had from 
five to nine grades. The foreign born had decidedly less education 
than the native born. One-seventh of the laborers interviewed 
were illiterate and practically all of those were foreign born. 
Two- thirds of the laborers had never engaged in other than un- 
skilled employment. The foreign born had engaged in skilled work 
less than the native born. A quarter of the laborers had suffered an 
average of 5 months of unemployment in the previous 2 years and an 
average loss of $429 in wages. Unemployment was greatest in the 
districts of highly specialized agriculture affording fewest oppor- 
tunities for other employment. 
There is little migration of agricultural labor from one part of the 
State to another. In general there is somewhat of an annual swing 
of workers from agricultural to industrial employment, most marked 
in the Connecticut Valley, where tobacco-sorting shops furnish 
winter work. 
Employment for those who must leave farm work, especially in 
winter, is frequently scarce in districts of specialized agriculture 
having no near-by industries, but in most of the State much industrial 
work is usually available. A few farmers recognize the desirability 
of steady, year-round work for their men and make an effort to 
provide it. 
