EMPLOYMENT OF HARVEST LABOR IN THE WHEAT BELT. 15 
TABLE 8.— Methods of seeking employment used by 1,164 harvest hands, by States in 
which interviewed. 
Number who used 
| Applications to farmers— 
. P Newspaper 
Public Private TE Dak sein Aa rs : 
| employment | emplovment | S4verements | Gonoray met | With whom ae 
State. offices. offices. | information. oe ee | by previous 
: danas! | correspondence 
| spits. or contract. 
Exclu- | Exclu- Exclu- Exclu- | Exclu- | 
sively | Exclu-| sively | Exclu-| sively | Exclu-| sively | Exclu-| sively | Exclu- 
orin |sively.| orin |sively.| orin |sively.| orin | sively.| orin | sively. 
| part. part. part. part. | part. 
_ = eee 2 Qiks Sa A2 et 2 1 8 7 | 2 | 2 
Oklahoma. 552. 14 9 Tp tS s3 Fe 2 6 2 26 18 | 2 1 
ranSaso. oo 2222. .2- 170 71 Re eee 12 3 327 135 | 12 4 
Iowa (Sioux City)..-| 147 30 (53 sl [tae he 9 1 105 13 22 
Webraska « 26:7. 5!. 2, 2 1 1 ] ] 3 | 2 Z| 2. eee 
South Dakota and 
North Dakota..... 326 78 95 2 6} eee Fe 301 28 Ba 2 
Wotal ik -. 661 192 166 3 36 gi) =%70.| 203" > 597 10 
Percentage.......... 56.8) 16.5 14.3 0.3 | Saal 0.7 66225 > 1724 8.3 0.9 
DIFFICULTY IN OBTAINING REEMPLOYMENT. 
More than half of the harvesters mterviewed stated that they 
obtained their first jobs within three days after they reached the 
harvest area. Very few who really wanted work were unable to get 
work within a week. The harvest hand’s difficulties do not ordinarily 
begin at the point where he enters the harvest, but when he finishes 
his first job. He is then on a farm near some small interior town and 
out of touch with the sources of information which could advise him 
where his work is needed next. Guided by such information as he is 
able to obtain, or following the route traversed by whatever railroad 
happens to be nearest, he moves on in quest of another job. He 
frequently wanders for a week or two Betats obtaining work again. 
Many men find job after job, only to have each terminate in two or 
three days and be followed by more travel and hotel bills. It is 
this loss of time between jobs, and the expense of travel and support, 
that eat up the harvester’s earnings. 
In Table 9 the experiences of 998 men are summarized. It will 
be noted that the 998 men who furnished the information had worked 
_ but 51.2 per cent of the time that they were in the harvest area, and 
that this percentage represents the experience both of those who had 
been a short time in the harvest area and of those who had worked in 
both the winter-wheat and the spring-wheat harvests. Subsequent 
tables show how this loss of half of his time eats up the ‘“‘stake”’ of 
many a harvest hand. 
Es 
