The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-08-30
WOMEN FARM LAB0RERS.
THOUSANDS OF THEM RAISE VEG
ETABLE5 ABOUT NEW YORK.

work and Are Preferred ID Men.
Women Grape Growers and Florists.
Good Health Out of Doors.
(Copwiqht)
New YORK, Aug. 29.-I listened, despite
myself, TO the typical American braggart
on Coney Island train the other day. he
was on the seat ahead Of me, had evidently
Just returned from few weeks in Europe
and was detailing his experiences in a not
particularly low voice, for the benefit Of
those about him. America was good
enough for him, he said. And he wound
up his remarks with this clincher: And
we don't put our won en- out at field work,
either.n
whats that!" asked his companion, a
quiet little fellow with SLOUGH hat, who
hadn't spoken before. He was pointing
away TO the left, to the far limit of field
of cabbages, where two or three STOPPING
figures had Just Strengthened up to look at
the passing train. One re nained obstinately
bent, shredding off the coarse outer leaves
of the cabbage heads, aud plllng them into
little heaps.
"That-that-why' pom my soul it's
woman pulling cabbages," said the returned
traveller, a trife disconnected. He'd prob
ably been to Coney Island many times be-
fore, but his eyes had seen only what they
were prepared to see. and a woman farm
laborer within two miles OF brooklyn's city
line was not one of these. However, he saw
two more before reaching the island with
his newly opened eyes.
The other day in court room at ia
maica, l.. l., a woman was detained as wit
ness in a petty case. She was magnlh-
cent creature, in a way; of medium height
and bulk, but with splendid polse Of mus
Gle aud a complexion that yachtsmen
spend much time to acquire Fresently
came her turn to be questioned. Part of
the conversation was this:
And your occupationg
"a farm laborer.n
No one in the room seemed to be particu-
larry surprised at this except a city reporter,
| who had gone out TO work up "a story about
one OF the crimes of which Long Island en-
| joys by no means exclusive possession.
There was not the slightest occasion for sur
| prise. Within mile of the New York man
at that very moment probably 100 women
were working in the fields getting in the
vegetables for market or for storing. The
custom of employing women upon the truck
| farms near the city has grown OF late years
almost unnoticed. It. has reached the dig
nifty OF a new and tolerably well filled pro-
fession for the gentler sex. and the demand
| for their services is still RAPIDLY increasing.
| At least, 80 Garrett Van Dine of Flushing,
| one of the best known farmers in Queens
county, tells me-.
asked Mr.. Van Dine why the farmers of
| Queens county employ SO many women.
| his answer was significant:
"Well, they are usually women Of some
| years, who have families to support, and
who live in little houses near by. They are
not, of course, quite so strong as men.
| Can't hoe corn quite so rapidly. But they
don't get drunk or fight. They don't talk,
either. You know if two or three men get
together they are so apt to lean on their hoe
handle and talk about something or other. 5"
Think of that, my garrulous brothers
| Doesn't that upset our compliment theories
about laxative womens
Are they hired just for few days during
the taking in of the crops, or throughout
the seasonp asked.
20, for the season of seven or eight
months usually" said Mr.. Van Dine. YES,
they do about the same kind Of work that
the men do except driving the wagons to
| market. These women are almost invariably
foreign born. Germans or Poles. They are
used to the work in the. old country. They
set their children tending house while they
are gone to the fields, aud perhaps do little
cooking themselves when they get home"
Aud their earnings"
/ "a
that varies with the season and the amount
| of work to be done, of course"
| Mr.. Van Dine asked me some questions
about the negro criminal. just out of jail,
where he had been sent for essaulting lit
tie girl, and had recently attempted TO
| commit a similar atr- ciouS assault upon q
farmers wife, Mrs. Remeyer. | fancy
this question reveals one cause CT the grow
| ing commences of women farm hands.
Long Island farmers wives in their lonely
homes are rather nervous about strange
| men, and have reason to be, after the dread
| full murder of the Maybee couple by the
| negro Rugg, the killing of Hannah Robin
son at Glendale, and the Rsimeyer assault
| Probably the farmers wives and daughters
feel safer among the strangers from Castle
Garden, whom their husbands are forced
to employ. If there are one or two women
farm hands about, known ia the neighbor-
| hood.
A Jamaica farmer told me later about
/ widow with four children living 10 that
village who does not work regularly in the
fields, but every year about this time takes
her little brood of children ous into the
fields and earns with them $50 or $25 a
week at peco work until the busy season is
over. Most OF the women farm hands,
however, live in the country and are more
regularly employed. They feed pigs, hoe
corn, haul manure, plant, hoe and harvest
potatoes and corn and make themselves
generally useful. They wear coarse. strong
clothing fitting to the work They do not
wear demi trains, though it IS the fashion.
There is very little fun or romance about
this sort OF work. When lads and lasSes get
together at husking bees amid the rude
and uncouth BARNS" as the Hempstead m
qutrer puts it, to pull the big ears out Of
their protecting husks, there IS plenty OF
trollcklng, but the woman farm laborers
never notice the red ears they throw into
the heap. When the pretty girls. go out
picking hops in Central New York, which
they do by the thousands every August,
there is dancing every third night and
plenty Of skylarking while the zig boxes are
being filled. But these women look no more
capable of dancing than Millet's laborer in
the "Ange!us."
In New Jersey the women farm laborers
are quite as numerous proportionally as on
Long Island, but both to west and east the
women rapidly diminish as one recedes
from the city. Their employment is mainly
confined 20 the truck farms, where vegeta-
bles are raised for the city markets. Nor
are they anywhere near so plenty about
Boston or Philadelphia. There are many
places in the west, however, nearly exclu-
sively peopled by old world nations. whore
women regularly take hold OF farming
operations, Except in truck farming for
which they seem to have a special aptitude,
they usually get out of it as soon as they
absorb the mordern American spirit. Itsa
great pity. Women used to rake hay and
milk the COWS almost universally in this
country as they do in others, and we're
probably healthier and happier for it,