Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-08-01
HARVEST WORK IN KANSAS.
An Ex-Farm Hand Utters Word Of
Warning.

An Ex.Farm Hand Utters Word Of
Warning.
The stories printed in the last few
days Of the demand for harvest hands
in Kansas and Of the college boys and
young society men" from the east who
have improved the opportunity to go
to Kansas and work in the harvest
fields arouse incredulity in the mind of
a gentleman in this city, who has not
only seen the wheat fields Of the west,
but has toiled in the harvest for years.
Here is what he has to say on the sub
ject:
There are college boys and perhaps
society men who are familiar with hard
farm work and can do as much work
in a yellow wheat field in day as any
farm hand Of the west. but they are
not in excessive supply and 1t Is diff
ficult to figure out a very important
financial harvest for them.
These dispatches say that the wages
paid by Kansas farmers in the harvest
field are from $3.50 to 81 a day. These
are, indeed, gilt-edged harvest wages.
The usual price in the great wheat
fields Of Minnesota and the Dakotas
is from $3.50 to 81 a day.
1T is difficult to see how Kansas
farmers can make any money out OF
their wheat crop at such high wages
for havesting. In 1901 the average
yield of the Kansas wheat fields was
1876 bushels an acre and the price OF
wheat was So cents bushel. In 1907
the average yield Of the Kansas fields
was only 10 bushels to the acre and
the farmers parted with their crop at
an average price Of IS cents bushel.
Suppose that this year the yield Is
1876 bushels to the acre, which Is five
bushels more than the average yield
in the United States, and that the far
mers sell the crop at so cents a bushel;
in this case the crop will be worth only
$11.10 to the acre. One man Is good for
harvesting only about an acre a day
and If he receives 81, there will be very
little left for the farmer after he de-
ducts the cost of ploughing, seeding,
threshing and hauling to the market
town.
Nor even if the college boys and
young society men from New York re-
ceive 81 a day does there seem to be
any profit in the enterprise for them
The present fare from New York to
Topeka is s27.S5, the railroad compa-
MES having declined to make any re-
duction in rates, and the farmers say
they will not be responsible for trans
portation.
1.-The period Of harvesting Is very
short and will not continue much, II
any, beyond August /. Then the young
men must shell out s27S5 additional in
order to get back to college or their
society circle. The prospects for an
actual deficit in their finances by the
time they return to New York, in addi-
ton to blistered hands and peeled
noses, would appear to be decidedly
brilliant.
IF any young man without knowl-
edge Of farm work has had the tenn
erity to hire out as a harvest hand in
Kansas his days are undoubtedly
crowded with experiences Of the sub
DUNG tendency. No work on earth Is
harder than work in the harvest field.
and there is no eight-hour law in
vogue.
ANY one who has worked in the
wheat fields Of the west knows that
the hands must be at work by from 4
to in the morning and work until
darkness closes in at night. To be
sure, the harvest hand pauses for five
meals during his day Of fourteen
complete physical exhaustion helps him
to sleep like log during the few hours
in the twenty-four that are left him
for recuperation.
1T need not cause surprise If some
adventurous young men from the east
who have gone to Kansas to the rescue
Of the horny-handed farmer have been
relegated to the task of carrying the
water jug for the rest Of the field
hands; and that job does not COM
mand 81 a day.
There is one part of the world that
hires harvest hands every year from a
far-away country. Thousands Of the
farm hands of northern Italy go to Ar
gentina every fall to help in the wheat
harvest, returning in the spring to their
homes in time to harvest the cereals Of
Italy.
But these farm hands are carried
from and to their homes across the
ocean at only $40 for the round trip.
They have $50 or $50 in their pockets
when they return home, which is a
good deal more than will be said Of
any person, however competent, who
has gone from New York to Kansas
this summer to work in the grain fields
with the intention Of returning to this
state when the crop is gathered.'-
New York Sun.