The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-07-16
IN THE HI RYES1 FIELDS.


tramps just now and this condition
promises to continue for another
month. The tramps have evidently
begun to read the newspapers, or else
word has been passed around that the
wheat belt of the west is bad place
for the hobo in the good old summer
time. Some fantastic tales have gone
out from the west in past years about
desperate farmers who have boarded
freight trains and impressed the way
faring passengers into service in the
harvest fields to save their ripened
grain from destruction, but these tales
have had only slight basis of truth.
Nevertheless, the tramps seem to have
taken the alarm.
Whatever may be the cause, the
fact exists that the tramps are very
scarce this year, and the State labor
bureau and employment agencies in
the various cities are being deluged
with inquiries for harvest hands. 1t
is estimated that the shortage in this
State alone will be several thousand.
The cool weather of May and June
retarded the ripening of wheat in this
State, as we'll as in other Western
States, and the pinch has not yet
come. The first grain will be cut
next week and from that time on the
demand for harvest hands will be
great. Ordinarily unskilled labor in
the cities has been getting 81. rs and
81 day, and there is practically no
surplus market to draw from this
year, public improvements and pri-
vate enterprises absorbing about all
of the available men.
Last year as much as SO and 81 a
day was paid to experienced harvest
ers, and with wheat at its present
high price the farmers will not care
much what the harvesters demand.
The wheat growers have already run
up against the fact that the farm.
hands union was no winters dream
of the hired men. High wages are
demanded and secured by the hired
hands. In many cases as much as $50
and $50 month, with board and
laundry added, is being demanded,
with at least six months work guar
anteed. Eastern and central Nebraska
have been pretty we'll organized and
the minimum schedule of $25 is easily
enforced.
Nebraska is going to have another
big bumper crop this year, both in
wheat and corn. The acreage of
winter wheat is estimated by the crop
experts at more than two and half
millions, which insures yield of
from 60, 600, 600 to 70, 900, 600 bushels.
The acreage is about 500, 900 acres
larger than last year. The corn acre
age will go about $500, 600 acres and
that of oats to 1,750, 900 acres which
years. For the last two or three
years the acreage of corn has decreased
as that of wheat has increased, but
the farmer has discovered that 1T
pays to plant both. One crop is we'll
enough in States where climatic con-
ditions do not vary much from year
to year, but in Nebraska and Kansas
the agriculturists have learned not to
figure on one crop alone,
1t is rarely the case that both corn
and wheat fail in the same year. If
the spring is wet and cold wheat
fiourishes and corn does not If the
contrary conditions obtain corn, being
the later planted. has an excellent
chance of winning out. This year
floods and rains caused the postpone
ment of planting until June /. This
has necessitated the planting of
ninety.day corn in order to escape the
frosts of early autumn, but this grades
well. The crop sharps say that the
era of cheap corn is past in the West.
Foreign demand has increased so
greatly in recent years that it will
always command a good price, the
exports being many times as large as
formerly. There never will be enough
wheat raised materially to reduce the
price, experts say, the discovery of
new fields failing to keep pace with
the expansion of the wheat-consuming
population.
The acreage of all crops is larger
than ever before because the western
and northwestern parts of the State;
through irrigation and scientific farm
ing, have been redeemed from their
old place as grazing lands and made
into profitable farms Large fields of
alfalfa are in bloom and the returns
are even richer than those from wheat
fields. The calamity bowler has been
effectually disposed of in the west.
The money power has no terrors any
longer for the western farmer. He
has become something of money
power himself. He borrows only to
buy more land and his only dealing
with the Eastern capitalist is when
the latter comes along seeking a good