Milford chronicle., 1956-09-28
State Farm
Labor Letter

Harvesting still continues at a
pace that taxes the labor available
to keep up with maturing crops.
The peak of the tomato harvest has
passed but continued favorable
weather is producing good yield
for this date. Pickers are urgently
needed in some areas. The late
snap bean crop is causing our
greatest worry. Harvest crews ex-
pected to return from New York
State for this crop are being held
there TO finish picking an unusu-
ally heavy and late crop. A large
planting of broccoli, cauliflower,
and brussels sprouts requires more
labor than previous years. Any
grower who has workers who will
be idle for a day or two at time
can help get these crops harvested
if they, will refer these workers to
either the Dover or Georgetown
offices of the Farm Placement Ser
vice.
We are just about over the
toughest year insofar as farm la
Dor is concerned, than at any time
since, the end of World War Ii.
What appeared at the start OF the
1856 harvest season to be tight
but adequate labor force dissolved
into a labor group hardly able to
keep up with harvest demand.
What happened? Several factors
entered into the situation, first an
unusually, cold, wet spring held
up planting so that crops were
three to four weeks late. This
situation was not only in Della
ware but existed along the entire
Atlantic Seaboard so that crops all
along the line were not only late
but were maturing at the same
time. Many crews could not get
away from their southern commit
ments to come north on time. Sec
ondly, crew leaders were unable
to recruit enough workers in Flor
ida to fill out their crews to full
numerical strength. Year round
work opportunities in Florida are.
draining off the better workerfrom
the migrant crews. Third, we have
had bumper crops and in most
cases a good market for every
product produced on our farms.
Short handed crews have simply
not been able to handle some crops
at peak. There is nothing to indi-
cate that labor conditions Will i'm
prove another season. For that
reason we are starting to plan Tor
1857 labor. Our Farm Placement
Representatives plan to contact as
many users of seasonal labor as
possible during the month of Oc-
tober. We hope to get your hon
est reaction to the labor situation
this year. If you had a good crew,
managed to get your work done and
are satisfied, we will be glad TO
know it. If on the other hand, you
were plagued with a poor crew or
no workers at all, had difficulty in
getting your harvesting done and
in general had hard time, we are
anxious to know that also. We are
open to suggestions or co3struc-
tive criticism and will give sin
cere consideration to your views
in trying to work out plans which
will insure adequate help for all
needs. Employers of seasonal la
Dor are always welcome to visit
any of our offices and talk things
over with our farm placement men.
Come in this fall or winter when
work slacks OFF.
States to the south of us will be
I'M demand of workers for the next
two months. This is especially
true of North Carolina where they
have big cotton crop and Virgin
ia with a big bean crop. When
your crew completes their work
for you, will you kindly suggest to
them that they contact one of our
offices. We can refer them to areas
where they are in great need.
We have 5,6S5 seasonal workers
i'm the area. 2,780 are working on
farms and 2,9O5 in food processing
plants. OF this number, 2,4e4 are
local workers; 2.S62 southern mi
grants and 419 Puerto Ricans.
aITIHE GEpVTEE