Full text of Child Labor on Maryland Truck Farms, Bureau Publication No. 123

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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
JAMES J. DAVIS. Secretary

CHILDREN’S BUREAU
G R A C E A B B O T T . Chief

CHILD LABOR
ON

MARYLAND TRUCK FARMS
BY

ALICE CHANNING

Bureau Publication No. 123

W ASHINGTON
GOVERNM ENT PRINTING OFFICE

1923

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A. 7

X-iZ 3

CONTENTS.
Page.

Letter of transm ittal............................................ - ..........................................................................

Introduction........................................................................- ..............................................................

l- 3

Truck farming in M arylan d .......................... .....................................................................

Scope and method of s tu d y .................................................................................................
Resident child workers on truck farms in A nne Arundel C o u n ty.............................

2
5 -2 1

The workers’ fam ilies.............................................................................................................
Children’s work on truck farm s.........................................................................................

6
7 -1 7

K in d s of w ork.................................................................... - ........................ - .................

The length of the w orking-day.................................. - ...................... •.....................

Duration of w ork........................ .............................................. .....................................

E arnings...............................................................................................................................

Farm work and schooling....................................................- ...............................................

Migratory child workers in A nne A rundel C o u n ty............ - ........................ .................... 2 3-34
The workers’ fam ilies.............................................................................................................

Camp life .................................................................................................... •>..........................25
Children’s work on truck farm s.........................................................................................

S c h o o lin g .. . . . — — ................................ ........................ - ........................................ .........

Child workers on Eastern Shore truck f a r m s ............... ................................................... :. 3 5-50
The workers’ fam ilies....................................
Children’s work on truck farm s..................................

35
3 8 -4 7

K in d s of w ork....................... 1........................................................................................

The length of the w orking-day.....................- . - .....................................................

Duration of w ork.......................................... — ...........................................................

Earnings........................................- ....................................................................................

Farm work and schooling..........................................

Conclusion............................................ — .................................................. ......................................

IL L U S T R A T IO N S .
Facing page.

Shanty in seasonal workers’ camp, housing 95 persons.

(Dimensions, approxi

m ately 60 b y 20 b y 16 fe e t)......................................................................................................
Twelve-year-old b o y carrying hamper of cucum bers.......................................................

i
10

Picking eggplant...................
F am ily sections in seasonal workers’ shack, separated only b y boards 10 inches

high........................................................................................................................
Interior of shanty curtained for privacy b y the workers................................................

28
28

Bean p ic k e r s ...............................................................

P rivy with no pit, constructed b y the workers..................................... .............................

Turning sweet potato vines back into rows before cultivating....................................

Cutting corn.............V................................................................................................. ........................

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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

U n it e d

States

D epartment

Labor,

Ch il d r e n ’s B u r e a u ,

Washington, D. C., May 12, 1923.
Sm: I transmit herewith a report entitled “ Child Labor on Mary
land Truck Farms,” the second of a series on’rural child labor which
the bureau is making.
The investigation was planned and carried on under the direction
of Ellen Nathalie Matthews, director of the industrial division of
the bureau. Viola I. Paradise was in immediate charge of the field
work in Anne Arundel County and Ethel M. Springer and Mary E.
Skinner on the Eastern Shore. The report was written by Alice
Charming.
The Children’s Bureau is indebted to State, county, and local
officials, especially school authorities and agricultural agents, for
their cooperation. Special acknowledgments are due Mr. S. W.
Bomberger, assistant director, cooperative extension work in agri
culture and home economics, Maryland State University, and others
in this department.
Respectfully submitted.
G r a c e A b b o t t , Chief.
Hon. J a m e s J . D a v i s ,
Secretary o f Labor.

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CHILD LABOR ON M ARYLAN D TR U C K FARM S.
INTRODUCTION.

The following study1 of children who work on truck farms in
Maryland was made in Anne Arundel County near Baltimore, and
in Wicomico, Somerset, and Worcester Counties, which lie in that
section of the State known as the Peninsula or Eastern Shore.
T R U C K F A R M IN G IN M A R Y L A N D .

Truck farming in the United States had not developed to any
extent before 1890, but with improvement in the transportation of
perishable products the industry has developed rapidly throughout
the country in the last 30 years.2 The Gulf States and California,
known as the “ winter gardens of the north,” lead in the production
of winter vegetables; Maryland and near-by States send their produce
to northern cities in the spring and early summer months; later in
the season the farms of northern States supply both northern and
southern markets.
On account of their accessibility to large city markets sections of
the States of Maryland and Virginia and parts of New Jersey and
Delaware were among the first in the country to develop “ trucking.”
The development in Maryland, on the eastern and western shores of
Chesapeake Bay, is due to the good transportation facilities by rail
and water, to the equable climate, and to the light sandy soil, which
when fertilized is well adapted to the growth of early vegetables.
In Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester Counties on the eastern shore
of the bay and in Anne Arundel County on the western shore the
acreage planted in truck was in 1920, according to the United States
census figures, from 13 to 17 per cent of the improved farm land,
which may be compared with a truck acreage of 6 per cent of the
improved farm land in the whole State. In Anne Arundel County
the trucking section is concentrated in a small area south of Balti
more, general farm crops and tobacco being raised in the rest of the
1 This study is one of a series being made by the Children’s Bureau which deals with the problem of rural
child labor. The following reports in this series have been published or are in press: Child Labor and the
Work of Mothers in the Beet Fields of Colorado and Michigan, Publication No. 115; Child Welfare in
Cotton-Growing Areas of Texas. Studies similar to that made in Maryland have recently been completed
in the “ trucking” areas of New Jersey and Virginia.
* Development and Localization of Truck Crops in the United States. Separate from Yearbook of the
U . S. Department of Agriculture, 1916, No. 702. Washington, 1917.

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C H IL D LABOR O N

M AR YLAN D TRU CK FARM S.

county. On tlie Peninsula the trucking areas are more widely dis
tributed; the more important are near Salisbury in Wicomico County,
near Princess Anne and Marion in Somerset County, and near Berlin
and Snow Hill in Worcester County. In Anne Arundel County a
great variety of vegetables and small fruits is grown; on the Eastern
Shore strawberries and Irish and sweet potatoes are the most
important truck crops.
On account of the intensive nature of truck growing the farms are
small, as a rule, and much hand labor is used. Hand labor in har
vesting perishable crops is essential; beans, strawberries, tomatoes,
and melons must be hand picked. Even where machines are used
to dig potatoes the latter must be.picked up by hand, and though
green peas are sometimes threshed by machine when sold to canneries,
they must be picked by hand for the market. The picking of most
crops is simple and can be done by children. The large truck farmers
of Anne Arundel County import Polish women and children from
Baltimore for picking; on the Eastern Shore local labor is generally
employed, though some negro labor is imported. The owners of
the larger farms in both sections employ laborers or have tenants living
on their farms; on the small farms the farmer and his wife and chil
dren do most of the work.
The only regulation of the work of children on farms in Maryland
is the indirect restriction imposed by the State compulsory educa
tion law,3 since the child-labor law, except possibly as regards em
ployment during school hours of children required to attend school,
applies only to a specific list of occupations, which does not include
agricultural pursuits.
SCOPE AN D M E T H O D OF STUDY.

The purpose of the survey was to study the work of children on
truck farms, and the areas chosen for intensive study were localities
in which the principal truck crops are raised. The areas were se
lected after consultation with county agricultural agents and school
officials, and, for purposes of convenience, were usually coextensive
with the school districts. In the Peninsula counties the names and
addresses of all children under 16 years of age enrolled in the schools
of the selected districts were secured from the school records and their
attendance records copied; in Anne Arundel County school records
were secured only for children enrolled in the schools who reported
that they had worked on a farm during the year preceding the
inquiry. The families of these children were then visited and de
tailed information secured concerning all of them who had worked
on a truck farm at any time during the preceding 12 months. In

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IN T R O D U C T IO N .

the Anne Arundel area a house-to-house canvass was also made for
children who worked on farms and whose names were not on the school
record. In this way many children were found who belonged to the
families of migratory workers from Baltimore. The school records
of these children were later obtained from Baltimore public and paro
chial schools. The survey made in the Eastern Shore counties dur
ing the latter part of May and June, 1921, and in Anne Arundel
County during June and July, 1921, covered part of the strawberry
picking season on the Eastern Shore and parts of the bean and straw
berry-picking seasons in Anne Arundel County.
50182°— 23----- 2

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RESIDENT CHILD WORKERS ON TRUCK FARMS IN ANNE
ARUNDEL COUNTY.

The area in Anne Arundel County chosen for study is a small part
of the county adjacent to Baltimore in which the truck farms of the
county are concentrated. A large percentage of the farm land under
cultivation in this area is given up to truck, general crops being seldom
grown. While some of the truck farms in this area are comparatively
larg e— from 200 to 300 acres— the majority are smaller, farms of
from 50 to 100 acres predominating. It is customary for children
of owners of small farms, both white and negro, to help both with the
general farm work and in the harvesting season. Children of the
larger landholders, "however, do not as a rule work on the farms.
On the larger truck farms hired negro laborers, resident in the area,
do the general farm work and white laborers imported from Balti
more do the seasonal work.
Of the 808 white and negro children who were interviewed because
they had done farm work during the preceding year, about one-third
were children of farm owners and tenants, one-third were children
who were hired by the day as laborers and who lived in the locality,
and the remaining one-third were children in migratory families com
ing in for seasonal work. (Table 1.) These migratory children
lived and worked under such different conditions from children
whose homes were in the area that they are discussed in a separate
section— Migratory Child Workers in Anne Arundel County, page 23.
T a b l e 1 . — W orking status o f children in fam ilies interviewed, by sex and race; A n n e

Arundel C ounty.
Children under 16 years of age.
White.

Total.
Working status of child.

Total............................................... ........

Per cent
Per cent
Per cent
Number. distribu Number. distribu Number. distribu
tion.
tion.
tion.
808

100.0

480

540
286
255
31
254
268
415

66.8
35.4
31.6
3.8
31.4
33.2

218
187
166
21
31
262
254

279
154
143
11
125
136
Girls.............................................................

Negro.

393
261
132
112
20
129
132

100.0
67.2
37.1
34.5
2.7
30.1
32.8
100.0
66.4
33.6
28.5
5.1
32.8
33.6

118
102
95
7
16
136
226
100
85
71
14
15
126

100.0
45.4
39.0
34.6
4.4
6.5
54.6
100.0
46.5
40.2
37.4
2.8
6.3
53.5
100.0
44.2
37.6
31.4
6.2
6.6
55.8

328
322
99
89
10
223
6
161
161
52
48
4
109

100.0
98.2
30.2
27.1
3.0
68.0
1.8
100.0

167
161
47
41
6
114
6

100.0
96.4
28.1
24.6
3.6
68.3
3.6

100.0
32.3
29.8
2.5
67.7

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C H IL D LABO R ON" M A R Y L A N D T R U C K F A R M S .

T H E W O R K E R S ’ F A M IL IE S .

Of the 540 children who lived in the area and worked on farms, 322,
or three-fifths, were negro and 218 were white. The majority of
the white children were farmers’ children, 76 per cent being children
of farm owners and 10 per cent those of tenants. About one-half— 36
out of 73— of the white farm owners whose children worked were
foreign born, chiefly Polish and German. Situated near a large
city, the area has been much modified in population by recent
immigrations. The families of the foreign born were less pros
perous than the native white farmers whose children worked.
Although most of them could speak English, many were illiterate,
one or both parents in 13 of the 36 families being unable to read and
write in any language— about the same proportion of illiteracy as
that reported by the negro parents. Only 14 per cent of the resident
white children included in the study were hired laborers. These
included only one family of children whose parents were of foreign
birth.
Most of the 322 resident negro children, on the other hand, were
hired by the day, less than one-third being the children of owners or
tenants. (Table 1.) Many child workers in the families of negro
farm operators worked also as hired hands on other than the home
farm, a practice which was not customary among white farmers’
children. The farms of negro farm owners were smaller than those
of either native or foreign-born white farmers, averaging about 20
acres, as compared with an average of between 50 and 100 acres for
white farm owners. The fathers of the negro children* working as
hired laborers were either farm laborers or laborers on the roads, or
worked at the near-by military camps or on the Baltimore docks.
The differences in financial status among the white families and the
uniformly poor economic condition of the negro families whose
children did farm work are indicated by the types of houses and the
localities in which they lived as well as b y the size of the farms. The
homes of the white families were usually in a thickly settled farming
district where nearly all the land was under cultivation, but the
homes of the negro families were for thè most part in a region where
waste lands, swamps, and woodlands were more generally seen than
tilled fields. A few white families lived in large houses with modern
conveniences, a few in tumble-down two-room shacks, but the major
ity occupied houses of from four to six rooms which had, however,
the usual outside privy and no running water. Negro families,
whether they lived on small farms or in villages, usually lived m
two-storied, unpainted cabins of three or four rooms. Such‘Cabins
were not always provided with even an outside privy, and the water
supply was secured from shallow wells or springs arid brooks.

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R E S ID E N T C H IL D W O R K E R S I N

ANNE

ARUNDEL COU NTY.

Overcrowding occurred among both, white and negro families.
Fourteen per cent of the 95 white families and 32 per cent of the 151
negro families reported two or more persons per room. (Table 2.)
Of the 13 white families who reported overcrowding, 8 were foreign
bom.
T a b le 2.— Average number o f persons per room in residentfam ilies, by race; A n n e Arundel
County.

White families.
Average number of persons per room.

Total.........................................................................
Less than 1...............................................
1, less than 2 .............................................
2, less than 3 . ................................
3, less than 5 .............................. ..........
5, less than 7 ..................................
Not reported..............................................

Negro families.

Per cent
Per cent
Number. distribu Number. distribu
tion.
tion.
95

100.0

151

100.0

7
75
10
3

7.4
78.9
10.5
3.2

16
86
37
10

10.6
57.0
24.5
6.6

C H IL D R E N ’ S W O R K O N T R U C K F A R M S .

Approximately one-half of the 218 white and 322 negro children
whose homes were in this area and who worked on farms were girls.
Of these children, both boys and girls, 8.3 per cent had not reached
their eighth and 28.5 per cent their tenth birthday. The ages at
which they had begun farm work varied little with their nationality,
but white boys started to work at earlier ages than white girls and
hired children did not do field work at as early ages as farmers’
children.' Fifty-three of the 132 white and negro children who were
14 years of age or more when interviewed had started field work
before they were 10 years of age and 84 before they were 12.
Kinds of work.

Children in this area work on almost all the crops that are raised
there. The most important crops are green beans, green peas,
tomatoes, strawberries, cantaloupes, and sweet potatoes, but sweet
corn, cabbage, squash, green peppers, and eggplant are also grown.
The work done by two boys, children of the owner of one of the
larger truck farms, illustrates the kinds of crops and the variety
of work on each crop. Both boys, 13 and 15 years of age, respectively,
did the same work— plowed and harrowed; planted peas, beans,
white potatoes, sweet corn, and peppers; transplanted cantaloupes
and eggplants, and u dropped ” sweet potatoes; thinned corn and egg
plants; hoed or weeded all crops; sprayed potatoes and tomatoes;
bugged” potatoes; cut corn; picked strawberries, peas, beans,
cantaloupes, eggplant, apples, and peaches; loaded wagons with
vegetables, and sorted cantaloupes, sweet potatoes, eggplant, and
peppers.

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C H IL D LABOR O H M A R Y L A N D T R U C K F A R M S .

White children did a greater variety of work than negro children.
The latter were usually hired only for picking strawberries, beans,
peas, and tomatoes, though occasionally also for transplanting,
hoeing, and weeding. Children under 10 years of age were usually
employed only at picking and at the easier kinds of planting and
transplanting, but older girls, in addition to such work, did hoeing
and weeding, and boys 12 years of age and more, in addition to the
easier kinds of work, also plowed, cultivated, and harrowed. (Tables
3, 4, and 5.)
Almost every child who does farm work in this locality helps at
harvesting time. More than nine-tenths of the children included in
the present study had picked green vegetables or strawberries or
both, and over one-third had helped harvest Irish or sweet potatoes or
both. Picking beans was reported by nearly two-thirds of the
children, and picking strawberries, tomatoes, and peas was also
reported b y large numbers. (Table 4.) Fewer children, one-fifth and
one-sixth, respectively, reported that they had picked cucumbers
and melons.
T a b l e 3.— A ges o f children in resident fam ilies doing each specified hind o f field work , by
race; A n n e Arundel C ounty.

Children under 16 years of age doing each specified kind of field work.
Under 8
years.

Kind of field work and race.

8 years,
under 10.

10 years,
under 12.

12 years,
under 14.

14 years,
under 16.

Total.
Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1
White............................

Transplanting.................. .
Gathering potatoes...............

Negro........... ...............

Planting.“ ..............................
Weeding..................................
Spraying.................................
Transplanting.......................
Thinning....“ .......................
Picking.” ................................
Shucking^ or husking com ..
Saving fodder 2....... ..............

218
49
59
93
52
97
119
33
169
57
195
119
26
24
322
34
38
86
39
134
87
6
160
44
299
70
6
12

8.7

4.3

7
1
10
2
12
5

5.9
3.5
6.2
4.2

1
2
12
1
9
16
1
27
5
40
16

8.1

5.9

20.2
3.4
12.9
1.9
9.3
13.4
16.0
8.8
20.5
13.4

2.3

5
3

3.7
3.4

5.6

23
5
1

7.7
7.1

1Not shown where base is less than 50.

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1
1
10
1
10
7
1
22
2
61
5
1

48
5
9
18
10
18
24
5
37
13
47
23
1
4

20.2

11.6

1
2
16

7.5
8.0
13.8
20.4
7.1

23
23
1
31
9
72
13
2

22.0
15.3
19.4
19.2
18.6
20.2
21.9
22.8
24.1
19.3

23.9

18.6
17. 2
26.4
19.4
24.1
18.6

59
17
21
29
15
33
43
9
51
18
50
36
2
6
67
6
7
141
10
36
17
2
38
9
63
13
2
3

27.1
35.6
31.2
28. 8
34.0
36.1
30.2
31.6
25.6
30.3

2fi 8

16.3
26.9
19.5
23.8
21.1
18.6

48
26
27
30
26
37
29
17
44
19
46
39
3
11
84
25
27
43
27
58
35
2
57
23
77
33
2
7

Age
not
re
port
ed.

22.0
45. 8
32. 3
50. 0
38.1
24. 4
26.0
33. 3
23. 6
32.8

26.1

50. Ö

1
1
1
1
2
2

43.3
40.2
35.6
25.8
47.1

* Includes pitching and stacking.

3
1
3
1

R E S ID E N T C H IL D W O R K E R S I N

A N N E ARUNDEL COUNTY.

Picking beans, peas, or strawberries requires little skill and can
be done by children as soon as they are old enough to distinguish a
mature pod or a ripe berry from a green one. In picking beans and
peas the picker works in a half kneeling, half sitting position when
the crop is good, turning back the vines with one hand and tossing
the pods into the basket with the other, but when the crop is poor he
is obliged to stand and bend over the low plants. The worker keeps
the basket on the ground, placing it when full on his shoulder, carry
ing it to the end of the row, and emptying it into a sack. Sometimes
the child has a burlap bag tied about his waist into which he puts the
pods. Strawberry picking is very similar, for when the berries are
plentiful the work can be done in a half sitting position, but when
the crop is poor the worker must stand and bend over the plants.
The amount of fatigue caused by picking strawberries or beans
depends on how many hours it is necessary to work with back bent
and knees cramped. Both white and negro children are employed
on these crops, but relatively fewer negro children reported picking
tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, and potatoes— crops which the farmers
are usually able to get to market with the help of their wives or
children or of their regular employees.
Tomato picking, which had been done b y over two-thirds of the
white children but b y only one-third of the negro children, is harder
work than picking beans or strawberries. The most difficult part of
the work is not picking the fruit off the vines, though it is necessary
to stand and stoop continuously, but carrying the hampers. A fiveeighths bushel basket of tomatoes, the size commonly used, weighs,
when full, about 40 pounds. Younger children are not always
required, however, to “ tote the baskets” but sometimes put the
fruit they pick into the hampers of adults with whom they are
working. Nearly two-fifths of the white children, few of whom
were under 10 years of age, had picked cucumbers. The hampers of
cucumbers, like baskets of tomatoes, are heavy to carry. (See
illustration facing p. 10.) Melons are also heavy to handle and
younger children can not be trusted to select ripe ones. One father
said that for the latter reason he did not allow his two children 8
and 13 years of age to pick melons; he and his wife picked and the
children “ toted the baskets. ” Picking up potatoes was, like tomato
and cucumber picking, reported by a larger proportion of white than
negro children, by over one-half of the white as compared with onefifth of the negro. The work is simple and can be done by children
of all ages. They crawl along the rows on hands and knees, pick up
the potatoes, knock or scratch off the dirt with their fingers, and
throw the potatoes in piles or into baskets. Sweet potatoes are
harvested like Irish potatoes, except that it is also necessary to
break them from the vines. The hard work, loosening the potatoes

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C H IL D LABOR O N

M AR YLAN D TRU CK FARM S.

from the soil, is previously done by a plow or potato digger. Some
of the older children, besides picking up the potatoes, carry the
baskets to the edge of the field and dump the potatoes into barrels or
into a wagon.
T a b l e 4. — Crops picked by children in resident fam ilies, by sex and race; A n n e Arundel
County.

Children under 16 years of age picking each, specified crop.
Crops picked, and sex.

Total.

White.

Negro.

Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.
Total................................................... t . .

640

100.0

218

100.0

322

100.0

Strawberries......................................................
Beans..................................................................
Peas.....................................................................
Tomatoes...........................................................
Cucumbers.........................................................
Melons............... J...............................................
Blackberries, raspberries, and huckle
berries ............................ ...............................
Other fruits and vegetables............................

317
353
236
255
106
92

58.7
65.4
43.7
47.2
19.6
17.0

86
107
84
149
85
67

39.4
49.1
38.5
68.3
39.0
30.7

231
246
152
106
21
25

71.7
76.4
47.2
32.9
6.5
7.8

57
92

10.6
17.0

4
63

1.8
28.9

53
29

16.5
9.0

Boys.............................................................

279

100.0

118

100.0

.161

100.0

Strawberries...... ...............................................
Beans...................................................................
Peas.....................................................................
Tomatoes............................................................
Cucumbers.........................................................
Melons........... . . .................................................
Blackberries, raspberries, and huckle
berries .................................................... . —
Other fruits and vegetables....... *...................

138
161
102
146
67
69

49.5
57.7
36.6
52.3
24.0
24.7

38
55
39
95
56
52

32.2
46.6
33.1
80.5
47.5
44.1

100
106
63
51
.. 11
- 17

62.1
65.8
39.1
31.7
6.8
10.6

31
61

11.1
21.9

4
42

3.4
35.6

;

27
\ 19

16.8
11. ß

Girls.............................................................

261

100.0

100

100.0

f ;161

,100.0

Strawberries......................................................
Beans...................................................................
Peas.....................................................................
Tomatoes...........................................................
Cucumbers........... .............................................
Melons.................................................................
Blackberries, raspberries, and huckle-

179
192
134
109
39
23

68.6
73.6
51.3
41.8
14.9
8.8

48
52
45
54
29
15

48.0
52.0
45.0
54.0
29.0
15.0

, 131
Ì40
„89
55
10
8

81.4
87.0
55.3
34.2
6.2
5.0

26
31

10.0
11.9

■21

21.0

26
io

16.1
6.2

Other fruits and vegetables...........................

■-

Planting and transplanting various crops were reported by many
of the children, especially by those who lived on farms. Over
one-half (53.4 per cent) of the white and over one-third (36 per
cent) of the negro boys reported that they had planted one or more
crops; three-tenths (30 per cent) of the white girls but less than onefifth (17.4 per cent) of the negro also reported planting. Of the
group of 179 children who reported one or more kinds of planting,
50.8 per cent had planted cucumbers or melons, 48 per cent Irish
potatoes, 41.9 per cent either sweet or field corn, 36.9 per cent beans,
20.7 per cent peas.
Some kinds of planting are simple. Planting Irish potatoes, for
instance, which was reported by a few children between the ages
of 8 and 10, consists in dropping pieces of potato by hand into a
furrow already plowed for the purpose. The second planting of

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BOY C A R R Y IN G

H AM PER OF CUCUMBERS.

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corn, known as replanting, which consists of dropping seeds by hand
into a drill,- was also reported by children as young as 8 years. Few
children -under 10 years, however, planted melons or cucumbers,
which though done by hand requires more judgment than either of
the kinds of planting previously mentioned. The use of machines
increases the difficulty and dangers of farm work foi* children and
undoubtedly many who reported planting corn, beans, or peas
operated the various hand or horse-drawn machines which are in
common use in this area for planting. Information was not obtained
as to the numbers of children using machines.
T a b l e 5.— K inds o f field work done by children in resident fam ilies, by sex and race;
A n n e Arundel County.

Children under 16 years of age doing each specified
kind of field work.
Kind of field work, and sex.

Total.

White.

Negro.

Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.
Total........................................................

540

100.0

218

100.0

322

100.0

Plowing...............................................................
Harrowing.........................................................
Planting.............................................................
Cultivating.................................. . ..............
Hoeing.................................................................
Weeding.............................................................
Spraying.............................................................
Transplanting...................................................
Thinning............................................................
Picking...............................................................
Gathering potatoes...........................................
Shucking or husking corn..............................
Saving fodder1.................................................

83
97
179
91
231
206
39
329
101
494
189
12
36

15.4
18.0
33.1
16.9
42.8
38.1
7.2
60.9
18.7
91.5
35.0
2.2
6.7

49
59
93
52
97
119
33
• 169
57
195
119
6
24

22.5
27.1
42.7
23.9
44.5
54.6
15.1
77.5
26.1
89.4
54.6
2.8
11.0

34
38
86
39
134
87
6
160
44
299
70
6
12

10.6
11.8
26.7
12.1
41.6
27.0
1.9
49.7
13.7
92.9
21.7
1.9
3.7

Boys............................................................

279

100.0

118

100.0

161

100.0

Plowing..............................................................
Harrowing........................................................
Planting..............................................................
Cultivating........................................................
Hoeing................................................................
Weeding.............................................................
Spraying.............................................................
Transplanting...................................................
Thinning............................................................
Picking...............................................................
Gathering potatoes...........................................
Shucking or husking corn..............................
Saving fodder i..................................................

81
92
121
85
140
100
32
193
71
248
109
7
27

29.0
33.0
43.4
30.5
50.2
35.8
11.5
69.2
25.4
88.9
39.1
2.5
9.7

47
54
63
48
66
68
26
101
41
105
71
4
20

39.8
45.8
53.4
40.7
55.9
57.6
22.0
85.6
34.7
89.0
60.2
3.4
16.9

34
38
58
37
74
32
6
92
30
143
38
3
7

21.1
23.6
36.0
23.0
46.0
19.9
3.7
57.1
18.6
88.8
23.6
1.9
4.3

261

100.0

100

100.0

161

100.0

2
5
58
6
91
106
7
136
30
246
80
5
9

0.8
1.9
22.2
2.3
34.9
40.6
2.7
52.1
11.5
94.3
30.7
1.9
3.4

2
5
30
4
31
51
7
68
16
90
48
2
4

2.0
5.0
30.0
4.0
31.0
51.0
7.0
68.0
16, 0
90.0
48.0
2.0
40

28
2
60
55

17.4
1.2
37.3
34.2

68
14
156
32
3
5

42.2
8.7
96.9
19.9
1.9
3.1

G irls...’. . .............................................. .
Plowing.............................................................
Planting.............................................................
Cultivating........................................................
Hoeing................................................................
Weeding.............................................................
Thinning. . . T....................................................
Picking...............................................................
Gathering potatoes..........................................
Shucking or husking corn..............................
Saving fodder i..................................................

1 Includes stacking and pitching.

50182°— 23------ 3

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A majority of the white children, oyer three-fourths (77.5 percent),
and one-half the negro, reported transplanting, usually tomatoes,
sweet potatoes, or cantaloupes, though a few had transplanted straw
berries, eggplants, green peppers, and other vegetables. Nearly
one-half (44.2 per eent) the children under 10 years of age had done
some kind of transplanting. Although they did not always specify
what operation they had performed, it is probable that most of them
had done some kind of hand transplanting, such, for instance, as
“ dropping” strawberry or sweet potato plants, a simple operation
consisting only of walking along the plowed field and dropping a plant
at regular intervals. The planting and “ setting” of the plants is
done by another worker who follows, digs a hole in the ground, and
sets the plant in the hole. As one father remarked, “ Any little
child who can walk straight can be taught to drop, but planting
takes sense.” The transplanting of strawberries is usually, though
not always, done by hand in this locality; tomatoes and sweet
potatoes are usually transplanted with the aid of a hand or machine
transplanter. Information was not obtained as to whether or not
the children who reported transplanting tomatoes and sweet potatoes
worked by hand or used a machine, nor was information obtained
concerning the kinds of machines in common use in this area.4
Hence precisely what difficulties the children experienced in their
work can not be stated.
General farm work was done b y a majority of the boys 12 years
of age and more who worked on their fathers' farms, but few children
were hired for general work other than hoeing. Negro boys, there
fore, a large proportion of whom were hired hands, were not as likely
as white boys to report that they had done plowing, harrowing, cul
tivating, spraying, and weeding. Few girls and few children under
12 years of age did any general work except hoeing and weeding.
Hoeing, which was reported by over two-fifths of both the white and
negro children, involves a certain amount of bending and is a fatiguing
and monotonous task when done for many hours in the hot sun.
Plowing, harrowing, and cultivating require physical strength.
Although two-fifths of the white boys reported plowing and a some
what greater proportion reported harrowing, it is significant that only
8 boys who had done plowing were under 12 years of age, one being
8 and another 9 years. One Polish father said he had learned by
experience to be careful of his 2 boys, aged 12 and 14 years, because
“ my oldest, he got a rupture; we put him too young at the plow.”
Only 11 boys under 12 years and 1 girl had done cultivating. One
•boy of 8 who reported cultivating was learning under the supervision
of his father, who said that he was strong enough for cultivating,
* The machine transplanter in common use on the Eastern Shore is described on p. 41.

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but too young to plow. Another father said that he was “ too par
ticular with his crops to let his 12-year-old boy either plow or culti
vate.” The difficulties experienced in these kinds of work depend
to a large extent on the kinds of machines used; information on this
point was not obtained for Anne Arundel County.5
Except for plowing, harrowing, cultivating, and lifting heavy
baskets of vegetables, the work which the children reported that
they did does not require a great deal of physical strength. Endur
ance, however, is necessary. Most of the work is done in the summer
months when the hot sun beats down upon the stretches of open
fields. The constant walking .over plowed ground under the hot
sun— the children usually wear broad-brimmed straw hats and white
children wear shoes and stockings— the monotonous nature of the
work, and the continual stooping, which involves a strain on the
muscles of the back and shoulders, combine to make the work
fatiguing.
The length of the working-day.
In view of the difficulty of obtaining accurate data regarding the
hours which the children worked, inquiry was made only as to the
number of hours worked on the last typical day before the agent’s
visit. By limiting the inquiry to a single day, usually the day
preceding the agent’s visit, it was considered that the information
secured would be accurate and that it would fairly represent the
daily hours worked during the period covered by the agents’ visits.
Although the work was somewhat irregular, and the number of hours
varied from day to day, the average hours worked on a large number
of typical days would give a fair picture of the length of the average
working-day. As the survey was made during part of the straw
berry and bean picking seasons, more children reported picking than
any other work on the day for which information regarding hours
was secured. The hours for picking strawberries are limited b y the
fact that the berries can not be picked until the dew has dried off and
by the fact that they must be shipped as soon as picked; the hours
for picking beans are also limited, because the pods shrivel if picked
during the middle of the day when the sun is very hot. During the
season covered b y the study also the working hours for bean picking
were said to be shorter than those of a more typical season because
of the poor crop. Hence the following account of the length of the
working-day indicates a shorter day than is probably customary for
children doing more general kinds of work on truck farms.
That the field work of the older boys was important and the work
of the younger children relatively insignificant is indicated by the
longer working-day of the former, which was commonly 8 or more
5 For plowing by children on the Eastern Shore farms, see p. 42.

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C H IL D LABOR O N

M AR YLAN D TR U CK FARM S.

hours. (Table 6.) Of 58 white and negro boys 12 and 13 years of
age who reported the number of hours worked in the field 31 had
worked 9 or more hours and 6 had worked 12 or more hours. Of
66 boys 14 and 15 years of age 12 had also worked 12 or more hours.
A few young children worked long hours; thus, 20 of the 81 negro
children, though only 3 of the 46 white children, under 10 years of
age, reporting hours, had worked 9 or more hours, an 8-year-old col
ored girl reporting on her last working-day 13 hours in the fields.
T a b l e 6 . — F ield hours o f children in resident fam ilies on last working-day previous to

agent's visit, by age and race; A n n e Arundel County.

Children under 16 years of age doing field work.
8 years,
under 10.

Total.
Field hours on a typ
ical working day,
and race.

W hite...................
4 hours, less than 6 ___
6 hours", less than 8 . . . .
9 horns; less than 1 0 ...
10 hours, less than 1 2 ..

Negro...................
Less than 4 hours.........
4 hours, less than 6 ___
6 hours, less than 8 ___
8 hours, less than 9 ___
9 hours, less than 10__
10 hours, less than 1 2..
Not reported..................

10 years,
under 12.

12 years,
under 14.

14 years,
under 16.

Under
Per
8
Per
Per
Per
Per
years.1
.cent
Num
Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent
dis
dis
dis
dis
dis
ber.
ber.
ber.
ber.
tribu
tribu ber. tribu
tribu
tribu
tion.
tion.1
tion.1
tion.1
tion.1
218

100.0

58
38
24
17
9
32
7
33

26.6
17.4
11.0
7.8
4.1
14.7

9
1
3

•15.1

20
8
1
1
1
1
1
11

«322

100.0

59
18.3
38
11.8
34
10.6
15.8
51
26
8.1
61 • 18.9
22
6.8
31
9.6

10
5
1
3
1
2
1
3

18
9
6
9
6
8
2
7

27.7
13.8
9.2
13.8
9.2
12.3
3.1
10.8

17
12
9
13
7
8

22.1
15.6
11.7
16.9
9.1
10.4

14.3

3 .2

100.0

15
9
5
6

100.0

11
15
9
4

18.6
25.4
15.3
6.8
5.1
15.3
5.1
8.5

4
17
3
4

100.0

6
6
9
10
7
19
5
5

9.0
9.0
13.4
14.9
10.4
28.4
7.5
7.5

8
6
8
16
4
24
13
5

9.5
7.1
9.5
19.0
4.8
28.6
15 5
6.0

100.0

6
6

1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50.
2 Includes 3 children for whom age was not reported.

Negro children as a whole worked much longer hours than white
children, but no marked difference appeared between the hours of
white children of native and foreign-born parentage. Of 162 white
children who reported the number of hours worked, 81 had worked
8 or more hours, 51 of the 99 children of native and 30 of the 63
children of foreign-born parentage. Only 4 children of native and
none of foreign parentage had worked from 13 to 14 hours on the day
preceding the agent’s visit.. Three children of Hungarian parents,
boys aged 13, 14, and 15 years, had worked picking cucumbers the
day before the agent’s visit from 5.30 a. m. to 12 o’clock and from
1 to 8 p. m. One-half of the white and one-third (33.3 per cent)
of the negro children reporting had worked less than 6 hours; about
one-third (35 per cent) of the white and nearly three-fifths (55 per

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cent) of the negro children, 8 or more hours. About seven-tenths (69
per cent) of the negro children, it will be remembered, but only 14
per cent of the white children, were hired laborers, and these were not
as likely as farmers’ children to work less than 8 hours. Neither were
they, on the other hand, as likely to work over 10 hours; their hours
were more regular, being, as a rule, 8, 9, or 10.
In addition to the time spent working in the field, the chores or
housework reported by most children made their total day’s work
a long one. Chores were reported b y seven-tenths of the white
boys and by two-fifths of the negro boys. One-half of the white
girls and two-fifths of the negro also did chores. Chores consisted
of feeding and caring for horses, cows, and pigs; cleaning, out stables,
milking cows, feeding chickens, chopping wood, and carrying water
both for the household and for live stock. Practically all the white
and four-fifths of the negro girls reported housework, which, on
account of lack of modern household conveniences in most of the
homes of the area, was more than usually burdensome. Some boys
also helped with the housework. In one Polish family, for example,
where the mother was working long hours in the field, the boys,
besides their field work, took turns doing the washing. The time
spent b y the boys on chores or household duties was usually not so
long as that spent by the girls, so that the total working-day of the
girls was nearly as long as that of the boys, who spent more hours
at field work. On the last day of field work the total number of
hours worked b y one-half of the 162 white children reporting hours
and b y three-fifths (61.7 per cent) of the 256 negro children reporting
was at least 8 hours; one-third (32.1 per cent) of the white and twofifths (42.6 per cent) of the negro children had worked 10 or more
hours. A few children, 6 white and 3 negro, reported working a
total of 14 or more hours.
Duration of work.

It is probable that, whereas most of the children under 10 or 12
years of age, as well as most of the older girls, were employed only
intermittently during the rush seasons, when every available hand
was needed to get the produce to market, the majority of the older
boys and some of the older girls worked from March or April, when
the first plowing and planting was done, to September or October,
when the last crop was harvested;
In one family, for example, were three girls aged 15, 12, and 10
and one boy aged 13. The eldest girl did a great deal of farm work,
as her father, who was a carpenter, worked on the farm only in the
evenings and on Sunday, and her mother Was occupied with house
work and caring for the younger children. She, as well as her 13year-old brother, during the months of April and May plowed and

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harrowed, and planted com , beans, and potatoes; also, during May
they transplanted tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and cabbage, and during
the summer months cultivated, hoed, and weeded all the different
crops and picked four different kinds of vegetables; in September
they gathered potatoes. Except for plowing, the two younger girls
did the same kinds of work. In the months of April, May, September,
and October the mother said the work of the children was irregular;
in the summer months they worked regularly every day except when
it rained. On the day before the agent’s visit each child had worked
10 hours— from 7 a. m. to 12 and from 1 to 6 p. m. The work of the
older boys may be illustrated by the work experience of a 14-year-old
negro boy. He had worked 7 days in April hoeing strawberries, 21
days in May planting corn and picking strawberries, 7 more days in
May hoeing strawberries and sweet potatoes. In June he had spent
14 days picking strawberries and peas and in hoeing strawberries
and an equal amount of time hoeing tomatoes and picking raspberries.
Almost every day in July he had worked picking either beans or
raspberries and 27 days in August picking blackberries.
No information could be obtained except in comparatively rare
cases regarding the number of days worked during the year or the
number of days worked consecutively. In the absence of data show
ing how protracted were the periods of work it is impossible to
determine to what extent the long hours worked by the boys 12 and
13 years of age and over may have been physically injurious.
Earnings.

The amount of money hired children earned during the season is
impossible to estimate. Children who were hired by farmers other
than their parents were usually paid the prevailing rates for piece
work b y the basket or b y the row. The prices for picking were
from 25 to 30 cents for a five-eighths bushel basket of beans, 30 to
35 cents for a bushel of peas, 4 cents for a five-eighths bushel of
tomatoes. Some children who weeded and hoed were paid by the
row; the rate, which varied with the length of the row and the amount
of grass in each row, was usually from 10 to 25 cents a row. One
child of 11 earned 40 cents in five hours by weeding 8 rows of straw
berries. When the children were paid for general farm work by
time the rates widely varied with each farmer and each child, the
children usually receiving from 10 to 30 cents an hour. These
rates sometimes varied with the age of the child and the kind of work.
One child, for example, received 10 cents an hour for weeding toma
toes and 15 cents an hour for dropping sweet potatoes. Another
child received 15 cents for dropping and 20 cents for setting. One
child of 5 years was given 10 cents a day for dropping sweet potatoes.

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The children who worked for their own parents were not usually
paid in money. That some of the less prosperous farmers con
sidered their work an economic necessity is illustrated by the
observation of one father who owned 40 acres: “ We farmers poor;
can’t pay help, so the children must work to keep shoes on us all
and food in the house.”
F A R M W O R K A N D S C H O O L IN G .

However difficult it may be to determine the extent to which
children’s work on truck farms in these areas may be detrimental to
their welfare in other respects it is clear that for many children it
resulted in considerable loss of schooling. The compulsory school
attendance law of Maryland contains no clause allowing children to
be excused from school for farm work. Since 1916, when a com
pulsory attendance law was passed applicable to all the counties in
the State,6 children between the ages of 7 and 13 have been required
to attend school during the entire period of each year when the public
schools are in session.7 Children 13 and 14 years of age are required
to attend school at least 100 days as nearly consecutive as possible,
beginning not later than November 1, and the whole term unless
regularly employed; children 15 and 16 years of age, who have not
completed the elementary-school course, interpreted as completion
of seventh grade, are also required to attend school a minimum of
100 days.
Most of the 216 white and 319 negro children between the ages of
6 and 16 years included in the present study were enrolled in school
during the school year preceding the survey, but 25, or 11.6 per
cent, of the white children and 35, or 11 per cent, of the colored
children were not enrolled. Eighteen of these 25 white children either
were between the ages of 7 and 13 or were children of 13 or 14 who
were required to attend at least 100 days unless regularly employed,
or were 15-year-old children who had not completed the seventh
grade and were therefore legally required to attend school a minimum
of 100 days if not regularly employed. With three exceptions, the
35 negro children between 6 and 16 not enrolled ought legally to
have been in school, but 17 were unable to attend, inasmuch as the
school in their district was not in session during the year of the
survey.
6 Maryland Laws, Acts oi 1916, ch. 506. The law here summarized is the county school law and does
not apply to Baltimore.
i Children may be excused for ‘ ‘necessary and legal absence,” but by-law 46 of the State board of edu
cation provides that absence from school within the compulsory attendance ages shall be considered
lawful only under the following conditions: Death in child’s immediate family, illness of child, quarantine,
court summons, physical or mental incapacity, and weather conditions such as would endanger the
child’s health or safety when going to and from school. (Maryland Public School Laws, 1922. Maryland
State Board of Education, Baltimore, 1922.)

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Whether or not the children not enrolled in school had stayed out
primarily for farm work is not known. Over two-fifths of the 124
white children and three-tenths of the 196 negro children who were
enrolled in a school and who reported on absence had been absent
for farm work.8 (Table 7.) Of the white children 15 per cent and
of the negro 11 per cent had stayed out for work on the farm 30
or more days or 6 school weeks.
T a b le 7.— Absence from school on account o f field work o f children in resident fa m ilies;
A n n e Arundel C ounty.
CMldren between 6 and 16 years of age attending sehool.
Absence from school on account of field
work.

White.

Total.

Per cent
Per cent
Per cent
Number. distribu Number. distribu Number. distribu
tion.
tion.
tion.

Less than 10 days............. .......................

320
209
26
30
15
10
18
12
155

284

191

475
Reporting as to absence: Total....................

Negro.

100.0
65.3
8.1
9.4
4.7
3.1
5.6
3.8

124
73
11
6
3
8
8
67

100.0
58.9
12.1
8.9
4.8
2.4
6.5
6.5

196
136
11
19
9
7
10
4
88

100.0
69.4
5.6
9.7
4.6
3.6
5.1
2.0

Those who reported the longest periods of absences were usually
older boys who, as previously explained, did the greatest amount of
field work. Of the 40 children of both races who were absent for
field work 30 or more days, all except 7 were boys. One 13-year-old
boy who had completed only the third grade was 51 days late in enter
ing school and reported in addition 31 days’ absence for farm work.
His two brothers, who were 14 and 15 years of age, respectively, had
each completed only the fourth grade but were not attending school
at all. In a Polish family were two boys of 12 and 14 who had com
pleted the first and second grade, respectively. They had attended
school not more than 30 days during the past school year, had entered
after Christmas and withdrawn early in March. They had stayed
out in January and February to get wood and do other household
chores. Their mother in explaining their absences said that she re
gretted having to keep them out of school, but “ when you ain’t
got no dollar, you got to put in your 10 fingers.”
One negro mother who could not remember the number of days her
two children had missed school in order to work said that when
there was farm work to be done the children “ dropped off right
smart” in their school attendance, “ but occasionally went to school
a few days.” One of the negro fathers in commenting on the short
terms of the negro schools said they “ had to close” before the straw8 The number of daysthe child was absent from school was seemed from the school records and the rea
sons for the child’s absence were obtained from the parents during the home interview.

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R E SID E N T C H IL D W O R K E R S I N

AN N E ARUNDEL COU NTY.

berry season. The smaller proportion of negro than white children
absent from school on account of farm work is due to the fact of
shorter terms in the negro schools. Unlike' the white schools they
were closed during May and June; that is, during the strawberry
and bean picking season.
All the absence for farm work reported by 27 white and 22 negro
children from 7 to 12 years of age, inclusive,9 was illegal, as was that
also of 4 white and 15 negro children 13 or 14 years of age attending
school less than 100 days and that of five 15-year-old negro children
who had not completed the seventh grade and who had attended
less than 100 days. Thus, according to the statements of their par
ents, at least 73, or almost one-sixth of the 462 white and negro
school children between the ages of 7 and 16 employed on truck
farms in the area had been illegally absent for farm work during the
school year preceding the survey.
The majority of white children included in the present study had
little excuse for nonattendance on account of distance, bad weather,
and the like, as they attended a school providing transportation by
motor bus; but some of the negro children had a long distance to
walk— no transportation was provided and one-fourth lived 2\ miles
or more from the nearest schoolhouse. Of the 167 white and 217
negro children for whom attendance records were secured, 12 per
cent of the white and 15 per cent of the negro had attended school
less than one-half their respective school terms. Most of the negro
children attended schools which were in session 138 days as compared
with the 187-day session of the school which most of the white children
attended. Thus the actual number of school days attended by the
negro was much less than that attended by the white children: 118
(70.7 per cent) of the white but only one-fourth (27.8 per cent)
of the negro children attended school 120 or more days, and less than
one-fifth (18 per cent) of the white but nearly two-fifths of the negro
had attended less than 100 days. *
Although many factors combine to cause retardation among school
children it is generally acknowledged that irregular attendance is
one of the principal causes of a child’s failure to make normal prog
ress. The school time of rural children especially is subject to
interruption on account of bad roads, bad weather, and distance
from school. When to these absences is added absence for work on
the farm, it is not hard to understand why the boy or girl of 12 or 13
is so frequently to be found in the primary grades.
When the irregular attendance is taken into consideration it
is not surprising to find that 50 per cent of the white and 71 per cent
s Age as of Sept. 1,1921. The age as of this date makes the children 1 year older than they were at the
beginning of the school year for which the absences were reported (1920-21), so that except in the case of
the two 7-year-old children, who might have been absent for farm work before they were 7 years of age
during the school year covered by the inquiry and so outside the provisions of the compulsory school
attendance law, the figures present a minimum statement of the amount of illegal absence among the
children in the study.

50182°— 23------- 4

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C H I U ) L A B O E OJ¡T M A R Y L A N D T R U C K F A R M S .

of file negro children between the ages of 8 and 16 were below average
grades for their ages.1® (Table 8.) The large proportion of white
children who were retarded is due largely to children o f foreign-born
parentage whose attendance records were less satisfactory than those
of children of native white parents and who were also considerably
more retarded. The result o f the high percentage of retardation
among negro children is that large numbers never finish the ele
mentary-school course. Of 104 negro children, 13, 14, or 15 years
of age, only 12 had completed as much as the seventh grade.
T a b l e 8 . — Retardation o f children in resident fam ilies, b y age and race.; A n n e A rundel

C ounty.
Children 'between 8 and 16 years of age attending school.
Retarded.
A ge 1 and raee.

Total.

•1 year.

2 years.

3 years
and over.

Normal.

Advanced.

Not re
ported.

Nuxn- Per Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per
her. et.2 ber. ct.2 her. et.2 ber. -Ct.2 ber.. et.2 ber. et.-2 ber.
W h ite ....

180

8 years,under 10
10 years, under
.12....................
12 years, under
14.....................
14 years, under .
1 6 . . . ...............

45 25.9

27 15.0

18 10.0

78 43.3

24 48.0

17 34.0

12.0

2.0

23 46.0

32 00.4

15 28.3

7 13.2

10 18.9

21 39.6

32
189 71.3

1.7

52 19.6

21 38.2

14 25.5

41 58.«

17 24.3

62 91.2

15 22.1

65 90.3

8.3

- - — -.-i

............

•85 32.1

7 12.7 ------ J

65 24.5

5 .0

6.0

.....

4 -----—

1.9

2.3

30 •54.5

5 .5

1.8

■8.0

24 34.3

2.9

4.3

17 2S.0

30 44.1

•o 8.8

49 68.1

18 ■25.7

«.,9

J
1 Age as of Sept. 1,1921.

Negro___ | 265
8 years,under 10j
10 years, under
1 2 -...................
12 years, under ^
14...................
14 years, under
16...................

90 50.0

Per
c t.2

2.8

2 Not shown where basé is less than 60.

How the progress in school of these children compares with that
of city children is shown in Table 9. This table, which gives the
average retardation rates for white children between 8 and 16 years
of age, is based on the records of over a million children in 80 cities
compiled b y the United States Bureau of Education. Twice as
many of the children in age groups from 11 to 15, inclusive, included
in the study were retarded as would have been retarded according
to average rates.
Although rural children tend to enter school somewhat later than
city children, a circumstance which would of course influence the
grade attained at a specified age, the ages at which the retarded white
10
The age basis on which the retardation of these children was caleui&ied is that adapted by the U . S..
Bureau af Education. Children ©f 6 or 7 years are expected to enter the first grade, dtdMrem of 7 or 8 the
seeomd grade,etc. Normally a child is expected t® complete m e grade eath year; ohiMren, therefore, were
considered retarded if they had not entered the second grade ¿bythe time they reached the age of 8 years,
the third grade at 9 years, the fourth grade at 10 years, etc.

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children in the present study entered school probably did not affect
their school standing, for nearly all had entered school before their
eighfh_ birthday. One factor which probably did affect to some
extent the unusually high rate of retardation among the older
children as compared with the average is that in the counties in which
the areas included in the study are situated duller children are kept
in school by the legal requirement that they attend up to the age of
16 unless they have completed the seventh grade, whereas in many
of the cities from whose retardation statistics the average is computed
children 14 years of age and over who are eligible for working papers
are not required to attend school and thus a “ weeding ou t” of the
less interested and presumably less able children automatically takes
place.11 The long absences for farm work reported by the older boys
can not but be considered an influential factor in their strikingly
high rate of retardation, even when allowance is made for other
possible causes of failure.
An amendment to the school law passed in 1922,9 after the study
was made, providing that the State will pay the salary of one attend
ance officer if the county will furnish means of transportation for
him will undoubtedly increase the number of attendance officers in
some counties and insure at least one such officer in every county,
thus strengthening the enforcement of attendance of both white and
negro pupils. A further provision also passed in 1922 lengthening
the term of the negro schools from 140 to 160 days should also
make it possible for the negro children to make better progress
in school.12
T a b l e 9.— Retardation o f children in resident fam ilies in A n n e Arundel County as com
pared with average retardation among city childrens
White children between 8
and 16 years of age attend
ing school.
Age.6

Average
rate of
retarda
tion.®

Retarded.
Total.
Actual Expected
number. number.c

9 years’, under 10.....................................................................................
10 years, under 11....................................................................................
11 years, under 12....................................................................................
12 years, under 13...................................................................................
13 years, under 14...................................................................................
14 years, under 15...................................................................................
15 years, under 16...................................................................................

180

21
15
25
25
28
25
23
18

2
9
15
18
14
19
13

2
2
5
7
9
9
9
7

15.5
21.6
26.9
32.4
36.5
37.8
37.3

a Based on average rates of retardation for different ages among 1,142,179 pupils in 80 cities, unpublished
figures furnished by the U . S. Bureau of Education.
t> Age as of Sept. 1,1921.
c Number expected at average rates of retardation.
11 The Maryland child labor law, however, provides that, “ The State Board of Labor and Statistics shall
have the discretion of issuing temporary permits to children over 14 years of age, who are mentally retarded
and are unable to make further advancement at school, upon the written recommendation of the super
intendent of education” of Baltimore or any county. Maryland, Session Law of 1920, ch, 434, sec. 36A.
12 Maryland Laws, Acts of 1922, ch. 382.

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MIGRATORY CHILD WORKERS IN ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY.

From the middle to the end of May' every year, when strawberries,
beans, and peas are about ready to be picked, Polish families migrate
from Baltimore to the truck farms of Anne Arundel County. Trucks
laden with household goods, wooden chests, washtubs, kitchen
utensils, and feather beds with women and children seated on top
may be seen any day at this period of the year moving out from the
southeast part of Baltimore toward the country.
Owners of large truck farms in Anne Arundel County, unable to
obtain sufficient local labor for the picking season, make a practice
of recruiting additional labor from the city. The farmer’s agent,
the “ row boss” — so called because he has the duty of assigning the
picker to a row of beans or strawberries— engages the workers,
usually his friends and neighbors in the city, and often secures the
same families for several successive years. Of the 14513 white
migratory families visited in the course of the present study, over
two-thirds had worked on farms 3 or more seasons; 21 had worked
11 or more, though not necessarily on the same farm. The row boss
explains to them the arrangements made by the farmer— there is no
contract between the family and the farmer. They are expected to
provide their own food and bring their bedding and kitchen utensils.
The farmer provides sleeping quarters, lumber from which to make
tables and benches, and transportation to and from the farm. Work
ers are usually expected to finance themselves through the season,
though occasionally the farmer provides credit.
Most families expect to remain on the farm throughout the season,
but the majority of the families visited expected to stay from 6 to 8
weeks, a number less than 4.14 After leaving the truck farms the
workers usually return to the city. A few (9 families), however,
stated that during the preceding year they had “ followed the work,”
from the berry fields of Anne Arundel County to tomato or other
kinds of canneries. Of these 9 families 5 had gone to canneries in
the far South, 1 to Balabtry, Ala., another to Louisiana. One
family that had gone to Biloxi, Miss., reported that their permanent
residence was Baltimore. Their itinerary for the preceding 12
tnonths had been as follows: May 15 to July 15, the truck farms of
Anne Arundel County; July 15 to August 15, Baltimore; August 15
13 Five negro families who did seasonal work were also visited, but as their living conditions were more
nearly like that of resident farm laborers they are not included in the following discussion.
14 The season of 1921, from 6 to 8 weeks, was shorter than the typical season owing to poor crops.

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to October 1, the tomato canneries of Chestertown, Md.; October to
November, Baltimore; November, 1920, to May, 1921, the oyster
and shrimp canneries of Biloxi, Miss.
T H E W O R K E R S ’ F A M IL IE S .

Most of the seasonal workers in this area are Poles. Thus, the
fathers in 126 of the 145 white families included in the study had
been born in Austria or German or Russian Poland; 9 fathers were
of other Slavic or German origin. In only 7 of the 145 families had
the mothers been born in the United States. These families were
by no means recent immigrants— only 1 father and 4 mothers had
been in this country less than 10 years; 9 out of 10 of both fathers
and mothers had been in the country 15 or more years— some had
come over when they were children. But living as they did, segre
gated in a Polish district in the city, the mothers especially were
often unable to speak English. The mother in 85 families had not
learned the language; 66 of these mothers had lived in the United
States at least 15 years. Forty-three fathers also were unable to
speak English. A large proportion were illiterate.
The men were, for the most part, unskilled laborers who did out
side work in metal factories and packing houses or day labor in the
streets or on the docks. About one-third of the women (most of
them widows) worked while in the city, as a rule in canneries, in
addition to their six weeks of field work in the summer. In practi
cally all the families the mothers and many of the fathers and their
children went to the country together. In the year of the survey,
when all kinds of work were affected by the unemployment situation,
over one-half (56 per cent) of the men went with their families for the
picking season. Some of these men reported that they had held
steady jobs, but had been persuaded by the row boss that they would
make more money in the country. Others said that they had quit
their city jobs because they had wanted a change or a “ vacation.”
The amount and extent of unemployment reported among these
families in 1920-21 was large, and no doubt abnormal. In only 31
families had the chief breadwinner been steadily employed through
out the year preceding the study. A large proportion had been out
of work four months or more. In no case, however, did the family
rely on their earnings in the country to carry them through the year.
Except for families who went to the far South in the winter, such
earnings were regarded as supplementary to their regular income.
The families represented b y these workers are considered b y social
workers of the district where they live in Baltimore to be thrifty and
hard working. I t is significant that of the whole group of 145 only
4 families had moved their permanent residence in the five years

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A N N E ARUNDEL COU NTY.

preceding the survey, practically all returning to their Baltimore
homes when the picking season was over. As an illustration of their
thrifty habits it is said that when families return from the country
with $100 or $200 their custom is to buy supplies for the winter,
when work may be slack. One or 2 barrels o f flour, 1 or 2 tons of
coal, and several bushels of potatoes are laid in; the mother also puts
up tomatoes and piccalilli. One of the fathers who had asked a
charitable society to find a home for his children, as the mother had
died, had spent $50 on clothes and shoes for them on his return from
the country. It is interesting to note that of 25 of the families who
were registered with social agencies of Baltimore, not necessarily with
relief agencies, 12 were buying or owned their houses.
C A M P LIF E .

Seasonal workers are housed by the farm owners on their own land
in what are referred to locally as camps. Twenty-five of these camps
were visited and families whose children were working on farms were
found in 22 of them. In these 22 camps 268 families, consisting of
1,074 persons, including approximately 550 children under 16 years
of age, were living.
Most of the camps contained but one building, known as a “ shanty,”
which served as sleeping quarters for the workers. This building,
usually two stories high, was erected on piles or rough stones. In
most camps it was weather beaten or unpainted and the windows
usually lacked either glass or shutters or both. As a rule there was
but one room on each floor, with stairs on the outside leading to the
upper room. In some a partition divided the lower floor, which was
about 25 by 30 feet, into two rooms. On each side of a narrow aisle
down the center of the room the floor was divided into sections or
pens b y boards 10 or 12 inches in height. Each pen was about 6 feet
long and from 4 to 6 feet wide and covered with straw for a mattress.
(See illustration facing p. 26.) Each family was allotted one of these
pens, the larger families sometimes securing those 6 feet in width.
A t night men, women, and children, partially clad, one family
separated from the next by the plank 10 inches in height, lay side
by side.
Except for wooden chests at the foot of the bed spaces, and a
shelf around the room, on which were miscellaneous possessions,
there were no furnishings. Clothes were hung on nails about the
walls. The bed space was covered with straw upon which sheets
and blankets were folded or rolled in balls in a corner.
In some shanties one or two families had made futile attempts at
privacy by hanging up a blanket. In one camp, among the poorest
in appearance, with weather-stripped boards, sagging roof, and no
glass in the windows, the families succeeded in attaining a degree of

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privacy. They had rigged up wires from one beam to another and
had hung up an assortment of spreads and blankets about each family
section.
(See illustration opposite.) One of the smaller shapties,
partitioned by the farmer into three rooms downstairs, also had one
room upstairs. Only 9 families lived in this shanty: Three upstairs;
downstairs, 2 in one room, 3 in another, and the row boss and his
family by themselves in the third.
T a b l e 10.— N um ber o f persons in shanties occupied by migratory. white fam ilies, by
number o f sleeping rooms in shanty; A n n e Arundel County.

Migratory white families.
Number of persons in shanty.

Number of sleeping rooms in shanty.
Total.
1

Total...............................
Less than 10.........................
10, less than 20................. . .
20, less than 30.....................
30, less than 40.....................
40, less than 50........................
50, less than 60............................
60, less than 70........................
90, less than 100................................
100 and over..........................................................
Not reported.......................... .*.............................

145

2
10
15
42
19
16
9
10
10
12

1
5

1
3
7
25
19
4
9
10

7
4

4
ib

6
12

Attempts at orderliness were made by many families. Some, in
the absence of screens or glass panes, had put up lace curtains in
the windows as a protection against flies. Many camps, however,
were untidy or dirty; in one, for example, the bedding was thrown
about, and chickens were sitting on the straw of the bunks; in another,
where the quilts, soiled bedding, and hay were strewn about, the
families said that on Saturday they had a thorough cleaning “ to
be nice for our visitors on Sunday” and that then “ the shanty looks
grand, just like a hospital.”
Many of the shanties containing two such rooms used for sleeping
purposes were often occupied by from 30 to 50 persons of both sexes
and all ages. Over three-fourths (77.2 per cent) of the families inter
viewed lived in a shanty of one or two rooms (Table 10), and over
one-half (5.3.8 per cent) shared one or two rooms with from 30 to
100 persons. One shanty, divided into four rooms, was occupied by
9 families containing 36 persons, a less crowded condition, but another
shanty of four rooms housed 100 persons. Another shanty in which
were six rooms was occupied by 8 families, a total of between 50 and
60 persons. Two families only had a shack to themselves.
Cooking and eating arrangements were fairly adequate. Each
family had its own stove and table built under the trees surround
ing the shanty. The farmer provided fuel for cooking, lumber for

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M IG R A T O R Y C H IL D W O R K E R S I K

AN HE

ARUNDEL CO U N TY.

making tables and benches, and bricks and sheet iron for stoves. If
the father or older boys of a family were ingenious they constructed
very^erviceable tables and benches with rude shelters over them to
keep out rain and sun. The campers made community ovens of
bricks or clay such as may be seen in villages in “ the old country.”
Usually each family was responsible for keeping clean the space
about its own shelter. Waste water was usually thrown out on-the
spot where it was used. Some of the garbage was burned; in one
camp tin cans and other refuse were thrown down the edge of a bank
into a stream; in another, a hollow place between the camp and the
farmer’s orchard was used. One camp which had been occupied for
several successive years and the grounds not cleaned between seasons
was rendered unsightly by piles of tin cans and other refuse. Usually
flies swarmed over stray bits of food.
Little attention was given to sanitation. More than one-half the
families had no toilet facilities. The odors pervading camps, even
those provided with privies, were offensive. Twelve of the 25
camps had no privy, and only 1 had toilet arrangements which could
be considered adequate. The latter had 3 well-constructed privies
which were cleaned twice a week by the children sent by the row boss
for the purpose. These privies, however, served for a camp of 72
persons. One camp had 3 privies, all in bad condition, and another
had 5. A description of those 5, which had been constructed b y the
pickers themselves and not by the farmer, will serve to illustrate
the general problem. A piece of old burlap, not larger than half a
gunny sack, was hung up on a low bough of a tree or stretched across
the branches, behind which was a crude seat. There were no pits,
but 4 of the privies were located over a brook, which at no place was
more than 50 yards distant from the tables and stoves of the camp.
In another camp about 50 yards distant from the shanty the workers
had improvised a toilet by setting a narrow board across two other
narrow boards over a small stream. The place was foul smelling and
infested with flies and the woods were frequently used in preference
to it. In another camp the pickers had used the privy of a neigh
boring negro family.
Some of the privies were’ dangerously near the water supply.
Two camps, for example, were situated on the same stream; the 5
privies of the first of these emptied into the stream; the second camp
adjoined the first 100 yards downstream. Both camps used the
water for washing but not for drinking. The spring of the first
camp, however, though carefully protected from dirt by a wooden
cover, was so near the privies that the water might easily have been
polluted. In another camp the privy, in itself fairly clean, though it
had to suffice for 65 persons, was located over the creek and just

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C H IL D LABOR OST M A R Y L A N D T R U C K F A R M S .

above where the children were accustomed to wade. In still another
camp the spring looked very attractive; it was protected with whitepine boarding and the water was clear; but no privy existed in this
camp, and the workers were obliged to use the woods about the spring.
Sixty-five families reported that they used a spring or brook for
both drinking and washing purposes; 6fi others had dug wells. Only
11 families, all living in the same camp, had. access to a drilled well,
80 feet deep. The well in one camp could not be used, because it
was said to be contaminated, and the spring was dry. The farmer
in this camp hauled two barrels of water a day from his well for the
30 campers. When the women complained that they could not do
their washing he advised them to “ wait until it rains.” In some of
the camps the well was conveniently located on the camp grounds,
in others the water had to be carried.
In spite of the unsatisfactory living quarters, criticism of which
was often voiced, camp fife was considered by some of the workers a
vacation, and the fresh air was said to be “ good for the children.”
There were no organized amusements, but the children played games,
went in wading in the brooks or swimming in the creeks, used the
swings which were occasionally provided by the farmer or the ham
mocks brought by the families from the eity. Mouth organs or
accordions furnished music in some camps; one camp had a grafanola,
and several young men in two other camps played the violin or
banjo. The older children and young people in these camps danced
in the evening, folk dances as well as modern dances. Singing,
especially of “ songs of the old country,” was also popular.
To go to Baltimore in the farmer’s truck on Saturday for pro
visions was one of the recreations of older persons. Two farmers,
one of whom used a motor boat, allowed the children to accompany
their parents to the city “ for the ride.” On Sunday the fathers
who had stayed in town, or other visitors, came out, sometimes
bringing food, or newspapers, or candy for the children. Books were
very scarce, and less than one-fifth of the families had newspapers.
Only two families went to church, but in one camp some of the
families went to the woods on Sunday for a religious service. One
father who took a “ furlough” from his steady job on the railroad
every summer said that being in a camp “ was the nearest to a picnic
that he had.”
The farmers excuse the makeshift living arrangements on the score
that the season, not more than eight weeks and usually about six,
is in the warm weather and so short that housing is of no importance,
disregarding the fact that exposure to the possibility of infection
through insanitary conditions is a serious matter, however tem
porary. Moreover, the farmers say that the workers do not object
and are accustomed to worse surroundings. One farmer stated that

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FA M ILY S E C T IO N S

IN S E A S O N A L W O R K E R S ' S H A C K S E P A R A T E D
B O A R D S 10 I N C H E S H I G H .

IN TER IO R OF SH A N TY CU R TA IN ED
28—1

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O N L Y BY

F O R P R I V A C Y BY T H E W O R K E R S .

BEAN P IC K E R S.

PR IV Y W IT H

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NO PIT, C O N S T R U C T E D BY T H E W O R K E R S .

M IG R A T O R Y C H IL D W O R K E R S I K

ANNE

ARUNDEL CO U NTY.

he had put up partitions making 52 rooms, but that the families
had, torn down the partitions. His two-story shanty was 50 feet
long (and 20 feet wide, so that each partitioned space, besides the
entrance passage, could not have been more than 4 by 9 feet. The
families told the agent they had felt suffocated in such close quarters
and had had to get air at all costs.
Although undoubtedly some families were indifferent to the
promiscuous sleeping conditions and none appeared to fear polluted
drinking water, criticism was heard both of the lack of toilets and the
overcrowding and lack of privacy. Those who had been to the
“ tomato country” compared the two places. “ There each family
has their own shack, two rooms and a stove, like in Baltimore;
here we are like fish in a barrel.” One mother who had four rooms
in the city said to the bureau agent, “ We got to like it. People like
separate rooms, but farmer he say too much expenses.” Others
spoke of the difficulty of changing their clothes in the woods, which
were full of people. One of the row bosses expressed himself in
broken English: “ Women, boys, and girls sleep all together. No
good.” Another family said that their children learned bad habits
from the others and that, although lack of employment had caused
them to come to the farm this year, they would not try it again.
The desire to earn a little extra money seems to have influenced a
great many families. “ It was the last piece of bread that made me do
it,” said one mother. Many families described the way in which they
lived as “ like hogs,” “ like sheep,” and “ like cattle beasts.”
C H IL D R E N ’ S W O R K O N T R U C K F A R M S .15

In the white migratory families 136 boys and 126 girls did field
work. They were on the average older than resident children work
ing on truck farms in the neighborhood. Of the latter 29 per cent
were under 10 years of age, whereas only 14.5 per cent of the migratory
child workers were less than 10 years of age. Older children pre
dominated; two-thirds were in age groups from 12 to 15 years of age,
inclusive. The labor of young children, who help their parents on
small farms by picking beans and putting them in the baskets of
their mothers or older brothers, is not of sufficient commercial value
to be used on the large farms. The children of seasonal workers
were not considered old enough to work until they could “ carry a
row,” though on one farm the row boss had assigned two younger
children to a row.
The work is usually the same as that done by adult seasonal
workers in the area—picking beans, peas, or strawberries. (Table
11.) Approximately the same proportions of mothers and children
included in the study had worked on the three crops; over nine15 Tiie following diseussion excludes 6 negro migratory workers found in the area.

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C H IL D LABOR O N M A R Y L A N D T R U C K F A R M S .

tenths of both groups had picked beans, more than four-fifths had
picked strawberries, and about three-fourths had picked p«as.
Only a few children reported any other type of work; 23 repwrited
weeding at some time during the previous 12 months; 1 boy reported
planting and another transplanting sweet potatoes. Only 11 chil
dren had worked on more than three crops.
T a b l e 11 .— Crops picked by children in migratory white fam ilies, by sex o f child; A n n e

Arundel County.

Children under 16 years of age picking each specified crop.
Crops picked.

Girls.

Boys.

Total.

Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.
Total........................................................

262

100.0

136

100.0

126

100.0

Strawberries......................................................

216
241
193
8
1

82.4
92.0
73.7
3.1
.4

116
124
102
6
1

85.3
91.2
75.0
4.4
.7

100
117
91
2

79.4
92.9
72.2
1.6

Peas.....................................................................
Tomatoes...........................................................

Because of poor crops the hours and days worked were said to be
more irregular than usual, and long hours of work were exceptional.
As most of the survey was made during the bean season, over fourfifths of the children had picked beans on the day for which hours
were reported. The hours of children who did other work, 16 per
cent of the total, including children who had picked or weeded
strawberries and three who had cultivated beans, were as irregular
as those of children who had picked beans, and were usually shorter.
The usual length of the working-day was less than 8 hours, onehalf of the children reporting less than 6 hours. Although short
working-days were the rule, there were some exceptions. One-fifth
(20.2 per cent) of the children had worked 8 or more hours on the
sample day; 6 per cent, or 9 boys and 6 girls, had worked 11 hours.
One of the boys was 8 years and one girl 9 years of age.
These irregular hours, dependent on the state of the weather and
the crop, were the hours set by the row boss for the whole camp.
With few exceptions children 8 and 10 years of age worked the
same hours as older children and adults. Occasionally, however,
children went to the field to ccscrap a few beans” and then returned
to the camp; in one camp, on account of scarcity of work, the chil
dren picked only in the morning, while adults picked both morning
and afternoon. More freedom was allowed during the season of
the survey than was customary, on account of the scarcity of work;
most families, however, kept steadily at work.
The hour at which the pickers started work depended partly on
the crop. For strawberry picking the hour was later than for beans.

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M IG R A T O R Y C H IL D W O R K E R S I K

ANNE

ARUNDEL COU NTY.

In some camps the row boss called the families as early as 4 or 4.30
a. m. On the sample day for which information regarding hours
was secured over half the children (55.3 per cent) had been in the
fields before 6 o’clock. In some camps the pickers went to the
fields before breakfast, picked two or three hours, returned to the
camp for bréakfast, picked until noon, and again in the latter part
of the afternoon. One row boss reported that the hours on his
farm, where there were over 100 workers, were in ordinary seasons
4.30 to 8.30 a. m .; 9.30 a. m. to 12 m.; and 3 p. m. to 6 p. m., but
during the season of 1921 the hours were from 4.30 to 8.30 a. m. only.
Not only were the hours irregular, but on some days there was no
work. Some of the workers interviewed were discouraged, saying
that the crops were so poor that they could not make even their
expenses— that is, the cost of their food.
The exact number of hours worked in a week and the amount of
work done could not be ascertained from most of the families. The
rates paid the workers varied little, though some farmers paid half
a cent less for strawberries or 5 cents more for beans. The rates
varied slightly also according to whether or not the berries or vege
tables were plentiful or scarce. The usual rates were as follows:
Strawberries 2 to 2\ cents per quart, beans 25 to 30 a bushel basket,
and peas 5 cents more than beans. Weeding was paid for at the
rate of 10 cents an hour. The rates for peas and beans were usually
5 cents less than they had been the previous season.
Few families could estimate the amount earned b y individual
children on the last day worked. The method of payment made
separation of individual earnings difficult. When the child or other
worker emptied his bushel basket of beans he was given a small
brass check. The children’s checks were usually held by the par
ents, and at the end of the week, or, more likely, at the end of the
season, the checks were redeemed by the farmer.
The amount earned by the family as a whole on the last workingday before the agent’s visit may be seen from Table 12. This table
includes only 118 families who picked beans. Daily earnings were
low, seldom over $3, even for families of three and four members.
Only 10 families earned as much as $5 on the sample day; 40 earned
less than $2. The maximum earnings reported were those of a family
of four, including the father, that had picked 22-| bushels in 9^ hours
and had earned $6.75.
How much a family could earn in the six weeks of the ordinary
season was a question which few families could answer, because of
the irregularity of the work during the season in question and the
number of days when there was no work. An idea of possible earn
ings may be obtained from the statement of one family, though
whether or not these earnings are typical or more than the usual

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C H I Ù ) LABOR O N M A R Y L A N D T R U C K F A R M S .

amount can not be stated. This family— the man, woman, and girl
of 14 years— had earned from May 20 to June 24 the following:
Strawberries (400 q u a rts).................. ............................................ .............. f 10.00
Peas (29 bu sh els)........ ......... ...................... ............................................ ........ 10.15
Beans (265 bu sh els)................................................ .......................................
79.50
T o ta l.......... .......... ............................... ................................. ...................A .

99.65

T a b l e 12.— A m ou n t earned picking beans on the last working-day preceding agent’s visit

by migratory white fam ilies, by number in fa m ily picking; A n n e Arundel C ounty.

Migratory white families picking beans.
Number in family picking
beans.

Amount earned last day of work.
Total.
Less SI, less $2, less $3,less $4,less $5,less $6 and Not re
than $1. than $2. than $3. than $4. than $5. than |6. over. ported.

Total................................

118

1...................................................
2 ...................................................
3 ...................................................
4 ...................................................
5...................................................

1
22
57
23
15

1
3
4
2

9
13
5
3

4
19
5
2

6
3

SCHOOLING.

Part of the picking season for which migratory workers are engaged,
unfortunately coincides with the last month or six weeks of the school
term. Through the generous cooperation of the Baltimore school
authorities the Children’s Bureau was able to secure statistics from
the schools thought to be most affected by the exodus, showing the
number of children leaving before the end of the term in order to
work on farms. Although it is believed that the reports from some
of the schools were not complete, nevertheless 523 children from these
schools were reported to have left for farm work between March 26
and June 18, 1921, 376 having withdrawn during the weeks ending
May 14 and May 21. The farms to which these children were said
to have gone were in most cases located near Baltimore, in Anne
Arundel County.
All the 246 school children included in the present study, with 3
exceptions, reported that they attended schools in Baltimore. All
except 3 of the 16 children who had not been in school during the
school year 1920-21 were under 8 or were over 14 years of age and
so exempt, provided they were regularly employed, from the pro
visions of the compulsory school attendance law of Baltimore.16 No
is The compulsory school attendance law for the city of Baltimoreis slightly different from the attendance
law for the counties. (See p. 17.) A t the time of the study all children between 8 and 14 years of age
were required to attend the entire school term unless legally excused (see p. 17, footnote 7) or unless
physically or mentally incapacitated. (Maryland State Laws, acts of 1916, ch. 506.) The law was
amended in 1922 (ch. 474) to include children 7 years of age.

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M IG R A T O R Y C H IL D W O R K E R S I K

AHHE

ARUKDEL COU H TY.

cliild who had left a Baltimore school had entered school in Anne
Arundel County. The younger children in these families generally
attended parochial schools, entering the public schools only after
they had been confirmed at the age of 11 or 12. Three-fifths of the
children reported that they attended parochial schools, proportion
ately twice as many as attended public schools. The public-school
term, usually longer than that of the parochial schools, was in 1920-21
from September 14 to June 24, 191 days. The length of the terms
in six parochial schools attended by most of the children was from
166 to 185 days, the closing day being usually either June 14 or
June 17.
The length of absence caused by leaving the city for field work
may be seen in Table 13. Nine-tenths of the children left school at
least 20 days before the end of the term; three-fourths withdrew
20 but less than 30 days before the close of school. From 4 to 6
weeks, therefore, was the usual amount of time lost for withdrawals
for field work on truck farms. No child can well afford to lose as
much schooling as this every year, but the loss is especially dis
astrous to school progress in the case of those children who are
handicapped from the beginning b y the fact that their parents are
illiterate and do not speak the language of the country. The custom
of the Polish parochial schools of giving time to the teaching of the
Polish language probably also places many children at a disadvantage
when, at the age of 12 or 13, they enter public school.
The result of irregular attendance is that a large majority of the
children fail to pass from grade to grade at the normal rate, and so
either spend several years longer on elementary-school work than
they should or else leave school before completing the elementary
grades. Of the children between 8 and 16 years of age included in
the study, 69 per cent were retarded in school. (Table 14.) This
rate of retardation is much higher than average rates for city children
of various ages.17 Thus, according to these rates, of the 51 child
workers between the ages of 10 and 12 years migrating from Balti
more, 12 would have been retarded rather than 25, the number re
ported to be below average grades for their age, and of 88 of the
Baltimore children between 12 and 14 years of age, 30 instead of 68
would have been retarded.
17 See p. 20.

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C H IL D LABOR O N M A R Y L A N D T R U C K F A R M S .

T a b l e 13.— Num ber o f days lost at end o f term by children in migratory white fa m ilies,
by type o f school attended; A n n e Arundel C ounty.

Children between 6 and 16 years of age for whom number of days school attend
ance was reported.
Number of days lost by withdrawing before end of term.

Type of school
Total.

Total..................

143

Parochial.....................

55
88

10 days,
less
than 15.

15 days,
less
than 20.

20 days,
less
than 25.

25 days,
less
than 30.

30 days,
less
than 40.

40 days,
less
than 50.

9
57

27
10

18
5

1
5

Not re
ported.

T a b l e 14.— Retardation o f children in m igratory white fa m ilies, by age o f child; A n n e

Arundel County.

Children between 8 and 16 years of age.
Retarded.
Age of child.1

Normal.
To
tal.

Total.

1 year.

2 years.

3 years
and over.

Not
Advanced. reported.

Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber. ct.2 ber. ct.2 ber. ct.2 ber. ct.2 ber. ct.2 ber. ct.2 ber. ct.2
Total........

238

8 years, under
26
10 years, under
12.....................
12 years, under
14.....................
14 years, under
1 6 . . . . . ............

163 68.5
5

47 19.7

53 22.3

63 26.5

69 29.0

25 49.0

16 31.4

8 15.7

2.0

26 51.0

68 77.3

21 23.9

26 29.5

21 23.9

19 21.6

65 89.0

6.8

19 26.0

' 41 56.2

JAge as of Sept. 1,1921.

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0.8

1.7

5.5

1.1

5.5

2 Not shown where base is less than 60.

CHILD WORKERS ON EASTERN SHORE TRUCK FARMS.
It was customary on the Eastern Shore truck farms for the children
of the household to help with the farm work. Of the children
between 6 and 16 enrolled in the schools of the areas included in
the survey and reporting on the inquiry, 87 per cent of the white
and 95 per cent of the negro had worked on truck farms during the
preceding year.18 Eight hundred and thirty-eight children, half of
whom were girls, reported having worked on truck farms within
the year preceding the inquiry.
THE WORKERS’ FAMILIES.

The children working in the Eastern Shore areas were almost
entirely of native white or negro parentage. The three counties
studied have not been touched by recent immigrations ; the percent
age of foreign-born inhabitants in 1920, according to United States
Census figures, was one-half of 1 per cent. In the 204 white families
visited only two fathers had been born in foreign countries, one in
Germany and one in England. One hundred and ninety-six negro
families, almost as many as white, were included in the study, though
negroes form somewhat less than one-third of the total population of
the three counties. The disproportionately . large number of negro
families is due in part to the somewhat larger proportion of negro
children in the area working on farms, in part also to the fact that the
transient families coming in for seasonal work were negroes, and to
some extent, perhaps, to the fact that the negro school districts
corresponding roughly to the white school districts chosen for study
included children from a larger territory than did the white school
districts.
The great majority of the workers— four-fifths (82 per cent) of the
white and three-fifths (62.1 per cent) of the negro— were children of
farm owners and tenants; but 17.5 per cent of the white and 27 per
cent of the negro were hired hands, most of whom lived within walk
ing distance of the farms where they were employed, and a few, 5.7
per cent of the total, were children of negro migratory workers brought
into the neighborhood for seasonal work. (Table 15.) Many of the
farmers’ children— those in over one-fourth of the white families and
in nearly three-fourths of the negro families—worked as hired hands
as well as on their fathers’ farms.
is This information was obtained by visiting all children who were enrolled in the schools.
and 41 negro children did not report as to whether or not they had done farm work.

Sixty white

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C H IL D LABOR O X

M AR YLAN D TRUCK FARM S.

The majority, three-fifths, of the white children’s fathers owned
their farms.19 Only one-third of the negro fathers, on the other hand,
were farm owners. The same proportion of white and negro families,
one-fifth, were farm tenants, owning no land of their own and farming
as a rule on “ shares ” ; that is, giving the landlord a percentage of their
crop. Most of the fathers of the 70 white children who hired out as
farm hands were not farm laborers, but those of the 119 negro chil
dren, with few exceptions, did farm work in addition to fishing,
oystering, or work in other local industries. Most of the 50 migra
tory child laborers came from the adjacent counties, a few from
near-by islands, and were housed on the farms where they worked.
T a b l e 15.— Working status o f children in fam ilies interviewed, by sex and race; Eastern
Shore.

Children under 16 years of age.
Total.

White.

Negro.

Working status of child.
Number.

Per cent
Per cent
Per cent
distri
Number.
distri
Number.
distri
bution.
bution.
bution.

Total........................................................

840

100.0

399

100.0

. 441

100.0

Resident laborer...............................................
Home farm........................................... .
Farm owned.......................................
Farm rented.......................................
Other farm..................................................
Migratory laborer.............................................

790
601
408
193
189
50

94.0
71.5
48.6
23.0
22.5
6.0

397
327
229
98
70
2

99.5
82.0
57.4
24.6
17.5
.5

393
274
179
95
119
48

89.1
62.1
40.6
21.5
27.0
10.9

Boys................................................ .—

415

100.0

201

100.0

214

100.0

Resident laborer...............................................
Home farm.................................................
Farm owned.......................................
Farm rented.......................................
Other farm........................ ........................
Migratory laborer.............................................

391
304
204
100
87
24

94.2
73.3
49.2
24.1
21.0
5.8

200
170
121
49
30
1

99.5
84.6
60.2
24.4
14.9
.5

191
134
83
51
57
23

89.3
62.6
38.8
23.8
26.6
10.7

Girls.............................................................

425

100.0

198

100.0

227

100.0

Resident laborer...............................................
Home farm.................................................
Farm owned.......................................
Farm rented.......................................
Other farm..................................................
Migratory laborer........................ . . . ..............

399
297
204
93
102
26

93.9
69.9
48.0
21.9
24.0
6.1

197
157
108
49
40
1

99.5
79.3
54.5
24.7
20.2
.5

202
140
96
44
62
25

89.0
61.7
42.3
19.4
27.3
11.0

While no attempt was made in this study to ascertain the incomes
of any of the families, the financial status of the farmers’ families can
be gauged to some extent by the amount of land and live stock which
they owned and the kind of house in which they lived. The small
acreage reported b y most of the farmers included in the study is
characteristic of this area and of some other truck-farming localities
also. The farm of from 50 to 10.0 acres, including truck and general
crops, predominated. The white farmers were considerably more
19 If a farmer owned as much as 3 acres he was classed as an owner although he may also have rented land.

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C H IL D W O R K E R S O H E A S T E R N

SHORE TR U CK

FARM S.

prosperous than the negro, and usually operated larger farms. Of
the farm owners and tenants reporting the size of their farms,
two-fifths of the white, as compared with nearly nine-tenths of the
negro, owned or rented less than 50 acres. Of the white farmers, 8
(7 per cent) owned 200 or more acres, whereas only 1 negro farmer
owned as much as 100 acres. This man was much more prosperous
than most of his negro neighbors; he owned a six-room, well-built
house, an automobile, 2 horses, and a cow. A much larger propor
tion of white than negro farmers owned cows, farm animals, and
automobiles. On the whole, the typical white farmer whose chil
dren worked appeared to be in moderate circumstances. The ex
tremes are illustrated b y two white farmers, one of whom owned 320
acres, a house with modern conveniences, including electric light,
and an automobile, and who planned to send his 17-year-old daughter
to college; the other rented 10 acres, lived in an unscreened, un
painted shack, could not read or write, and set little value on the
acquisition of these accomplishments by his children.
The homes of the majority of the white children, whether or not
they were children of farmers, were located in a thickly settled
farming country where few of the houses were more than an eighth
of a mile apart. The houses were usually two or three stories in
height, containing from five to eight rooms, and were clapboarded
and painted. The front yards were neat and some were bright
with flowers. Many of these houses were screened, but other con
veniences, such as running water and kitchen sinks, were rare.
The houses occupied by negro families, many o f which were unpainted
and neglected in appearance, were situated in little villages or in
groups behind the dwelling of the landowner for whom they worked.
Some were surrounded b y well-tilled fields, others were in clearings
in the woods, corn being planted between the stumps of trees. Most
of them were provided with a privy outside the house and a well
and pump in the back yard.
Overcrowding among resident families of this area did not present
so serious a problem as in the area surveyed in Anne Arundel County.
Of the negro families in this area, 29 per cent, as compared with 32
per cent in Anne Arundel County, were crowded at the rate of two
or more persons per room. Only 10 per cent of the white families
of this locality reported two or more persons per room. (Table 16.)
Room congestion among the small group of migratory families
included in the present study was, however, more serious than that
among residents, as the shacks provided for them by the farmer for
the few weeks of their stay on the farm usually contained only from
two to four rooms for several families.

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Although the parents of practically all the children were native
born, in one-fifth of the white families visited at least one parent
could not read and write; in six families neither parent was literate.
Illiteracy was also reported by one or both of the parents in twofifths of the negro families living in the area, and was more common
among farmers’ families than among families whose children worked
as hired laborers.
T a b l e 16.— Average number o f versons per room in resident fam ilies, by race; Eastern

Shore.

White families.
Average number of persons per room.

Negro families.

Per cent
Per cent
Number. distribu Number. distribu
tion.
tion.
204

100.0

167

100.0

80
103
16
4
1

39.2
50.5
7.8
2.0
.5

27
91
38
9

16.2
54.5
22.8
5.4

1
1

.6
.6

CHILDREN’S WORK ON TRUCK FARMS.

Of the resident child workers, white and colored, 78 per cent were
under 14 years and 33 per cent were under 10 years of age when
interviewed. Only 13 of the 48 negro migratory workers were 14
years of age or over, and 11 were under 10 years of age. Most of the
children in the area begin to work on the farms by the time they are
10 years of age. One hundred and two (60 per cent) of the 171
white and negro children who were between 14 and 16 years of age
reported that they had started to do farm work before their tenth
birthday. The age at beginning work was about the same whether
the children belonged to families of farm operators or were hired farm
hands. Negro children go to work when somewhat younger than
white children, and white boys begin to work at earlier ages than
white girls. Negro girls, however, usually go to work at as early ages
as their brothers.
Kinds of work.
Children do various kinds of work on all the truck crops raised in
the region. The principal crops are strawberries and Irish and sweet
potatoes, but beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and melons are also
extensively grown. Children are also employed on general crops,
the most important of which are hay, wheat, and fodder corn. The
farmers’ children included in the study did a greater variety of work

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C H IL D W O R K E R S O N E A S T E R N

SHORE T R U C K F A R M S .

than those who were hired by the day, although hired hands whose
homes were in the district were, like farmers’ children, employed for
both harvesting and for general farm work, such as hoeing.
The migratory workers had been hired only for strawberry picking.
Normally large numbers are engaged for the three or four weeks of
the strawberry season, but relatively few migratory laborers were
hired for the work in 1921, the year of the survey, on account of the
poor strawberry crop. The children in seasonal workers’ families
interviewed were all employed, regardless of their ages, at picking
strawberries. Whether they worked every day during the three
weeks or so of their stay on the farm and whether the hours they
worked were long or short depended on the weather and the state of
the crop. Twenty-two of the 48 negro children reporting had worked
eight or more hours in the field on the last working-day preceding the
interview. Because the numbers are too small to draw any general
conclusions, they are not included in the following discussion of the
work done by children on the truck farms of the area.
Practically all the children who do field work help at harvesting
time. More than four-fifths of the total number interviewed
reported strawberry picking, a large proportion— one-half the white
and three-fifths of the negro children— reported gathering Irish or
sweet potatoes, and smaller numbers had picked tomatoes, black
berries, beans, cucumbers, or melons, crops not so widely grown in this
locality. (Tables 17 and 18.) The younger as well as the older children
pick strawberries, and many of them also gather potatoes. All the
23 childrjen under 6 years of age who reported working in the fields,
including a 3-year-old negro child and 9 white and negro children 4
years of age, had picked strawberries, which was the only work done
by most of them. No children under 6 had gathered potatoes, but
more than one-third of the 238 white and negro children who were
between 6 and 10 years of age reported this work. (Table 18.)
Although picking tomatoes, melons, and cucumbers is somewhat
more difficult work for children than picking strawberries or gather
ing potatoes,20 19 per cent of the total number had picked tomatoes,
11 per cent cucumbers, and 8 per cent melons. Most of these children
were 10 years of age or more, but 34 of the 152 children who picked
tomatoes and 15 of the 86 children who picked cucumbers were
under 10 years of age.
*•>See p. 9.

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C H IL D LABOR O N M A R Y L A N D T R U C K F A R M S .

T a b l e 17.— Crops picked by children in resident fam ilies, by sex and race; Eastern Shore.

Children under 16 years of age picking each, specified crop.
Crops picked, and sex.

White.

Total.

Negro.

Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. ■Per cent.
Total.........................................................

790

100.0

397

100.0

393

100.0

Strawberries......................................................
Beans..................................................................

659
111
8
•152
86
61

83.4
14.1
1.0
19.2
10.9
7.7

319
35

80.4
8.8

92
31
30

23.2
7.8
7.6

340
76
8
60
55
31

86.5
19.3
2.0
15.3
14.0
7.9

128
4

16.2
.5

51
2

12.8
.5

77
2

19.6
.5

Boys.............................................................

391

100.0

200

100.0

191

100.0

Strawberries......................................................
Beans...................................................................

309
53
3
82
47
40

79.0
13.6
.8
21.0
12.0
10.2

153
17

76.5
8.5

50
16
18

25.0
8.0
9.0

156
36
3
32
31
22

81.7
18.8
1.6
16.8
16.2
11.5

45
3

11.5
.8

17
2

8.5
1.0

28
1

14.7
.5

Girls.............................................................

399

100.0

197

100.0

202

100.0

Strawberries......................................................
Beans..................................................................

350
58
5
70
39
21

87.7
14.5
1.3
17.5
9.8
5.3

166
18

843
9.1

42
15
12

2Ì.3
7.6
6.1

184
40
5
28
24
9

91.1
19.8
2.5
13.9
11.9
4.5

83
1

20.8
.3

17.3

49
1

24.3
.5

Tomatoes...........................................................
Cucumbers.........................................................
Melons.................................................................
Blackberries, raspberries, and huckleberries.............................................................
Other fruits and vegetables...........................

Tomatoes............................................................
Cucumbers.........................................................
Melons......................................................... .
Blackberries, raspberries, and huckleberries..............................................................
Other fruits and vegetables...........................

Tomatoes............................................................
Cucumbers..................................... ....................
Melons.................................................................
Blackberries, raspberries, and huckleberries..............................................................

Carrying hampers of tomatoes and cucumbers makes the work
hard for young children. Cantaloupes and watermelons are also
heavy to handle. In harvesting cantaloupes the children’s work
on the Eastern Shore consists in picking melons up from the ground
and putting them into a hamper, which is usually, though not always,
carried off the field by an adult. Watermelons are rolled out into
the row by children and are then collected by the driver of a wagon
which is driven across the fields.
Children of all ages, girls as well as boys, did some kinds of plant
ing and transplanting. Two hundred and eighty children, nearly
one-half the boys and one-fourth of the girls, reported planting one
or more crops. (Tables 18 and 19.) Of these children three-fourths
had planted or replanted corn, over one-fourth had planted Irish
potatoes, and one-sixth melons or cucumbers. Planting potatoes
by hand and the second planting of corn are, it will be remembered,
simple operations which can be done by young children, but the
operation of the hand and the machine corn planters, the latter
in general use on the Eastern Shore farms, is more difficult. Informa
tion was not obtained, except in a few instances, as to whether the
children did machine or hand planting.

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C H IL D

WORKERS

EASTERN

SH O RE

TRUCK

FARM S.

T a b l e 18.— A ges o f children in resident fam ilies doing each specified Tcind o f field work, by
race; Eastern Shore.

Children under 16 years of age doing each specified kind of field work.
Under
8 years.

Kind of field work, and race.
To
tal.

17.6

20.7

24.7

22.4

3.8
1.6
13.7
3.1
11.0
12.1

20.3
19.0
22.4
18.7
23.2
28.8

23.4

29.1

33
26
45
36
60
13
11
39
29
77
54
16
37

41.8
41.3
28.0
37.5
33.1
19.7

15.6

27
24
47
39
52
21
5
51
29
93
57
13
41

34.2
38.1
29.2
40.6
28.7
31.8

5.7

16
12
36
18
42
19
2
31
25
70
45
5
33

17.3

16.5

22.6

22.1

20.9

22.2

24
19
37
19
61
30
1
50
25
78
69
13
46

33.3

32
19
39
23
57
21

44.4

6.7
1.8
8.7
8.2

16
9
30
12
48
21

79
63
161
96
181
66
20
156
102
352
199
40
141

6.8

7
5
1
13
6
48
14
1
8

3.9
7.6

393

Transplanting........................
Picking T.................................
Saving fodder2—

............

14 years,
under 16.

3
1
' 22
3
20
8
1
23
13
64
29
5
22

397

Hoeing... T.............................

12 years,
under 14.

White...........................

72
47
119
55
196
85
7
186
83
361
230
32
140

10 years,
under 12.

Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1

Plowing.................................

Negro............................

8 years,
under 10.

14.6

8.3
5.9
13.6
7.0

4.2

12
6

6.1
7.1

15
7
63
14

8.1
8.4
17.5
6.1

5.0

1 Not shown where base is less than 50.

8
1
17
7
1
21
9
61
28
1
17

Ì4.7
12.7
18.2
14.6

11.3
10.8
16.9
12.2

51
21
83
56
9
32

12.1

19.9
24.5
19.9
22.6

25.2
21.8
24.5
24.7
27.4
25.3
23.0
24.3
22.9

32.1
28.4
26.4
28.6

31.1
34.5
31.1
35.3
26.9
30.1
21.6
30.0
32.9

48
21
74
63
9
38

Age
not
re
port
ed.

25.0
28.4
21.9
27.1
26.2
2

32.8
41.8
29.1
24.7

25.8
25.3
20.5
27.4

27.1

2 Includes pitching and stacking.

A large proportion of children, one-half the boys and over one-third
of the girls, 342 in all, did one or more kinds of transplanting.
(Tables 18 and 19.) Most of the children transplanted strawberries
or sweet potatoes, or both, and some transplanted tomatoes. Nearly
one-half the children reporting such work were under 12 years of
age and one-fifth were undeulO years. The children under 10 years
of age were likely to have dropped strawberry plants by hand, and
many of the older children had both dropped and set strawberry
plants.21 Almost all the children who reported strawberry trans
planting had done the work by hand, but those who reported trans
planting sweet potatoes or tomatoes were likely to have worked with
either a hand transplanter or the transplanting machine, which is
widely used in this locality. An adult usually drives the transplant
ing machine, which is drawn by a team of horses, while two boys,
known as feeders, sit on the machine on a platform almost level with
the ground and drop the plants alternately at the proper intervals.
21 For a description of hand dropping and setting see p. 12.

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C H IL D LABOR O N

M AR YLAND TRUCK FARM S.

To keep up with the machine continual attention and rapid work are
necessary.22 The task is also disagreeable; as one boy said, “ You
sit all the time with your legs stretched out in front of you and they
cramp, but there is no way to change your position. You are so
near the ground that in dry weather the dust almost chokes you.”
Twenty-three children reported that they had worked on trans
planting machines, but it is probable that the total number was
much larger. As many children did not specify whether they did
machine or hand dropping or whether they dropped or set plants,
the exact numbers can not he given.
Although children of all ages and of both sexes did picking and some
of the younger as well as the older did planting and transplanting, few
except older boys plowed, harrowed, or did cultivating with a machine.
(Table 18.) Hoeing, weeding, and thinning were the only kinds of
general work done to any extent by girls and children under 10 years
of age. Hoeing was reported by 38 per cent of the white and by 43
per cent of the negro girls; over one-third of the boys of each race,
but less than 2 per cent of the girls, reported plowing; about the
same proportion of girls, but smaller proportion of boys, reported
harrowing; a large proportion of boys reported cultivating. These
operations require physical strength and knowledge of how to manage
a horse or mule. The driver of the one-share plow still in general use
on the Eastern Shore must be sufficiently heavy to hold down the
plow as well as strong and skillful enough to guide it. Boys less than
11 years of age, unless they are unusually large for their age, are not
strong enough to manage these plows. Of the 146 boys who reported
plowing only 3, or 2 per cent, were under 10 years of age and more
than three-fourths were 12 years of age or older. Few boys under 12
operated cultivating machines, although one 8-year-old boy was
seen who was said to guide the cultivator as well as a man.
Besides these kinds of work children do a variety of other work
on both truck and general crops. One-tenth of those included in
the study were employed at shucking and husking corn, and over
two-fifths of the boys and one-fourth of the girls did the work locally
known as “ saving fodder” ; that is, cutting and tying the leaves and
tops of cornstalks for drying after the ears have been shucked.
Smaller numbers of children shocked wheat, cut hay, followed the
plow to pick out loosened stubble, packed tomatoes and cantaloupes,
sorted potatoes, cut off strawberry buds, picked off bugs from potato
vines, or did other miscellaneous work.
The boys in farmers ’ families, both white and negro, were usually
employed at a great variety of work, and the negro girls in farmers ’
families did more different kinds of work than the white girls. The
22 Sweet Potato Growing, p. 19. U . S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin 999, Washington,
1919.

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T U R N IN G S W E E T P O TA T O V IN E S B A C K IN TO RO W S B E F O R E C U L T IV A T IN G .

C U T T IN G CORN.
42

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C H IL D W O R K E R S O K E A S T E R N

SH OR E T R U C K

FARM S.

work experiences of children who had done a variety of jobs may
be illustrated by those of two of the children visited. One negro girl
of 12 reported that in April and May she “ drew ” strawberry plants
from the old beds, transplanted sweet potatoes, weeded Irish potatoes,
hoed and picked strawberries, and replanted com . In June and July
she picked beans, hoed, and gathered Irish potatoes; in August picked
tomatoes; and in September and October picked up potatoes and
“ saved” corn fodder. A white boy of 14— besides picking straw
berries, tomatoes, and potatoes— cut hay, hoed several different crops,
and drove a cultivating machine.
T a b l e 19 .'— K inds o f field work done by children in resident fam ilies, by sex and race;

Eastern Shore.

Children under 16 years of age doing each specified Kind of
field work.
Kind of field work, and sex.

Total.

White.

Negro.

Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.
Total........................................................

790

100.0

397

100.0

393

100.0

Plowing..............................................................
Harrowing....... .................................................
Planting.............................................................
Cultivating...... .............................................
Hoeing........... ....................................................
Weeding.........V.................................................
Spraying............................................................
Transplanting...................................................
Thinning. .
....................................................
Picking.............................................................
Gathering potatoes..........................................
Shucking dr husking corn..............................
Saving fodder,1. . ..............................................

151
110
280
151
377
151
27
342
185
713
429
72
281

19.1
13.9
35.4
19.1
47.7
19.1
3.4
43.5
23.4
90.3
54.3
9.1
35.6

79
63
161
96
181
66
20
156
102
352
199
40
141

19.9
15.9
40.6
24.2
45.6
16.6
5.0
39.3
25.7
88.7
50.1
10.1
35.5

72
47
119
55
196
85
7
186
83
361
230
32
140

18.3
12.0
30.3
14.0
49.9
21.6
1.8
47.3
21.1
91.9
58.5
8.1
35.6

Boys.............................................................

391

100.0

200

100.0

191

100.0

Plowing..............................................................
Harrowing...................................................... .
Planting.............................................................
Cultivating........................................................
Hoeing................................................................
Weeding............................................................
Spraying.............................................................
Transplanting...................................................
Thinning............................................................
Picking...............................................................
Gathering potatoes..........................................
Shucking dr husking corn..............................
Saving fodder1..................................................

146
103
182
143
216
97

77
59
105
90
107

38.5
29.5
52.5
45.0
53.5
22.0
8.0
47.5
35.0
85.5
60.5
16.0
44.0

195
121
341
240
54
172

37.3
26.3
46.5
36.6
55.2
24.8
5.6
49.9
30.9
87.2
61.4
13.8
44.0

36.1
23.0
40.3
27.7
57.1
27.7
3.1
52.4
26.7
89.0
62.3
11.5
44.0

Girls.............................................................

399

100.0

197

100.0

202

100.0

Plowing..............................................................
Harrowing.........................................................
Planting.............................................................
Cultivating........................................................
Hoeing................................................................
Weeding.............................................................
Spraying.............................................................
Transplanting...................................................
Thinning............................................................
Picking...............................................................
Gathering potatoes..........................................
Shucking or husking corn..............................
Saving fodder1..................................................

1.3
1.8
24.6
2.0
40.4
13.5
1.3
36.8
16.0
93.2
47.4
4.5
27.3

1.0
2.0
28.4
3.0
37.6
11.2
2.0
31.0
16.2
91.9
39.6
4.1
26.9

3
3

1.5
1.5
20.8
1.0
43.1
15.8

1 Includes stacking and pitching

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7
98
8

161
54
5

147
64
372
189
18
109

16
95
70
171
121

56
6

22
4

61
32
181
78
8

77
53
109
53
6

100
51
170
119

87
32
1
86
32
191

42.6
15.8
94.6

111

5 5 .0

10
56

5.0
27.7

C H IL D LABOR ON- M A R Y L A N D T R U C K F A R M S .

The length of the working-day.

The same marked differences between children of different ages
and sexes evident in the kinds of work done were also shown b y the
number of hours they had worked. Negro children, though their
work was not very different from that of white children, worked on
the whole longer hours; younger children and white girls tended to
work a shorter day than other groups.
As the survey was made during the .strawberry season, a very large
number had picked strawberries on the day for which information
was secured, the last working-day before the agents' visit. This
fact should be remembered when studying Table 20, as the children
who had picked strawberries reported a somewhat shorter workingday than those who had done other truck-farm work.
T a b l e 20.— F ield hours o f children in resident fam ilies on the last working-day pre
viou s to agent’ s visit, by age and race; Eastern Shore.

Children under 16 years of age doing field work.
Under 8
years of age.

Total.
Field hours on a typi
cal working - day,
and race.
Num
ber.

8 years,
under 10.

10 years,
under 12. !

12 years,
under 14.

Per
Per
Per
Per
Per
Per
cent Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent Num cent
dis
dis
dis
dis
dis
dis
ber. tribu ber. tribu
ber.
ber.
ber.
tribu
tribu
tribu
tribu
tion.
tion.
tion.
tion.
tion.
tion.

397

100.0

18
15
8
4
3
2

31.0
25.9
13.8
6.9
5.2
3.4

15
18
12
5
10
5

21.4
25.7
17.1
7.1
14.3
7.1

20
15
12
10
10
9

24.4
18.3
14.6
12.2
12.2
11.0

Not reported...............

79
88
61
42
46
60
2
29

19.9
22.2
15.4
10.6
11.6
12.6
7.3

13.8

7.1

7.3

13
22
13
13
11
20
1
5

Negro.................

1393

100.0

Less than 4 hours K . .
4 hours, less than 6 .. .
6 hours', less than 8 .. .
8 hours, less than 9 . . .
9 hours, less than 10..
10 horns, less than 12.
12 hours, less than 14
Not reported...............

43
64
75
45
50
79
7
30

10.9
16.3
19.1
11.5
12.7
20.1
1.8
7.6

11
8
9
7
2
12
2
17

16.2
11.8
13.2
10.3
2.9
17.6
2.9
25.0

10
15
10
8
6
9
1
6

15.4
23.1
15.4
12.3
9.2
13 8
1.5
9.2

8
16
19
9
14
19

9.0
18.0
21.3
10.1
15.7
21.3

4.5

8
16
14
12
15
20
1
1

W hite................
Less than 4 hours___
4 hours, less than 6 .. .
6 hours, less than 8 .. .
8 hours, less than 9 .. .
9 hours, less than 10..
10 hours, less than 12.

14 years,
under 16.

100.0

13
18
16
10
12
14
1
5

14.6
20.2
18.0
11.2
13.5
15.7
1. 1
5.6

100.0

9.2
18.4
16.1
13.8
17.2
23.0
1.1
1.1

4
9
23
9
13
19
3
2

4.9
11.0
28.0
11.0
15.9
23.2
3.7
2.4

100.0
13.3. |
22.4
13.3
13.3
11.2
20. 4
1.0
5.1

1 Includes 2 children for whom age was not reported.

White children who worked on the home farm worked on the
average shorter hours and less regularly than those who hired out.
Forty-four per cent of the former reported that they worked less
than 6 hours a day in the field, as compared with 33 per cent of the
70 children who worked out by the day. Six to 8 hours was the usual
working-day of the latter group. The distinction between negro
children in these two groups is not so clear, because so large a propor
tion of negro farmers' children also worked by the day for farmers

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C H IL D W O R K E R S O K E A S T E R N

SHORR T R U C K F A R M S .

other than their parents. White children usually worked a shorter
day than negro children, as Table 20 shows. The considerable num
ber of children of both races who worked long hours should be noted;
over one-third (37.5 per cent) of the negro children reporting had
worked in the fields 9 or more hours, and 14 per cent of the white
children and 23.7 per cent of the negro children had worked as much
as 10 hours or more on the day preceding the inqury.
White girls worked shorter hours than white boys. Thus/ 42 per
cent of the boys but only 10 per cent of the girls, reporting the length
of their day in the field, had worked 9 or more hours. White and
negro boys from 12 to 16 years of age had the longest working-day.
Of the boys 12 and 13 years of age 53 of the 99 had worked 9 or more
hours and 35 had worked 10 or more hours. Of the 85 boys 14 and
15 years of age reporting hours, 41 had worked 9 or more hours and
25 had worked 10 or more.
The number of hours worked by children under 10 years of age was
difficult to obtain accurately. The mothers of some of these young
children, obliged to work in the field themselves, often took their
children to the fields in order to look after them. Usually the chil
dren “ picked a while and played a w hile/' though occasionally they
were kept steadily at work. In the age groups under 10 years were
128 white and 133 negro children who reported field work. Although
a large group reported working less than 8 hours on the day preced
ing the agent's visit, 29 white children and 47 negro had worked
8 or more hours. (See Table 20.)
In addition to field work, nearly nine-tenths (88.2 per cent) of the
girls did housework. Seven-tenths (71.4 per cent) of the boys
worked at chores. Two-thirds of the boys who reported chores cared
for stock, and one-fourth did milking; girls were more likely to feed
chickens than to do any other kind o f chore, but a few helped with
the milking. Fewer negro than white children did chores, for negro
families did not own as much live stock. When chores and house
work are taken into consideration the total number of hours worked
by the children is much longer than the hours they worked in the
fields and the difference between the working-day of boys and girls
is less marked. A large group of children worked at field work,
chores, and housework combined between 10 and 12 hours a day.
Of 114 white children in age groups under 10 years reporting on this
point, 24 per cent had worked 9 hours or more; of the 248 in age
groups from 10 to 15, inclusive, 46 per cent had worked 9 or more
hours. A little girl of 10, for example, said that the day before the
interview she had picked strawberries from 7 a. m. to 12 and from
3 p. m. to 6.30 p. m., besides doing housework and chores for 3 hours.

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C H IL D LABOR O N M A R Y L A N D T R U C K F A R M S .

Duration of work.

Inquiry was made in this area as to the duration of field work
during the year preceding the inquiry. Of 290 children 10 years of
age and older who reported on this point, over three-fifths (61.7 per
cent) had worked at least 30 days, not necessarily consecutively,
and nearly two-fifths (37.2 per cent) had worked 60 or more days.
Children under 10 years of age, on the other hand, usually worked
less than a month, many of them less than 2 weeks, over four-fifths
reporting that they had worked less than 30 days. (Table 21.)
Some children, especially those over 12 years of age, reported work
ing long periods such as 3 or 4 months. That children under 10
years of age are likely to work only a few days, while the older chil
dren work several months, is clearly illustrated by the reports of
children in the same family. The 15-year-old boy in one colored
family of 7 children reported working 6 months, including several
days in February and October. His 14-year-old sister and his two
brothers, aged 12 and 9, had each worked 3£ months; a sister 7 years
of age had worked 20 days, and 4-year-old twins 2 days.
T a b l e 21.— Duration offield work o f children in resident fa m ilies, by age and race; Eastern
Shore.
Children under 16 years of age reporting duration of field work.
Under 1 month.
Age and race.
tal.

W hite........ 218
Under 6 years—
6 years, under 8 ..
8 years, under 10.
10 years, under 12
12 years, under 14
14 years, under 16
Negro,
Under 6 years___
6 years, under 8 ..
8 years, under 10
10 years, under l:
12 years, under 14

43
43
53
227

41
53
51
47

1
Under week,
Total. week. under

1
month

4
5
6
2
3
1
month, months, months, months, months, months
under
and
under
under
under' under
over.
6.
4.
5.
2.
3.

7
3
6

1
2
3
4

1
1

1
3
6
7
5

3
6
6
5

3
7
8

3
5

1
3

132

3
18
14
6
10
9

3
9
8
5
1

2
6
8
10
10
10

3
8
9
7
11

1
2
1
4
5

49
1
4
14
13
17

24
25
20
105

30
24
14
4

2
12
5
3

6
4
5

21
16
12
4

Earnings.

Hired children who pick strawberries, tomatoes, and other
vegetables receive the rates current for the work, which are about
the same for different farms. Children as well as adults received, as
a rule, 3 cents a box for strawberries, 25 to 30 cents for a bushel
basket of beans, and 4 to 5 cents for a five-eighths bushel of tomatoes.
The amount children of the same age could earn at picking straw
berries, for instance, was variable, depending on the speed with
which they worked. The earnings of 12-year-old children working

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C H IL D W O R K E R S O K E A S T E R N

SHORE T R U C K F A R M S .

an 8-hour day varied from 90 cents for 30 quarts of strawberries to
$3 for 100 quarts. For hoeing and other general work children were
paid by the hour, the rate depending on the individual farmer and'
the age of the child. Children under 12 years usually received from
10 to 15 cents an hour; that is, from 80 cents to $1.20 for an 8-hour
day. Children 12 years of age and over received 15 or 20 cents an
hour. The large proportion of children who worked only on the
home farm usually received no wages, though sometimes a father
said that he paid his children the current rate for strawberry picking.
Parents considered their children’s work of considerable economic
importance. Two farmers, for instance, said that because they
could not afford to hire “ help” they were obliged to keep their
children out of school. One of these had kept his two children of
10 and 13 years out of school to work in the fields for 20 and 66
days, respectively.
FARM WORK AND SCHOOLING.

Children included in the Eastern Shore study, like those in Anne
Arundel County, were found to have lost considerable schooling
on account of absences for farm work. It was, however, encouraging
to find that the children in this area remained in school well into
their teens. Practically all the children, both white and negro, were
enrolled in school. Of those who were between 7 and 15 years of
age, only 2 white and 14 negro children were not attending school;
most of these children lived at least
miles from school, but they
were not exempt, as in some States, from the compulsory school
law. Of the 15-year-old children, only 4 white and 3 "negro had
withdrawn from school, probably because of the requirement that
children of this age must attend until the completion of the
elementary grades and the fact that their progress in school had
been slow.
Although most of the children were in school their progress was
seriously interfered with by frequent and prolonged absences, one of
the most important causes of which was the work which they did
in the fields. Of 306 white children reporting on this point nearly
three-fourths (74.2 per cent) had been absent from school for farm
work. (Table 22.) Fifty-nine white children, one-fifth of the total
number reporting, had stayed out of school for this purpose 30 or
more days; that is, 6 or more school weeks. Twenty-two of these
children, 21 of whom were farmers’ children, had been kept out of
school for work on the farm 60 or more school days during the year.
One of these was an 11-year-old girl; the others, who were boys,
were with three exceptions 12 years of age or older. One farmer,
for example, who had kept his two boys aged 13 and 10 from school
79 and 34 days, respectively, stated that the older was kept out of

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C H IL D LABOR O H M A R Y L A N D T R U C K F A R M S .

school longer, as he was strong enough to use the plow, harrow, and
cultivator. A smaller proportion of negro than white children,
probably because the negro schools closed before the first of May,
gave farm work as the cause of absence. Over one-half (53 per cent)
of the 290 negro children reporting had been out of school for farm
work; 12 per cent stated that they had stayed out 20 or more days
or 4 or more school weeks on this account; 6 per cent had stayed
out 30 or more days, or 6 school weeks. Most of the 124 children
(white and negro) absent 20 or more days were at least 12 years of
age, but only 42 were 14 or over.
T a b l e 22.— Absence from school on account o f field work o f children in resident fam ilies,
by race; Eastern Shore.
Children between 6 and 16 years of age attending
school.

Number.

P ercent
Per cent
Per cent
distri
distri Number. distri Number.
bution.
bution.
bution.

734
596
215
183
74
48
26
36
14
138

Negro.

White.

Total.

Absence from school on account
of field work.

357

377
100.0
36.1
30.7
12.4
8.1
4.4
6.0
2.3

306
79
106
34
28
17
29
13
71

100.0
25.8
34.6
11.1
9.2
5.6
9.5
4.2

290
136
77
40
20
9
7
1
67

100.0
46.9
26.6
13.8
6.9
3.1
2.4
0.3

Whether or not the absences for farm work were illegal depends,
it will be remembered,23 on the age of the child and on the number
of days he* had attended school. The 100-day provision undoubtedly
created confusion in the minds of parents and furnished some who
wished to keep their younger children out of school for farm work
with the excuse of misunderstanding the law. Thus, one farmer
whose boy of 14 years had stayed out of school a total of 74 days
and whose 10-year-old girl had been absent 71 days told the agent
that the “ law only compels the children to make 100 days a year.
I see to it that they do that because I don’t want to pay the fine,
but after that I keep them out to work all I need them.” Of the
school children from 7 to 12 years of age, inclusive,24145 white and 83
negro had been absent from school for farm work during the school
year preceding the survey, all which absence was illegal. Ten
13- and 14-year-old white children and 24 negro had been illegally
absent for farm work, having attended school less than 100 days.
The absence for farm work of 11 15-year-old children, 4 negro and
7 white, who had attended school less than 100 days and who had not
m See p. 17.
24 Age as of Sept. 1,1921. See note, p. 19.
been under 7 years of age when absent.

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Thirteen of the white and 6 of the negro children may have

C H IL D W O R K E R S O H E A S T E R N SH O R E T R U C K F A R M S .

completed the seventh grade, was also illegal. Thus, 273, or 39
per cent, of the 701 white and negro school children between the ages
of 7 and 16 employed on truck farms in the area surveyed had been
illegally absent from school for farm work during the year covered
by the inquiry.
Like children in other rural areas, these children can ill afford
to lose time from school for farm work, as they inevitably lose much
time also on account of bad roads, weather, and distance from school.
From all causes combined nearly one-third of the white and negro
children included in the present study whose records were obtained
had attended school less than 70 per cent of the school term in their
respective schools. About one-tenth (13.4 per cent of the negro
and 11.2 per cent of the white children) had attended less than onehalf the term. For the negro children in particular this meant very
little schooling during the year inasmuch as the term in most of their
schools was only from 136 to 140 days, as compared with from 175
to 181 days in the white schools. Partly on this account over
one-half of the negro as compared with one-fourth of the white
children who were included in the study and whose attendance
records were found had attended school less than 120 days during
the year preceding the inquiry.
Under these conditions it is impossible for children to complete a
grade each year, as the average child is expected to do. Nearly
two-fifths of the white children and seven-tenths of the negro children
8 to 16 years of age included in the study were retarded, the older
children, as Table 23 shows, being more retarded than the younger.
The number of white children who according to average rates 35
would have been retarded is indicated in Table 24.
T

able

23 .— Retardation o f children in resident fam ilies, by aye o f child and race; Eastern
Shore.
Children between 8 and 16 years of age attending school.
Retarded.

Age and race.®

To
tal.

Total.

1 year.

2 years.

3 years and
over.

Normal.

Advanced.

Not re
ported.

Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
W hite___

12 yearsounder 14
Negro___

14yearsi under 16

334
68
74
101
91
318
68
77
88
85

127 38.0
11
15
43
58

16.2
20.3
42.6
63.7

228 71.7
29
57
68
74

42.6
74.0
77.3
87.1

® Age as of Sept. 1,1921.
«s See p. 20.

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52 15.6

8
10
18
16

11.8
13.5
17.8
17.6

3 4.4
4 5.4
13 12.9
11 12.1

i 1.4
12 11.9
31 34.1

63 19.8

58 18.2

107 33.6

21
20
11
11

8
15
19
16

30.9
26.0
12.5
12.9

9.3

11.8
19.5
21.6
18.8

44 13.2

22 28.6
38 43.2
47 55.3

173 51.8
44
46
53
30

64.7
62.2
52.5
33.0

9.9

0.3

12 17.6
13 17.6
5 5.0
3 3.3

1.5

83 26.1

2.2

36
18
19
10

3
2
1
1

4.4
2.6
1.1
1.2

52.9
23.4
21.6
11.8

' C H IL D

LABOR

M ARYLAND

TRUCK

FARM S.

T a b l e 2 4 .— R etardation o f children in resident fa m ilies in E a stern S h ore g rou p as com
pared w ith average retardation am ong city children.a

White children between 8
and 16 years of age attend
ing school.
Age.6

Average
rate of
retarda
tion.1

Retarded.
Total.
Actual Expected
number. number.«

Total................................................................................................

334

127

8 years, under 9 .......................................................................................
9 years, under 10.....................................................................................
10 years, under l l ....................................................................................
11 years) under 12........................................... ............................ .
12 years/ under 13...................................................................................
13 years) under 1 4 .. ; ...................... ............. ............................ .........
14 years) under 15....................................................................................

35
33
38
36
60
41
55
36

11
5
10
23
20
29
29

4
5
8
10
19
15
21
13

10.5
15.5
21.6
26.9
32.4
36.5
37.8
37.3

a Based on average rates of retardation for different ages among 1,142,179 pupils in 80 cities, unpublished
figures furnished by the TJ. S. Bureau of Education.
b Age as of Sept. 1,1921.
c Number expected at average rates of retardation.

It will be seen that among children in the Eastern Shore areas more
children of nearly every age group were retarded than would be
expected at average rates, and that the retardation among those 13
years of age and older is especially striking. Of the 13-, 14-, and 15year-old children 78 were below standard grades for their ages,
instead of 49, according to average rates.
It has been noted, and Table 23 shows, that negro children were
considerably more retarded than white. One-third of the total num
ber were retarded three or more years. .O f the 14- and 15-year-old
children 87 per cent were retarded; of 85 children of these ages only
16 had completed the seventh or a higher grade. It would seem clear
from this evidence that few negro children complete the elementaryschool course. Negro children enter school late. Over two-fifths of
those included in the study for whom age at beginning school was
reported did not begin school until they were at least 7 years of age,
one-eighth not until they were 8 or more; many of them lived some
distance from a schoolhouse, and the school terms are shorter than
those for white children. When to these disadvantages is added
absence for farm work it will be seen that the negro children get com
paratively little schooling. The recent increase in the length of the
school term for negro children 26 should result in the Eastern Shore
counties, as in Anne Arundel County, in increased opportunities for
negro children to complete the elementary grades.
26 See p. 21.

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CONCLUSION.

A large proportion of children who live in truck-farming areas on
the Eastern Shore and in Anne Arundel County work on the farms.
Thus of 774 children under the age of 16 enrolled in the schools of the
Eastern Shore areas included in the survey and reporting on the
inquiry, nine-tenths had done farm work during the year preceding
the study. In the Eastern Shore localities the workers aré largely
farmers’ children; in the Anne Arundel area there are, in addition to
farmers’ children who work, large numbers of hired laborers, either
negro children living in the area or white children who migrate from
Baltimore for seasonal farm work.
Most children, both white and negro, under 10 years of age work a
short day at simple kinds of work and for only a few days or weeks
during the year, and their work, therefore, presents no serious prob
lem. Most white girls do little more work than the young children of
both races and sexes, but some of the older negro girls and a large
proportion of white and negro boys 12 years of age or more, especially
those in farmers’ families, do a great variety of work, and many work
9 or 10 hours a day. In areas surveyed on the Eastern Shore many
of these older children had worked a total of 60 or more days during
the season from May to October. A working-day of 9 or more hours
on the last day worked was reported by one-half the white and negro
boys working on the Eastern Shore and by one-half the boys working
on the farms of Anne Arundel County. It is probable that longer
working-days than this were common, inasmuch as the hours reported
were in a majority of cases for picking, work which did not require so
long a working-day as did more general types of farm labor. Some of
the simpler kinds of work, such as picking berries or hoeing, while
monotonous, are likely to prove physically taxing only if kept up for
long hours; but plowing, harrowing, machine cultivating, and some
kinds of machine transplanting, which require skill and strength, are
fatiguing even when done for only a few hours at a time. Such work
in conjunction with long hours was reported by many of the boys 12
years of age and over. In order to safeguard this group of children
from working beyond their strength at an early age and from the
strain of excessive hours, some legal regulation as to minimum age and
maximum hours for the work of children on farms at least in such
occupations as these would appear to be desirable.
According to reports made by their parents, a majority of the white
and negro children in both areas included in the study suffered a
51

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C H IL D L A B O E O N

M ARYLAND

TRUCK FARM S.

loss of schooling on account of farm work. Nearly one-fifth of the
white children had been absent for farm work 30 or more school
days or 6 or more school weeks during the preceding school year.
Fewer negro children lose so much time from school because of farm
work for the reason that their schools are closed during a large part
of the busy season on the truck farms. The appointment of a
sufficient number of attendance officers for each county would help
to protect children under 13 years of age from loss of schooling
on account of the demands of the farm. In order to offer the same
protection to children 13 years of age and over it would be necessary
to abolish the provision of the State school" attendance law permit
ting children of these ages to remain out of school after an attend
ance of 100 days.
One-third of the child workers on farms in the Anne Arundel area
surveyed were migratory laborers. Their work* which is usually
confined to the. picking of beans, peas, or strawberries, is simple and
probably not overtaxing if the working-day is not too long. The
majority of the pickers in the present study reported a working-day
of less than eight hours, although in seasons when the crops are more
successful, seasons which are considered more typical than the one
during which the present survey was made, working hours are said
to be longer. I t should be remembered, moreover, that most of
these children were under 14 years of age. Migratory workers
present, however, two serious problems, one connected with their
schooling}, the other with living conditions on the farms where they
live during the picking season. The majority of the children lose
from four to six weeks at the end of the school term in order to go
out to the truck farms; over two-thirds of those included in the
study were retarded in school, a retardation rat© which for children
from 10 to 14 years of age is about twice the average for city school
children. At the present time neither city nor county authorities
assume the responsibility of requiring these children who are of com
pulsory school age to attend school the entire term, although the
State compulsory school attendance law furnishes the legal right
to enforce attendance in these cases. N o adequate administrative
machinery for enforcement has, however, been devised. The hous
ing provided for migratory truck-farm workers in these localities is
so unsatisfactory that it appears to call for some public supervision,
such, for example, as that, exercised for a number of years in Cali
fornia,27 in order that growing children may escape the physical and
social effects of promiscuous and unheal thlul living conditions.
87 Advisory pamphlet on Camp Sanitation and Housing; (revised,. 191ft), p . S. Commission of Immi
gration and Housing of California,. Saa S'raaciscct* 1919.

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Full text of Child Labor on Maryland Truck Farms, Bureau Publication No. 123

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