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A 7 -Y E A R -O L D C O T T O N P IC K E R .

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

. CHILDREN’S BUREAU
GRACE ABBOTT. Chief

THE WELFARE OF CHILDREN
IN COTTON-GROWING
AREAS OF TEXAS
&

Bureau Publication No. 134

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1924

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CONTENTS.
Page.

Letter of transmittal............................................... w. . : ..................................... .............
Introduction........................ *.............................................................................................
Children in resident farming families............................- .............................................
The children at work....................... ......... ............................... j * . , ..................
Field w o rk .............................................................. . .........................................
Kinds of field work....................................................................................
Duration of field work............................................................................. ..
Cotton picking................................................................................................
Hoeing and chopping............................................................ . ..................
Plowing, harrowing, and planting...............................................................
Cultivating............................................................................................. - - Picking corn, peanuts, dry peas, and other crops.......... | ..................
Other field w ork.......................................................................................
Chores...........................................................................................................
Housework........... . ....................... .............................................. — - - --...........
Hours of w o r k ......................... ........................ »......................... ...................
The children at school...............................................................................................
School attendance.. — .............................4.....................................................
Compulsory attendance law .....................................................................
Length of the school term.........................................................................
Children attending school..............
Percentage of attendance..........................................................................
Number of days attended...........................................
Reasons for absence...................................................
Farm work...................................................
Weather and bad roads..............................................................................
Hlness............. ................ - ........... ................. .............................................
Other reasons................................................. - ......... - ...............................
Retardation.................................................................................................
School organization and conditions................................................................
Public-school buildings................. ............................. - ...........................
Equipm ent...................................................................................................
T each ers................................................................- ............................... .
School activities.....................................
Private schools..............................
The children at hom e.....................................................................
Living conditions.............
Houses..................................................................................... - ...................
Household conveniences......................................... ..................... - .........
Screens..................... ...................... - ...................................... ..................
Overcrowding........................
Toilets.................................................................................
Water supply........................................................................- ......... ...........
Work of mothers...............................
Kinds and duration of work.......................
Hours of work........... ............
Care of young children......... .....................................................................

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v
1
7
7
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9
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14
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15
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16
17
21
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23
25
25
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28
28
29
32
33
33
85
35
87
38
38
88
38
39
40
41
42
44
44
45
49

CONTENTS.

Children in resident farming families—Continued.
The children at home—Continued.
Page.
D iet......................................... ................ ............................... . . ......... ...............
50
Farm food p r o d u c t s . .......................... ......................... . . . ;
50
D ietaries. ............................. .....................................................................
53
Literacy of parents and periodicals taken....... ...........................................
56
Community life and social activities................... ........... . i . . . . . i ____
58
Schools and churches................................................... ................ ■_____
59
59
Social gatherings..............................• _____ ..................... >....................
Going to town................................................................. ............ .....
59
Children in migratory laborers’ fam ilies......... .......................... ................................
61
The children at work..................................... ............... ...................................... ...
63
The children at school............................. ........ . . . . .
........................
65
The children at hom e................................................................................ ...............
66
Living conditions................................................ ............. .. ........... .................
66
Work of mothers.................................. _________: ; . . . . . . ; c : ......................
67
D iet.................................................................................... .................. •............ ..
67
Literacy of parents and periodicals tak en ............... ..................................
68
Social life ............................... : ..................... ............................. ........ ..............
68
Conclusion............................................................................................ ............... ..............
69
GENERAL TABLES.
T able 1.—Number of removals of resident farming families during last 5 years,
by farming status of family and race; H ill and Rusk Counties__
T able 2.—Total daily hours’ work performed while not attending school by
children in resident farming families, by daily hours’ field work.
Table 3.—Number of days’ school attendance by children in resident farming
families, by age and race of child and county of residence__ ___
T able 4.—Per cent of school attendance by children in resident farming fami
lies, by age and race of child and county of residence. jj........ .
T able 5.—Absence from school on account of farm work of children in resident
farming families, by age and race of child and county of residence.
T able 6.—Retardation of children between 8 and 16 years of age in resident
farming families, by farming status of family, race, and county of
residence........................... ........................................................ .................
Table 7.—Average number of persons per room in dwellings of children in resi. dent farming families, by age and race of child, and county of resi
dence........................................................................... .
1..................
T able 8.—Total daily hours worked by mothers in resident farming families, by
daily hours of field work, race, and county of residence.............
T able 9.—Amount of m ilk used daily in resident farming families, b y number
in household, race, and county of residence___. . . ....................... .

74
75
76
78
79

81
82
83

ILLUSTRATIONS.
Facing page.
A seven-year-old cotton p ic k e r .................................. .................................... Frontispiece.
Child workers in the fields: Above, hoeing and chopping; at right, side harrow
ing; below, cotton p ic k in g ........................................................... ..... .........................
12
A twelve-year-old boy and his six-year-old sister picking cotton..........................
13
A State-aided school............................................................................................ ......... .
30
A crowded primary room in one of the negro schools............. ............... ..................
30
Bad roads..................................... .............................................. .......................... ............
31
Housing: Above, farmhouse in central Texas; center, migratory workers’ tent
66
housing 11 persons; below, a share tenant’s house in east Texas........................

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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

U nited States D epartment of Labor,Children ’s B ureau ,

Washington, October 19, 1923.
S ir : There is transmitted herewith a report on The Welfare of

Children in Cotton-Growing Areas of Texas, one of a series of studies
on the welfare of rural children with special reference to farm labor
and school attendance, which the industrial division of the Children’s
Bureau is making.
The investigation upon which this report was based was made
under the general supervision of Ellen Nathalie Matthews, director of
the industrial division. Helen M. Dart, formerly a special agent of
the division, was responsible for the details of the plan, the direction
of the field work, and the preliminary organization of the material
upon which the report is based.
Acknowledgment is made of the helpful cooperation of members of
the staff of the United States Department of Agriculture, especially
of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics; officials of the University
of Texas, the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College, and the
State department of education; county school superintendents and
local school principals and teachers; and county agricultural agents.
Respectfully submitted.
Grace A bbott, Chief.
Hon. J ames J. D avis,
Secretary of Labor.
v

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THE WELFARE OF CHILDREN IN COTTON-GROWING AREAS OF TEXAS.
INTRODUCTION.
The present study of children in cotton-growing areas of Texas
is the fourth1 in a series of surveys made by the Children’s Bureau
dealing with problems of rural child welfare with special reference
to the effect of child labor upon school attendance. Such an inquiry
is of peculiar significance in the cotton-growing districts of the
South, where so large a part of the farm work is done by women
and children, and where the percentage of illiteracy is high.
Texas has for many years produced more cotton than any other
State in the Union,2 and in 1920 its yield constituted about onethird of the cotton crop of the country.3 The cotton acreage included
more than one-third of the improved land in the State,4 and was
almost two and one-half times the acreage of corn, the next most
important crop in the State.5 Most of the cotton is grown in the
eastern half of the State, though cotton production is increasing in
west Texas.6
The present study was made in two important cotton-growing
counties, selected because of different social and agricultural condi
tions. (See Table I.) Hill County, located in the north-central
part of the State, was chosen as being typical of the “ black lands”
of the central-prairie country, so named because of the soil, which
is a black, waxy clay, and the most fertile of the trans-Mississippi
region.7 The country is practically all under cultivation. Planta
tions are large and are worked chiefly by tenants, most of them
white. Rusk County, near the Louisiana border, was chosen for
study as fairly representative of the cotton-growing regions of east
1 The first three studies dealt with children in beet-growing areas of Michigan and Colorado, on the
truck farms of Maryland, and in rural North Dakota. Subsequent studies have dealt with children on
the truck farms of Virginia and N ew Jersey.
2 Atlas of American Agriculture, Part V , The Craps, Section A, Cotton, p . 22, fig. 76. U . S. D ept, of
Agriculture, Office of Farm Management, Washington, 1918.
»Cotton Production and Distribution, Season of 1920-21, U . S. Bureau of the Census Bulletin 147 pp14 and 15. Washington, 1921.
’
* Computed from figures of U . S. Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920
Vol. V I, part 2, Agriculture, Reports for States, The Southern States, Texas, pp. 655 and 662. Wash
ington, 1922.
6 Ibid., p. 662.
« Cotton Production and Distribution, Season of 1918-19, U . S. Bureau of the Census Bulletin 140, p. 135.
Washington, 1919. Cotton Production and Distribution, Season of 1920-21, U . S. Bureau of the Census
B ulletin 147, p. 138.
7 U . S. Geological Survey, Twenty-first Annual Report, 1899-1900, Part V D , Geography and Geology
of the Black and Grand Prairies, Texas, pp. 60 and 61.

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

Texas, an area in which the social and agricultural conditions of
certain parts of the old South are more nearly reproduced than in
any other part of the State. The land is rolling and wooded, drained
by numerous rivers and creeks, and only partly cleared. I t is a less
fertile country than Hill County, crops are somewhat more diversified,
and a larger proportion of the farms are operated by their owners.
T able I.— Comparison o f the State as a whole, H ill County, and Rusk County, as to
population and agricultural conditions-1

State and county.

Total
popula
tion.

T exas.......................... 4,663,228
43,332
H ill County...............
31,689
Rusk County............

Percent Per cent Percent Average
of negroes urban
of farm improved
in total in total land im acreage
popula popula proved. per farm.
tion.
tion.
15.9
12.6
40.1

32.4
16.0

27.4
80.2
58.1

71.6
80.9
46.7

Per cent Average Per cent
of farms
ofim land
operated
proved
value
ten
land in per
acre. by
ants.
cotton.
36.9
55.0
35.1

$28.46
108.23
22.38

53.3
65.2
49.2

1 Compiled from the Fourteenth Census.of the U nited States, 1920, V oi. I, p. 173; Vol. M , pp. 984, 1000,
1010; and Vol. V I, Part 2, pp. 653, 655, 662, 674, 682, 725, 733.

Most of the inhabitants of east Texas come from Alabama, Georgia,
or other near-by States, and its population includes a large proportion
of negroes. The population of the “ black lands” is more varied,
containing whites from the North and some foreigners, as well as
southern whites and negroes. Rusk County was created in 1843,
and Hill County in 1853, though the settlement of the counties dates
back to the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth
century.8
In both counties the open country where cleared is thickly settled,
so that few houses are separated by more than one-fourth or one-half
mile. At the time of the study in Hill County 16 per cent of the
population was living in the county seat, a town of about 7,000, and
the county had 10 other incorporated places varying in population
from 300 to 2,000.9 In Rusk County, the county seat had only about
2,300 inhabitants, and there was but one other incorporated town,
which had about 500.®
In 1920 seven railroads ran through Hill County, four of them
through the county seat. All the public roads of the county, with
the exception of a few miles, were dirt roads, good during the summer
but practically impassable in wet weather when the black clay be
came so soft and sticky that even a four-mule team hitched to a
two-wheeled vehicle had difficulty in traveling through it.10 Bad
mudholes often closed miles of road to travel. In Rusk County
railroad service was not so good as in Hill County. Two corners of
8 Thrall, Homer S.: A Pictorial History of Texas, pp. 669 and 692. St. Louis, 1879.
» Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. I, Population: Number and Distribution of Inhabit*
ants, pp. 303-305.
18 A good road north from Hillsboro was in process of construction at the tim e of the survey.

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INTRODUCTION.

the county were cut by main north-and-south lines, but the county
seat, the principal town of the county, was reached only by two
branch lines with infrequent and uncertain train service. The public
roads over the sandy soil were usually passable even in wet weather,
although poorly built bridges, frequent washouts, and steep grades
might close certain routes for days at a time and make travel uncer
tain and difficult at other times. In both counties the rural mail
service was well developed.
Hill County had an agricultural agent; Rusk County did not
employ one until after the study was completed. While the survey
was in progress, a farm bureau was organized in Hill County under
the direction of the agricultural agent. In Rusk County a farmers’
union was active. The general purpose of both of these organiza
tions was similar-—to bring about an improvement in farming
methods and to further cooperative buying and selling. Neither
county had a home-demonstration agent.
The present study included 13 school districts in Hill County
and 12 in Rusk. Information was secured in regard to all children
between the ages of 2 and 16 years on September 30, 1920, living in
families resident on farms in these districts at least 6 months of the
year previous to that date. Families with children who had come
into the districts to work as seasonal cotton pickers and were working
there at the time of the study were also included. Data in regard to
them will be found in the section entitled “ Children in Migratory
Laborers’ Families. ” Prior to the interviews with individual families
in each school district selected for study, school-attendance records
for the year 1919-20 were secured for each child enrolled. In order
to omit no children who might have failed to be enrolled, schoolcensus records were also consulted and a careful house-to-house
canvass was made. The study was begun in Hill County in Sep
tember, 1920, and concluded in Rusk County in January, 1921. A
total of 1,121 families with 3,131 children were interviewed.
Most of the families interviewed in each county were native
white. The negro population, which is comparatively small in the
State as a whole, is concentrated in the eastern and southeastern
parts of the State. Of the resident families included in the survey,
44 per cent of those in Rusk but only 10 per cent of those in Hill
County were negro. Only two families in which the father was
foreign born were interviewed in Rusk County, while in Hill County,
where there were German and Bohemian settlements, 36 such fami
nes, or 7 per cent of the total number of Hill County families in the
study, were interviewed. Twenty-five of these 36 fathers had been
born in Germany; 24 had been in the United States 20 years or more;
but 3 could not speak English. Mexican families, numerous in

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

the southern part of the State, were not common in the northern
part; two were included in the study in Hill County, none in Rusk
County.
As has been said, the percentage of tenancy in Hill County is
high, and that of farm ownership relatively low. Of the 509 families
interviewed in Hill County only 185 (36 per cent) owned their farms.
Only 3 of the 51 negro fathers were farm owners. A few of the fathers
were farm laborers,11 but the majority (58.7 per cent) were tenant
farmers. In Rusk County as a whole and among the families inter
viewed the percentage of farm owners was considerably larger, well
over half the families interviewed (56.7 per cent) owned their farms.
Of the 295 white fathers (all except 2 of whom were native bom)
200 were farm owners; of the negro fathers 101 out of 236 were farm
owners. Two-thirds of the white farm owners interviewed in Hill
County, and 59 per cent of those interviewed in Rusk, had farms of
100 acres or more. Farms owned by negroes were much smaller;
only one of the three negro farm owners in Hill and 44 per cent of
those in Rusk County had farms comprising as much as 100 acres.
Typical of the well-to-do white farmer in Hill County was one
owning 390 acres, all except 100 of which he rented out to tenants.
His principal crops were cotton, corn, and oats. He had 4 mules;
7 head of cattle, 2 of which were milch cows; 13 pigs; and a number
of chickens. He owned an 8-room house, substantially built, and
screened, and an automobile. He had a telephone in his house and
other household conveniences including a washing machine; and the
family subscribed for several periodicals. The farm was located
miles from the nearest town and school.
The owner of one of the larger farms in Rusk County was a native
white man who held 215 acres, and raised cotton, com, peanuts,
oats, and ribbon cane. His stock consisted of 2 horses, 3 mules, 15
pigs, 300 chickens, 20 milch cows, and 10 steers. He owned a com
fortable 6-room house and an automobile, had a telephone, and sub
scribed for several magazines and newspapers. This family was
7 miles from the county seat and 3 miles from a school.
A negro farmer in Rusk County owned 60 acres which were planted
in cotton, com, sweet potatoes, and sorghum. He had three mules,
seven pigs, two milch cows, and a few chickens. His 5-room frame
house built on piles was ceiled inside but had no conveniences and
was entirely unscreened. It was 14 miles from the county seat and
miles from a negro school. Although both the father and the
ii Farm hands, it is reported, are usually young unmarried men, many of whom make use of the farm
hand stage to accumulate capital to become tenant farmers. In a survey of tenancy in the “ black lands”
made by the U . S. Department of Agriculture, it was found that 72 per cent of the total tim e spent as farm
hands was spent while the operators were single. Farm Ownership and Tenancy in the Black Prairie
! 0f Texas, U . S. Department of Agriculture, B ulletin 1068, p . 31. Washington, 1922.

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INTRODU CTIOIT,

mother could read and write, the family took no newspapers or
magazines.
Similar to his circumstances were those of Rusk County white
farmers owning small farms. A native Texan, for example, owned
80 acres, 50 of which were cultivated, cotton, peas, com, peanuts,
and ribbon cane being the principal crops. He owned 2 horses, a
mule, 15 pigs, 5 milch cows, 5 head of cattle, and 40 chickens. His
6-room frame house, slightly larger than his negro neighbors’ houses,
was like these built on piles, boarded inside, and without conveni
ences. I t was 4 miles from a town and
miles from the nearest
school.
Practically all the tenants included in the study paid as rent part
of the crop they raised—either one-third of the com and one-fourth
of the cotton, or half of each crop, according to the terms of their
tenancy.12 In each county 17 per cent of the white tenant farmers
were half-share croppers; in Rusk County 48 per cent and in Hill
County 92 per cent of the negro tenant farmers were renting on half
shares. Renters on half shares have less capital than those on a
one-third and one-fourth share basis, and can therefore make less
favorable rental contracts. They are, to quote a student of the land
problem in Texas, “ at a serious disadvantage, since they are usually
furnished with inferior equipment, and are at the same time more
under the control of the landlord as to crops planted and methods
used.” 13
One-third of the 45 white half-share renters in Hill County were
furnished credit, work animals, and farm implements by their land
lords. An additional one-third were furnished only work a n i m a l s
and farm implements. Only two received nothing but the land and
farm buildings from the owner. The proportion of negro half-share
tenants receiving credits, work animals, and farm implements was
even greater than the proportion of white tenants thus supplied.
Among the white third-and-fourth tenants, on the other hand, 87 per
cent had received only the land and buildings from the landlord; 8
per cent had received credit alone; only a few had been furnished
work animals or farm implements by their landlords.
The half-share tenant, but one stage removed from the farm laborer,
ordinarily has little or no capital, and as he receives no money for his
crop until it is sold, he must depend on credit to support his family
12 According to the U . S. Department of Agriculture the following types of tenancy may be distin
guished: “ Share tenants rent all the land they operate and furnish all labor and equipment used on their
farms, and as a rule receive two-thirds of the grain and three-fourths of the cotton raised. Share croppers
rent all their land and furnish only the labor used in operating their farms, the equipment, feed, repairs,
etc., being furnished by the landlord and the crops being shared equally.” Farm Ownership and Tenancy
in the Black Prairie of Texas, U . S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 1068, p. 16, footnote 17
Washington, 1922.
18 Studies in the Land Problem in Texas. University of Texas Bulletin 1915, N o. 39, edited by Lewis
H . Haney, p . 15.

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CHILDREN LET TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

in the meantime. As a result half-share croppers are often in debt.
As one negro mother said, “ Times are so tight we never can move
where the children can have schooling.” This family had seven
children of school age and lived 11 miles from a negro school. During
the four years they had worked for their landlord they had never been
out of debt. Others said that they had been unable to send their
children to school because they could not afford to buy clothes and
shoes; one negro mother said her family ate only twice a day, add
ing, “ We are trying to stretch as far as we can.”
The income of the share cropper is also seriously affected by the
one-crop system, especially as the price of cotton, the only money
crop, is exceedingly variable, and the crop itself is highly susceptible
to unusual weather conditions. In 1919, although the price of cotton
was high, the yield was considerably lower than the average, and the
grade of cotton in most cases was inferior, owing to the prolonged
rains in the fall of the year. In 1919 the bollworm and in 1920 the
boll weevil had been very destructive. In 1920, also, the price of
cotton was low. Many of the tenant farmers interviewed declared
that the low price of cotton had “ ruined” them. “ A lot of farmers
round here haven’t a cent in the world, and their wives and children
are going without clothing enough to keep them warm,” said one
renter on a one-third and one-fourth share basis. Those who could
afford to do so were holding their cotton for a higher price, but others
had been forced to sell because they had needed the cash.
Because of their disadvantageous economic status share croppers
move often—moving was twice as common among tenants as owners,
and a fairly large proportion of the half-share tenants moved annu
ally.14 As a result they can take but little interest in or responsibility
for community projects, so that rural communities made up largely
of tenant farmers are likely to have poor schools and churches and
few organizations for community betterment.
Mgee General Table 1. p. 74.

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.
THE CHILDREN AT WORK.

The child labor law of Texas prohibits the employment in industry
of children under 15 for more than 10 hours a day or 48 hours a
week,1 but children engaged in farm work are specifically exempted
from the provisions of the law/2 While it is generally true that
children working on farms work under the supervision of their
parents at tasks which need not involve danger or undue hardship
and which may have a distinct educational value, it is important that
consideration be given to the extent to which rural child labor does
involve long hours, physical strain, and serious interference with
education.
Nearly all the children over 10 years of age included in the study
had done field work. For most of them the working day had been at
least 8 and, in many cases, 12 to 14 hours long, and the work of about
one-third of the children had interfered more or less with their school
attendance. Most of the children begin doing field work when they
are very young—42 per cent of all the white children in the districts
studied under 10 years of age, and 26 per cent of those under 8, had
worked in the fields. Negro children started to work on an average
even younger than white children.3
Many of the parents, although realizing in some degree the unde
sirability of overworking their children, felt obliged nevertheless to
avail themselves of the children’s help in field work either because
of labor shortage or because they could not afford to hire help. One
father, for instance, a farm owner, said that labor was so scarce and
wages so high that farmers had to have their children pick cotton.
He said, “ I worked my children as soon as they were the least bit
big enough.” During the year studied four of his children ranging
in age from 6 to 10 years, had worked 30 days hoeing and chopping
and a total of nearly four months picking cotton. The 10-year-old
boy had also helped with the cultivating. The two older children
had entered school two months late on account of cotton picking.
The 4-year-old girl took care of the two babies in order that the
mother also might pick. This family owned a farm of over 100
acres and were better off than most of their neighbors. Yet the
father said, “A farmer’s life is spent trying to get out of debt for the
1 Texas, General Laws of 1917, ch. 59, sec. 4.
2 Ibid., sec. 1.
*Table II, p. 8.

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

year before.” In one of the families in which the children had missed
most of the school year largely because of work in the cotton fields
the father said, “ The children ought to have the education their
mother got (a normal-school course), but if it weren’t for their work
we would be lost. I feel, though, that their work is a great drawback
to their education.” Another father said he was very particular
about his children’s work and did not allow them to work long hours
or during the heat of the day. Reports on hours of work for children
indicate, however, that his policy was the exception rather than the
rule.
T able

II.—Proportion of children of each specified age, in resident farm ing families,
doing field work, by sex and race; H ill and Rusk Counties.
Children.1
Who did field
work.

Age and race of child.

Girls.

Who did field
work.

Who did field
work.
Total.

Total.

Num
ber.

Per
cent.*

Num
ber.

Per
cent.*

1,010

699

69.2

1,006

602

59.8

262
144
161
146
163
134

36
87
143
139
161
133

13.7
60.4
88.8
95.2
98.8
99.3

251
168
158
152
143
134

22
69
122
136
127
126

8.8
41.1
77.2
89.5
88.8
94.0

68.3

408

287

70.3

405

268

66.2

15.5
52.7
86.1
98.3
100.0
100.0

98
75
70
45
60
52
8

15
47
62
44
60
52
7

15.3
62.7
88.6

109
56
52
73
60
50

17
22
43
72
60
50
4

15.6
39.3
82.7
98.6
100.0
100.0

Num
ber.

Per
cent.2

W hite.............................. 3 2,026

1,301

64.2

Under 6 years...........................
6 years, under 8........................
8 years’, under 10.......................
10 years, under 12.....................
12 years; under 14.....................
14 years, under 16.....................

516
312
319
298
306
268
7

58
156
265
275
288
259

11.2
50.0
83.1
92.3
94.1
96.6

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

813

555

Under 6 years...........................
6 years, under 8........................
8 years, under 10.......................

207
131
122
118
120
102
13

32
69
105
116
120
102
11

12 years', under 14.....................
14 years; under 16.....................

Boys.

100.0
100.0

1 Excludes 71 white and 17 negro children who had been in the area less than 1 year.
2 Not shown where base is less than 50.
« includes 10 children for whom sex was not reported—3 under 5 years and 7 w ith age not reported.

The attitude of another group of parents was expressed by a
farmer with 100 acres under cultivation who stated: “ The country
is ruined because you can’t have your children work on the farm but
such a short time in the year. Hired help is so high you can’t afford
it, and there you are!” Three of his children, aged 10, 12, and 14.
respectively, had all worked 12 hours a day hoeing and chopping ar.d
9 hours a day picking cotton; one had missed 12 days, the second
11 days, and the third 35 days of school for farm work.
Field work.
Kinds of field worlc.—Practically all the children who had done
field work had helped with cotton picking. (Text Table III.)
Seventy per cent of the children in Hill County and 80 per cent of

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

those in Rusk had hoed and chopped cotton or corn; few children in
either county reported picking (gathering) corn, though almost twice
as many had done so in Rusk as in Hill.
T able I I I .— K inds o f field work performed by children 1 in resident farm ing families, by
race and county o f residence.
Children under 16 years of age doing each specified kind of field work.
Rusk County.

Hill County.
Kind of field work.

Total.1

White.

Negro.

Total.1

White.

Negro.

N um Per N um Per Num Per N um Per N um Per N um Per
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
883 100.0

770 100.0

113 100.0

79
93
124
134
622
855
67

8.9
10.5
14.0
15.2
70.4
96.8
7.6

69
83
107
122
547
747
61

9.0
10.8
13.9
15.8
71.0
97.0
7.9

10
10
17
12
75
108
6

8.8
8.8
15.0
10.6
66.4
95.6
5.3

10.1

11.2

2.7

0.5

0.4

0.9

973 100.0

531 100.0

442

100.0

18.8
9.2
26.0
14.6
80.0
97.9
13.2
4.7
9.5
3.1
0.2
8.6
3.4

99 18.6
55 10.4
125 23.5
64 12.1
406 76.5
514 96.8
54 10.2
30
5.6
8.5
45
6
1.1
2
0.4
53 10.0
4.7
25

84
35
128
78
372
439
74
16
47
24

19.0
7.9
29.0
17.6
84.2
99.3
16.7
3.6
10.6
5.4

31
8

7.0
1.8

183
90
253
142
778
953
128
46
92
30
2
84
33

i Excludes 58 white and 14 negro children in Hill County, and 13 white and 3 negro children in Rusk
County that had been in the area less than 1 year; also 437 white and 35 negro children in Hill County, and
288 white and 223 negro children in Rusk County that did no field work.

Planting and plowing were reported by about twice as large a pro
portion of the children in Rusk as in HUI. Harrowing was reported
by approximately the same proportion in both counties.
The greater variety of field work reported by Rusk County chil
dren reflects the greater diversity of farming in that county as com
pared with Hill County. Four of the 13 kinds of work tabulated
(see Table III) were not reported by any of the 883 Hill County
children doing field work and a fifth was reported by only 4 of them.
In Rusk County, on the other hand, 12 of the 13 kinds reported
had been done by 30 or more of the 973 children. In each county
white and negro children did practically the same kinds of work.
Duration of field worlc.—Estimates as to how many days of field
work the children included in the study had done during the pre
ceding year were obtained from parents and children. The work
ing days were not necessarily consecutive; in fact, most of the kinds
of field work reported, except cotton picking, necessitated only a few
days or a week or two at a tune. Neither parents nor children,
however, could remember in most cases exactly how long the work
had lasted at one time, so that it was not practicable to obtain the
more detailed information for each piece of work. It should be borne
in mind, therefore, in considering the reports on duration that a

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

child who is reported as working 90 days, for example, may possibly
hare worked 10 days a month for 2 or 3 days at a time during 9
months of the year. It would appear that the average 4 duration
of field work throughout the year had been 3 months for white
children in Rusk County; for those in Hill County, where the cotton
crop was more important and had yielded well, 4.2 months. Negro
children in Rusk County had worked about four months, and in Hill,
almost six months. Older children worked more months on the
average than younger ones, and in every group except among the
negro children in Hill County, boys worked longer than girls.
The average duration of working periods necessarily fails to
emphasize the longest periods reported.. For instance, 35 white chil
dren in Hill County and 16 in Rusk had worked a total of eight
or more months during the year. In one family the three younger
children, 8, 11, and 13, respectively, had each hoed and chopped
cotton 90 days or more in the spring and summer, and had picked
cotton between 150 and 180 days in the fall and winter. About
one-fifth' of the white children in Rusk County and one-third in Hill
had worked four months or more during the year. The year covered
by the survey was probably a fairly typical one; although the 1919
season had been exceptionally rainy, that of 1920, aside from the delay
in planting caused by cold weather in March and April, had been
about normal.
•
T

IV .— Median duration o f field work performed by children under 16 years o f age in
resident farm ing fam ilies, by age, sex, and race o f child, and county o f residence.

able

Median duration of field work (months).
White.

Age of child and county of residence.
Both
sexes.
Hill County....................................................
Under 7 years.............................................
7 years, under 10........................................
10 years, under 13.....................................
13 years, under 16......................................
Rusk County.....................................................
Under 7 years.............................................
7 years, under 10........................................
10 years, under 13.....................................
13 years, under 16......................................

4.2
1.2
2.9
4.7
5.3
3.0
1.2
2.2
3.6
4.3

Boys.

Negro.

Girls.

4.5
1.1
3.3
4.9
6.1
3.8
0)

2.7
4.3
5.8

3.7
1.3
2.4
4.4
4.6
2.4
0)

1.8
2.9
3.1

Both
sexes.

Boys.

5.9
©

4.8
6.8
7.4
4.0
2.0
3.0
4.4
4.6

Girls.

5.3
©
©
©
©
©

4.0
2.9
4.7
5.5

6.3
©
©
©
«
©

3.9
3.2
4.1
4.4

i Median not shown where number of children is less than 25.

The following accounts of the work done by individual children
will convey more graphically than statistics the conditions under
which the work was done.
«The form of average used throughout this report is the median. The median is the point which divides
the group into two equal parts, one-half above and one-half below the median. Thus, in the case in which
the median duration was 4.2 months, half the children had worked less and half had worked more than the
time specified. In the present report the median is used instead of the arithmetical average, (1) because
of its greater convenience and (2) because In many cases it is more significant.

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

An 11-year-old Rusk County boy who had begun to do field work
at the age of 4 years lived on a rented farm of 65 acres, which his
native white father was operating on a third-and-fourth basis,
growing cotton and corn. He had missed 70 days for farm work
out of the school term of 115 days. He had worked in the fields a
total of 8£ months. Beginning in February he had plowed and cut
sprouts 5 the equivalent of half a month; in March he had harrowed
and planted. In April he began cultivating, which lasted into July;
in May he began planting and spent two weeks at it; about May 25
he began to chop cotton, work which occupied him 15 days. In
June his principal work was hoeing. During part of August he cut
wood. Cotton picking began August 24, and he picked cotton for
more than 3 months. His brother, aged 10, had had precisely the
same program, but his 9-year-old brother, who had been absent from
school for farm work only 55 days, had only hoed, chopped, and
picked cotton.
A 13-year-old Hill County boy who had missed no time from school
on account of farm work had done plowing, harrowing, planting, and
cultivating on Saturdays and after school during January, February,
March, and April. He worked 2 hours after school and 10 hours on
Saturdays. In May, June, and July he had hoed and chopped and
cultivated. In July he had cut, raked, shocked, pitched, loaded,
and hauled sorghum for five days. Beginning August 15 he had
picked cotton or gathered corn until December. His 12-year-old
brother had done practically the same work with the exception of
the plowing, harrowing, planting, and cultivating. The father, a
native white Texan, owned a 78-acre farm.
Three negro boys, aged 10, 12, and 14, who had lost from 23 to 32
days from school on account of farm work, had done a variety of
work. All had hauled wood for five days in January and had plowed
for nine days in February, and all except the youngest had harrowed
one Saturday in February. They had planted and cultivated
field crops during part of March, April, and May and had spent
four Saturdays of these months on the garden. In May and June
they had hoed and chopped cotton. In September they had picked
cotton, corn, and peas, the cotton picking extending into Novem
ber. The father cultivated 80 acres on a third-and-fourth basis.
The 12-year-old son of a native white farm owner had missed 70
days of school for farm work and had completed only the first grade.
He had plowed, harrowed, planted, cut sprouts, and cultivated dur
ing March, April, May, and June, withdrawing from school on the
6The fields are cleared of blackberry, sassafras, and other bushes by cutting down the sprouts of the
young plants.

54914'°—24-----2

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

12th of March, 20 days before school closed. In May also he had
hoed or chopped cotton most of the month. Beginning in July he
spent 10 days cutting wood, 7 cutting and baling hay or cane, and
21 raking, loading, and hauling. He picked corn for more than three
weeks in September; beginning September 24 he picked cotton until
December 28. He entered school on December 29, 50 days late.
An 11-year-old son of a prosperous farmer owning 150 acres had
entered school 15 days late the preceding school year and had with
drawn 18 days early. In all he had missed 46 school days for farm
work. He had completed only the second grade. His work had
extended over a period of more than six months. He had plowed,
harrowed, planted, and cut sprouts, in March, April, and May, and
cultivated from April to July. In June he had cut oats and raked,
loaded, and hauled. He had spent half of September and October
picking cotton. During half of September he had also cut wood.
The 12-year-old son of a white tenant on a third-and-fourth
basis cultivating 50 acres, worked during a period of eight months.
He worked at plowing, harrowing, planting, and hoeing, in February,
March, April, May, and June; he cultivated and chopped cotton in April
and May. He spent a few days during the summer cutting wood,
raking, loading, and hauling. Beginning September 1, he picked
cotton for about six weeks. He had been out of school 45 days on
account of farm work, having withdrawn in February, 40 days before
the end of the school term. He had completed only the first grade.
Two brothers, aged 11 and 12, sons of a white half-share tenant,
had each been absent from school 45 days on account of farm work.
They had chopped cotton during June and July, and during the
latter month and part of August had hoed; they had picked corn
also for two weeks in August. For three weeks in September and
throughout October, November, and December, and part of January,
they had picked cotton. They had not entered school until January
13. School had begun November 10.
The 14-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son of a Bohemian tenant
cultivating over 200 acres of land, worked during a period of about 6
months, the former missing 16 days of school for farm work. They
had both harrowed for two days in May, and the boy had also spent
a few days planting. The girl had hoed and chopped during May
and June, and the boy had hoed through June and cultivated one
week in July. They had both picked cotton, the girl about 2£
months, the boy about 1 month.
Cotton 'picking.—So simple is the task of cotton picking and so
great the demand for labor that the younger children are pressed
into service for this kind of work more than for any other. Almost
all the child field workers had picked cotton. The work involves
considerable exposure to cold and dampness as well as to heat inas
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C H ILD

W O R K E R S IN T H E F I E L D S : A B O V E , H O E I N G A N D C H O P P I N G ;
R IG H T , S I D E H A R R O W IN G ; B E L O W , C O T T O N P IC K IN G .

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A 12-YEAR-O LD BO Y A N D

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H IS 6 -Y E AR -O LD S IS T E R P IC K IN G COTTON.

T h e former worked 12, the latter 8 hours a day.

CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

much as it lasts from late August or early September into November
or December, a period during which thermometers in these localities
climb to 98° or 99°, and fall to 24° or even 20° above zero.6 Unlike
most of the farm work done by children in these areas, cotton picking
extends over an uninterrupted period of weeks or months. Day
after day is spent in the fields, the children working long hours under
considerable pressure. Inexperienced pickers who have not acquired
the knack of grasping the cotton so that the fingers take hold between
the sharp, dry carpels of the burr without touching them are likely to
have very sore fingers at the end of the day. Some of the cotton
plants grow shoulder high, with cotton bolls nearly all the way to the
ground. Little children can pick without stooping, but older
children and adults have to stoop or move along on their knees. The
worker picks rapidly with both hands and puts the cotton into a big
sack which he drags along by a shoulder strap.7 Pull bags are car
ried to the wagon, weighed and emptied. Little children often
carry flour sacks or other small bags instead of the full-sized cotton
sacks.
The average duration of cotton picking was about 2 \ months for
white children in Hill County and over four months for negro children,
while in Rusk County the average duration of this work was only
about H months for all children. Four months or more had been
devoted to picking cotton by 11 per cent of the white children of Hill
County; only 16 white and negro children in Rusk County had picked
cotton four months or more.
Although it was not in all cases practicable to find out exactly how
much the children picked, estimates as to average amounts picked by
children of various ages were secured from a number of fairly typical
families. The average day's work for 153 children ranging in age
from 3 to 15 years was slightly under 100 pounds of cotton each.
The majority (22 out of 33) of the children 14 and 15 years of age
had averaged 150 pounds or more a day; about three-fifths (18 out of
31) of the 12- and 13-year-old children had averaged over 100 pounds,
and nearly the same proportion (22 out of 39) of the 10- and 11-yearold boys and girls had picked on an average more than 75 pounds.
Even the 8- and 9-year-old children could pick from 50 to 75 pounds
a day, and most of those who were younger could average 50 pounds.
Working 12 hours, a 6-year-old girl, who had begun field work at
the age of 4, picked 80 pounds a day, and 4-year-old twins in the
same family working beside their mother in the field put into her
bag on an average 12 or 15 pounds a day. Since cotton pick
ing was usually paid for at the rate of $2 per 100 pounds, such quantie U . S. Department of Agriculture, Weather Bureau: Climatological Data, Texas Section, September
and November, 1920.
' See Illustrations facing page 12.

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

ties as the children could pick will be seen to represent an appreciable
saving in wages paid to labor.
Hoeing and chopping.—Cotton is planted in rows 3 or 4 feet apart;
after the plants are well started the workers go over the field and
“chop the cotton to a stand,” that is, cut out extra plants with a
hoe so that one or two stalks are left in hills 12 to 18 inches apart.8
Most of the cultivation is done by machine, but there is usually at
least one hoeing of the crop during the season to cut out the weeds
and extra stalks. Similar work is done on the corn crop. The work
begins about May 1 and is done at intervals during the two or three
succeeding months. In Hill County the average total amount of
time spent in this work by white children was 2.3 months; in Rusk
County 1.8 months. Negro children in both counties worked at
hoeing somewhat longer than white children. It is somewhat heavier
work than cotton picking and involves a stooping position. Very
young children do not usually do this work because of the greater
strain and the care that must be exercised to work around the grow
ing plants without injuring them. Three-fourths of the children
who hoed were 10 years of age or more, and less than 2 per cent were
under 7.
Plowing, harrowing, and planting.—Over one-sixth of the working
children of each race in the Hill County districts surveyed had done
plowing, harrowing, or planting. In Rusk County, perhaps because
of the greater diversity of crops and the use of lighter teams and
implements the proportion was 'higher—26 per cent among white
and 31 per cent among negro children. Though the work is heavy
and involves the use of animals and machinery, which makes it
more difficult and dangerous than handwork, 12 white and 12
negro children in Rusk County and 10 white children in Hill County
under 10 years of age were reported as doing it. About half the
children in Rusk County and two-thirds of those in Hill who reported
plowing, harrowing, or planting during the year covered by the study
were 13 years of age or older. Thirty-four white and 49 negro girls
had done this work; 13 of them were under 12 years of age. A few
children did such work off and on for a total of as much as three or
four months, but the average amount of time devoted to it by all
children reporting was about one month.
Cultivating.—Table III shows that cultivating was done by about
15 per cent of the working children in each county. Cultivating a’so
requires the use of work horses and machinery. The difficulty of
the operation varies with the kind of machine used and the kind and
degree of growth of the crop. In the “ black prairie” section two*This process is very similar to that of blocking sugar beets. See Child Labor and the Work of Mothers
in the Beet Fields of Colorado and Michigan. U . S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 115, p. 4. Washing
ton, 1923.

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children in resident farming families .

horse cultivators, and :n east Texas either one or two horse cultiva
tors, were most commonly used. Cotton and corn are cultivated
several times during the growing season.
Picking com, peanuts, dry peas, and other crops— Picking corn was
reported by 13.2 per cent of the working children in Rusk County
and 7.6 per cent of the Hill County children. Usually the workers
walk through the field beside a slowly driven wagon into which they
throw the ears of corn as they pick them. Five per cent of the Rusk
County children but none of those in Hill County reported picking
peanuts, which have to be taken from the vines after they have been
cured on the stalk. It is a dirty, dusty job. Twice as many chil
dren in Rusk County had picked dry peas as had reported picking
peanuts. None of the Hill County children reported picking either.
Picking small fruits, vegetables, and melons was reported by a few
children in each county.
Other field work.—Cutting sprouts of blackberry and sassafras and
other bushes that grow in the fields, and clearing or cutting brush—
somewhat heavier work than cutting sprouts—were reported by a
number of Rusk County children. Only 4 children in Hill County,
where wood was scarce, as compared with 33 in Rusk County, re
ported cutting wood. In both counties children helped for a few
days at a time with cutting, raking, and pitching cane, and in harvest
ing small-grain crops, and in Rusk County in stripping ribbon cane
or sorghum.
Chores.
Children on farms usually help with the housework, and many
of them as a matter of course assist in caring for poultry and live
stock, carry water, bring in wood, and do other farm chores. Many
of the children who reported doing field work had done chores in
addition to the work in the field, and some of the children who did
not go to the fields had had regular duties in connection with the
routine work of the farm. Unlike field work, chores were performed
throughout the year, most of the children reporting them for the
entire 12 months.
About two-thirds of the children had done chores—over ninetenths of those 10 to 15 years of age, three-fourths of those 7 to 9?
and three-tenths of those under 7. In both counties the percentage
of negro children reporting chores was slightly below the percentage
of white children, perhaps because of the smaller number of animals
owned by negro farmers. Somewhat fewer girls than boys had done
chores; but correspondingly more, as might be expected, had done
housework.

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16
T able

CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.
V .— K inds o f farm chores performed by children in resident farm ing families, by
race and county o f residence.
Children under 16 years of age—
Who did each specified kind of farm chore.

Race and county of residence.
Total.

Carrying
-fuel.

Carrying
water.

Care of
chickens.

Care of
stock.

Milking.

N um Per N um Per N um Per N um Per N um Per
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
Hill County:
W hite........................................
Negro........................................
Rusk County:
W hite........................................
Negro........................................

1,265
162

683
90

54.0
55.6

479
77

37.9
47.5

317
32

25.1
19.8

283
20

22.4
12.3

139
13

11.0
8.0

832
668

542
418

65.1
62.5

408
349

49.0
52.2

75
48

9.0
7.2

166
114

20.0
17.0

90
89

10.8
13.3

The number of children reporting each specific kind of work is
indicated in Table V. Carrying fuel was the work most often re
ported, and carrying water was next in importance. The latter
often involved a certain amount of strain, since only a few families
had pumps or drew from cisterns above ground with a faucet near
the bottom, and most of them used a bucket and rope or windlass
or pulley with a bucket. Moreover, in many cases the water had to
be carried a considerable distance. All the water for 11 per cent of
the white families in Hill County and for 5 per cent of those in Rusk
had to be carried 300 feet or more, and 21 per cent of the negro fam
ilies in Rusk had to carry it 300 feet or more.
Besides carrying fuel and water, children in both counties reported
milking and caring for chickens and live stock.
Housework.
Not unlike chores, in that it furnishes practical information and
cultivates a sense of responsibility, housework for children is objec
tionable only when it causes physical strain or over fatigue, usurps
the place of school, or allows too little time for play. About twothirds of the girls and one-third of the boys in the study had done
housework of some kind during the preceding year, most of them
throughout the year. The percentage increased from about 18 for
children under 7 years of age to 65 for those from 10 to 15. “ Doing
dishes,” the most usual form of housework, was reported by between
35 and 45 per cent of the children. Cleaning was reported by be
tween 30 and 36 per cent. From 12 to 22 per cent had done laundry

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

work or cooking or had taken care of younger children. In general,
here was little equipment even of the most common kind, for facilJtating housework.10
T able V I.— K inds o f housework 'performed by children in resident farm ing families, by
race and county o f residence.
Children under 16 years of age—
Who each did specified kind of housework.
Race and county of residence.
Total.

Dishes.

Cleaning.

Laundry.

Cooking.

Care of
younger
children.

Num Per N um Per Num Per N um Per N um Per
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
Hill County:
W hite.......................................
Negro........................................
Rusk County:
W hite.......................................
Negro........................................

1,265
162

545
72

43.1
44.4

384
51

30.4
31.5

206
31

16.3
19.1

213
28

16.8
17.3

211
33

16.7
20.4

832
668

301
274

36.2
41.0

255
244

30.6
36.5

140
150

16.8
22.5

428
132

15.4
19.8

99
104

11.9
15.6

Hours of work.
Some of the children worked in the fields, at housework, and at
chores, “ from sun to sun.” More than one-third of the working
children had worked 12 hours or over a day (Table VII), the average
number of hours per day being ll£ .n
How the hours of work were distributed between field work and
other work is shown in General Table 2.13 The average number of
hours per day in field work was about 10^. One-fourth of the white
children in Hill County who worked in the field 8 hours or more a day
and about one-third of those in Rusk spent in addition approximately
2 hours or more in chores and housework.
io page 38.
u In cases where hours varied at different seasons of the year tabulations were based on hours prevailing
during the longest period.
K page 75.

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

V II.— Total daily hours worked and median period during which such hours were
worked by children 1 in resident farm ing fam ilies while not attending school, by race and
county o f residence.

T able

Children under 16 years of age who worked while not attend
ing school.
Total daily hours worked while not attend
ing school, and county oi residence/

White.

Number.

Negro.

Cumu
Median
Cumu
Median
lative
duration Number. lative
duration
per cent. (months.)2
per cent. (months.)2

H ill Comity: Total..........................................

759

100.0

3.3

113

100.0

Less than 8 hours.....................................
8 hours and over........................................
9 hours and over........................................
10 hours and over......................................
11 hours and over......................................
12 hours and over......................................
N ot reported...............................................

44
651
616
559
455
252
107
37
64

5.8
85.8
81.2
73.6
59.9
33.2
14.1
4.9
8.4

1.0
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.7
3.6
3.6
2.8
1.8

13
91
85
76
59
39
18
7
9

11.5
80.5
75.2
67.3
52.2
34.5
15.9
6.2
8.0

Rusk County: Total.......................................

539

100.0

3.0

448

100.0

3.4

Less than 8 hours......................................
8 hours and over........................................
9 hours and over........................................
10 hours and over......................................
11 hours and over......................................
12 hours and over......................................
13 hours and over......................................
14 hours and over......................................
N ot reported.............................. ...............

72
417
380
326
261
192
67
16
50

13.4
77.4
70.5
60.5
48.4
35.6
12.4
3.0
9.3

1.5
3.4
3.5
3.7
3.9
4.0
4.2

35
357
341
325
256
182
97
39
56

7.8
79.7
76.1
72.5
57.1
40.6
21.7
8.7
12.5

2.0
3.5
3.6
3.6
3.8
4.0
4.3
4.7
3.3

1.6

5.4
6.5
6.6
6.9
6.8
7.2

1 Excludes 58 white and 14 negro children in Hill County and 13 white and 3 negro children in Rusk
County that had been in the area less than 1 year; also 448 white and 35 negro children in Hill County
and 280 white and 217 negro children in Rusk County that did no work while not attending school.
2 Median not shown when number reported is less than 25.

Although the proportion of girls doing field work was smaller than
the proportion of boys their working day averaged about as long.
The average working day for negro girls in Hill County was, in fact,
more than an hour longer than that for negro boys. According to
Table VIII, long working days were not confined to the older children;
although the proportion of children under 7 years of age who had
worked in the fields was small, the average daily hours for these
children, both negro and white, in both counties was between 8 and 10.
The median working day for older children was slightly longer, being
for each group between 10 and 12^ hours.
It might be expected that children in families of farm owners would
be less under the necessity of working long hours than children of
tenant farmers. The children of white farm owners in Rusk County
reported a slightly shorter average day than the children of tenants—
11 as compared with 12 hours. White farm owners’ children in Hill
County and negro farm owners’ children in both counties, however,
reported slightly longer hours than did tenants’ children.
The average duration of working days of the number of hours
specified was for white children a little more than 3 months; for negro
children in Hill County, 5.4 months, and for those in Rusk, 3,4

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

months. White children working 8 hours and over worked an average
of 3 | months, and negro children in Hill County, months. Younger
children who worked less than 8 hours a day, a comparatively small
group, about three-fourths of whom were less than 10 years of age,
reported the longest working days as lasting a considerably shorter
time.
Table

V III.— Median total daily hours worked by children in resident farm ing families
who did field work, by sex and age o f child, race, and county o f residence.
Median total daily hours worked by children under 16 years
of age doing field work.1

Age of child and county of residence.

White.
Both
sexes.

Hill County: Total who worked...................
Under 7 years.............................................
7 years, under 10........................................
10'years, under 13......................................
13 tears, under 16......................................
Rusk County: Total who worked...............
Under 7 years.............................................
7 years, under 10.......................................
10"years, under 13......................................
13 years, under 16......................................

11.5
9.1
11.1
11.6
12.0
11.2
8.4
10.3
11.8
12.0

Boys.

Negro.

Girls.

Both
sexes.

Boys.

Girls.

11.5
8.3
11.3
11.6
12.1
11.4

11.5

11.4

10.8

12.2

10.8
11.6
11.9
11.1

11.8

10.0
12.1
12.1

10.6
11.2
11.8

10.2
10.7
12.1
11.8
10.3
10.8
12.1
12.4

10.7
12.4
12.4

11.0
11.9
12.5

1Median not shown when number reported is less than 25.

Practically all children attending school did housework and chores,
and in Hill County 110 white children (18 per cent of those who
reported any work) also worked in the fields while attending school.
Field work in addition to chores and housework during the school
term was not nearly so frequently reported by children of either race
in Rusk County, a situation which may have been due to the fact
that the cotton-picking season in Rusk County was usually shorter
than that in Hill. The work of most of the children during the time
they were attending school, however, was limited to chores and house
work. About one-fourth of all the white children and one-third of
all the negro children in the areas studied devoted as much as two
hours a day to chores or housework, and 7 per cent of all spent three
or more hours a day in odd jobs about the house and farm. The
average length of time spent in doing chores by white children in Hill
County who also did field work either before or after school was about
two hours a day, and the average amount of time spent in housework
by school children also doing field work was 1£ hours. Nine of the
older children did between two and three hours of field work and either
two or three hours of chores and housework. When several hours of
chores, and in some cases of chores and field work, are added to the
long hours spent at school and in going to and from school, little
time is left for the play and recreation which are essential to the
child’s development. .

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

In some of these families the mother was ill or away, and the
responsibility for the greater part or all of the housework fell on the
children. Thus two children, a boy of 9 and a girl of 11 years, did
everything in the house, including cooking, washing, and ironing,
throughout the year. They did no field work. Another girl aged 12,
whose mother had been ill for two years, under her mother’s direction
did all the housework for a family of six. The family moved to the
farm on which they were living at the time the study was made
because it was next door to the schoolhouse and the girl was able to
get breakfast, wash the dishes, and sweep, before going to school.
She had missed 38 days of school because of her household work but
had never stayed out of school to do field work, though she had hoed,
chopped, and picked cotton.
T able I X .— Total daily hours worked by children in resident farm ing fam ilies while
attending school, by age and race o f child; H ill and R usk Counties.
Children between 6 and 16 years of age attending school.»
Total daily hours worked
while attending school, and
race.

Total.

Under 10 years.

Num
ber.

Per cent
distri
bution.

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

1,246

100.0

Less than 1 hour...............
1 hour, less than 2.............
2 hours, less than 3............
3 hours, less than 4............
4 hours and over................
N ot reported.......................
No work..............................

211
521
248
59
32
71
104

16.9
41.8
19.9
4.7
2.6
5.7
a3

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

*454

100.0

Less than 1 hour...............
1 hour, less than 2..............
2 hours, less than 3............
3 hours, less than 4...........
4 hours and over...............
N ot reported.......................
No work..............................

73
161
124
28
8
36
24

16.1
35v5
27.3
6.2
1.8
7.9
5.3

10 years, under 13. 13 years, under 16.

Per cent
distri
bution.

Num
ber.

Per cent
distri
bution.

Num
ber.

Per cent
distri
bution.

395

100.0

460

100.0

391

100.0

115
141
38
9
2
31
59

29.1
35.7
9.6
2.3
.5
7.8
14.9

66
222
104
15
7
19
27

14.3
48.3
22.6
3.3
1.5
4.1
5.9

30
158
106
35
23
21
18

7.7
40.4
27.1
9.0
5.9
5.4
4.6

151

100.0

164

100.0

139

100.0

36
52
26
2

23.8
34.4
17.2
1.3

13.4
36.0
34.8
3.7

15
50
41
20

10 Ä
3fi.O
2Q 5

21
14

13.9
9.3

22
59
57
6
6
7
7

4.3
4.3

8
3

5.8
2.2

Num
ber.

14 4

1 Excludes 55 white and 17 negro children that had been in the area less than 1 year: also 2 white and 4
negro children that were under 6 years of age.
3 Excludes 11 children for whom age was not reported.

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THE CHILDREN AT SCHOOL.

Information concerning the school progress of the children was
secured from the families visited. In addition, data were obtained
through visits to schools in session, interviews with teachers, reports
from teachers’ records in school roll books and in county super
intendents’ offices, and school-census records. For some schools in
the districts covered by the study it was impossible, for one reason
or another, to secure complete information, and in order to obtain
a broader basis of fact, data were obtained from schools in near-by
districts in which conditions were similar to those in the area
studied.
School attendance.
Compulsory attendance law.—The compulsory school attendance
law of Texas in effect at the time of the survey provided that every
child between 8 and 14 years of age should attend school at least
100 days each school year. Exemptions were granted children
attending private and parochial schools, children mentally or physi
cally ,incapacitated or defective, children living more than
miles
from a public school for children of the same race to which no trans
portation was provided; and children over 12 years of age who had
completed the fourth grade and whose services were needed for the
support of their parents. Moreover, children were not required to
attend the full 100 days in districts where the public-school term
was less.1 In counties in which no attendance officer was employed
the compulsory attendance law was enforced by the county super
intendent or by peace officers. In Hill and in Rusk Counties the
assistant to the county superintendent acted as attendance officer,
but they spent only a small proportion of their time in this work.
In commenting on the enforcement of the attendance law the State
commissioner of labor said:
Our compulsory school attendance law is very defective in many respects, and its
enforcement in a majority of the counties in the State is never seriously attempted.
The method provided for its enforcement is cumbersome and ineffective, and except
in some of the larger cities of the State it has had no appreciable effect in raising
the percentage of attendance in schools of children within the compulsory age.2

Length of school term.—School terms in schools for white children
in the two counties ranged from five months to as much as nine
months in one district in Hill County, but they usually lasted only
i Texas, General Laws of 1915, ch. 49.
* Texas Bureau of Labor Statistics, Sixth Biennial Report, 1919-1920, p. 31.

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

six or seven months. The negro schools were in session from three
to six months. Only 6 of the 12 negro schools included in the study
had had as much as five months of school, whereas only 2 schools
for white children in the parts of either county included in the survey
had had terms of only five months. Four schools for white children
had been in session eight months or longer, and 28 had had terms
of from 6 to 7^ months.
Children attending school.—Eighty-one per cent of the children
between 6 and 16 years of age included in the study reported having
attended school during the year for which information was obtained.
The proportion of white children of these ages attending school was
practically the same in both Hill County and Rusk. Of the small
group of negro children of the same ages in Hill County only about
44 per cent had attended school during the year of the study,
whereas the proportion of negro children in Rusk County who had
attended school was slightly larger than the corresponding pro
portion of white children in either county.
Of the 398 children between 6 and 16 years of age who had not
been to school at all during the year of the study, 74 (27 white and
47 negro children)3 were of compulsory school age. The 34 negro
children of compulsory school age in the Hill County study who had
been absent the entire year constituted 45 per cent of the negro
children in their districts who were of compulsory school age; the
negro children, 6 to 15 years of age, not attending school in Rusk
County were only 4 per cent of those who were of compulsory school
age.
Some of the children not attending school lived in sparsely settled
communities where children of compulsory school age were so few
that local authorities were not required to organize a school. None
of the Hill County3a districts included in the study provided schools
for negro children, and 3 of the 12 in Rusk County had none. A
number of children lived more than 2£ miles from the nearest school—
that is, outside the compulsory-attendance limit, unless free trans
portation were furnished. Only two of the school districts studied
had supplied pupils living at a distance with free transportation.
Information obtained in Rusk County regarding the distance pupils
lived from the nearest school showed over two-fifths of the white
children and half the negro children living 2£ miles or more from a
school; in Hill County the situation was similar.
Under these circumstances some children had reached the end of
the compulsory-school period without ever having gone to school,
* Of those children, 13 white children and 14 negro children were only 8 years of age at the tim e of the
home visits and m ay not have been within compulsory school age lim its at the tim e the school census for
the preceding year was taken.
*» Some of the H ill County children included in the study attended a private school. See p. 37.

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

and many had attended only a few months in their lives. Thus, a
14-year-old white girl who had always lived on isolated farms had
been able to attend school so little that she had reached only the
third grade. A negro renter’s children of school age had always
lived so far from a school that none had attended more than four
months in their lives, though the oldest was 13 years of age. One
father said that he had always lived so far from school that his
children went or not as they liked. His children, aged from 9 to 14
years, had not stayed out for farm work or illness but missed from 93
to 98 days of the school term. The distance from school did not pre
vent some children from attending, even though legally exempt, but
many parents described the great difficulties caused by their distance
from school. A farmer living 2 \ miles from the nearest school told
the bureau agent how his children had been nearly three hours return
ing home one evening, riding in a surrey drawn by two mules; they
had had to get out every few rods and scrape mud off the wheels of
the carriage. One mother said that her 7 and 9 year old children,
who had to walk 3 miles to school, were very tired at night. “ Elsie
jes’ about give out,” she said. Other mothers said that their chil
dren came home exhausted or crying with fatigue after a walk of
several miles to and from school. In one family during the period
when school was in session the children had to leave the house at
7 a. m., not returning until 5.30 p. m.
Percentage of attendance.—Although most of the white children,
at least, of school age were enrolled in school, the short terms and
irregular attendance resulted in inadequate schooling for practically
all of them. Six per cent of the white children in the study lived in
districts having less than six months of school; only 20 per cent lived
where school was in session as much as eight months of the year.
Seventeen per eent of the negro children in the districts for which
information was obtained lived in districts having only a three or
four month term; 43 per cent lived in districts having between six
and six and one-half months of school; and in none of the districts
were negro schools in session more than six and one-half months.
One negro mother, whose 10-year-old daughter attended a school
in session but two months of the year, observed, “ Schools out here
ain’t much; never a-goin’.”

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

T able X .—School attendance of children in resident farming families, by race, farming

status of family , and county of residence.
fiMMwm between 6 and 16 years of age.1

Farming status of
family and county
of residence.
Total.

H ill County: Total.
O w n e r ....
T e n a n t...
No farm *.
Rusk County: Total.
O w ner... T e n a n t...
No farm '4.

Whit#.

Negro.

Attending school.

Median
per cent
Number. Per cent.* attend
ance.*

Total

43.6

897

745

83.1

76.7

110

385
473

327
385
33

84.9
81.4

81.0
71.5

9
87
14

8
35
5

606

601

82.7

78.9

496

417

84.1

82.1

467
142
27

364
114
23

83.3
80.3

80.5
67.8

221
263
12

195
213
9

88.2
81.0

85.1
77.6

» Excludes 40wmxe a n a j.*
... ■“ ***
County that had been, in the arealess than 1 year.
2P er cent n o t shown-w here base is less th a n 100.
* Median not shown when number reported is less than 25.
*Includes farm laborer a n d father n o t farming.

In Rusk County where cotton was not such an important crop as
in Hill County all the schools for white children and all but four of
those for negro children opened in October. In Hill County the
opening of school was frequently postponed until November or even
December in order that the children might continue cotton picking.'
Those that did open earlier were likely to be handicapped by poor
attendance. One school in Hill County, in a district near those
included in the study, for example, should have had an attendance
of 350, according to the school census, but six weeks after its midSeptember opening the enrollment stood at 120 and daily attendance
averaged only 40. About 15 per cent of the white children in each
county had attended less than 50 per cent of the term provided;
about 35 per cent had attended less than 70 per cent of the term;
and about one-fifth of them as much as 90 per cent. Seven-tenths of
the negro children in Hill County for whom reports were secured
had attended less than 70 per cent of the term; m Rusk County
about 12 per cent had attended less than half the school term, about
one-eighth more had attended 50 but less than 70 per cent, and
about one-fourth had been in school as much as 90 per cent of the
term.
, *
Six and 7 year old children reported the lowest average per cent ot
attendance; 14 and 15 year old children, the next lowest. The older
children were more likely than the younger to be kept out of school
for work; the youngest were kept at home by bad weather, and also

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

when their older brothers and sisters stayed out to work, as it was
considered unsafe for them to go alone. The average per cent of at.
tendance of children of all ages was less in Hill than in Rusk County
less among boys than among girls.
The distance children liyed from the nearest school influenced at
tendance. Among the white children in Rusk County included in
the study the average attendance varied from 68 per cent of the term
for children living 2\ miles or more from school to 85 per cent of the
term for those living less than 1 mile.
Number of days attended.—Much more significant than percentage
of attendance in indicating the actual amount of schooling received
is the number of days which the children attended. Few children
had attended school more than six months during the year preceding
the study; and only about 2 per cent of the white children studied in
one county and none of the negro children in either county had at
tended as much as eight months.4 Negro children in Hill County had
had much less schooling than Rusk County negro children. Slightly
larger proportions of white children in Rusk County than in Hill had
attended from three to six months, but the percentage of white chil
dren having had six months or more of schooling during the year
preceding the survey was higher in Hill than in Rusk County.
The average number of days’ attendance had been greater for the
children of farm owners than for those of tenants. (Table X.) The
average attendance for Hill County farm owners’ children was about
10 days more than for the children of tenants; for Rusk County farm
owners’ children, about 12 days more; while the difference between
average attendance for the children of negro tenants and of negro
owners m Rusk County was about 8 days. Children of negro tenants
m H u s k County had an average attendance amounting to more than
a week longer than that of the children of white tenants in either
county. For white children in Hill County the average number of
days attendance was 76.7; for white children in Rusk County 78.9*
and for negro children in Rusk, 82.1.
Reasons for absence.5
Farm work. Notwithstanding the short terms and late openings
more than half the children 11 years of age or older,« and more than
one-third of all the children attending school had missed part of the
school term on account of farm work. Although fewer children
stayed out for farm work than were kept away by illness or bad weather
or roads the average number of days lost on this account was larger
than the average number lost for either or both of the other two
4 General Table 3, p . 77.

'■¿¿¡ss.“S s s x r *—
* General Table 5, p. 79.

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i—

~ —

—b,*.«*.M
rty

CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

reasons. For white children in Hill County the average number of
days of absence due to farm work was 21, or more than four school
weeks; for white children in Rusk County, 19 days. The average for
negro children in Rusk County was also 19 days.
T a b l e X I .—Absence from

school on account of farm work of children in resident farming
families, by race, farming status of family, and county of residence.
Children between 6 and 16 years of age.
Negro.

W hite.
Farming status of
fam ily and county
of residence.

Absent from school on
account of farm work.

Absent from school on
account of farm work.
Total.

Total.
Number.

Per
cent.1

Median
days
absent.2

Number.

Per
cent.1

Median
days
absent.2

942

370

39.3

20.8

124

38.7

Owner...................
Tenant...............
No farm 3..............

387
512
43

131
219
20

33.9
42.8

15.9
25.8

9
99
16

8
36
4

36.4

Rusk County: Total.

616

199

32.3

19.3

499

166

33.3

18.6

Owner...................
Tenant...................
No farm3...............

441
148
27

142
55
2

32.2
37.2

19.4
20.0

223
264
12

63
102
1

28.3
38.6

17.2
20.3

H ill County: T o ta l..

i Per cent not shown where base is less th a n 100.
* Median not shown when number reported is less than 25.
3 Includes farm laborer and father not farming.

Much more prolonged absences for farm work were not uncommon.
A 12-year-old white girl in the third grade stayed out 85 days for
field work; school had opened September 18 and although it was
November when the child’s family was interviewed none of the
children in the family had entered school. In another white family
the children had not entered school until January, though it had
opened in November. The girl, aged 13 years, had missed 40 days,
and the 11-year-old boy 20 days for farm work. These children
were handicapped also by the fact that they lived 3 miles from school,
and during bad weather in January, February, and March they had
been absent a day or two every week. Under these circumstances it
can not be wondered at that they were about three years retarded
in their grades. A white girl4 aged 10 years, stayed away from
school 70 days to work on the farm which her father rented; she had
completed only the first grade, having been handicapped by illness
as well as farm work. A 12-year-old girl who had completed only
the third grade had lost 64 days because of her work on the farm.
The younger children, as a rule, were kept out of school for farm
work less frequently and for shorter periods than the older ones.
Girls, too, were less often withdrawn from school for farm work
than were boys and remained away fewer days. Among the white

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

children in Rusk County only 22 per cent of the girls as compared
with 43 per cent of the boys had been out of school for this reason
and the average total amount of their absences was a week less than
that for the boys, 17 school days instead of 22. The tendency for
girls to be absent fewer days than boys was seen in the case of negro
girls as well as white, though almost as large a proportion of negro
girls as boys had been out of school for farm work.
As Table XI shows, absences for farm work were more frequently
reported by the children of farm tenants than by farm owners’
children, and the average total amount of their absences also was
greater.
Weather and bad roads.—Children in Rusk County reported an
average absence of about six days on account of bad weather or bad
roads; the average number of days of absence was larger in Hill
County. Roads in both counties were frequently impassable in wet
weather, and the children were frequently “ water bound,” as one
parent expressed i t ; but because of the muddy soil roads were likely
to be in somewhat worse condition in Hill County than those in
Rusk where the soil was more sandy.7 One mother in Rusk County
said that her children had great difficulty in getting to school when
the creek was high. They had to go through bottom land that was
sometimes completely under water. In some cases, creeks were so
high that the children could not get to school at all. A Hill County
father referring to his children’s absence, said, “ ’Tain’t no use, the
children would rather work than walk 5 miles through the mud.”
Bad weather and bad roads sometimes delayed the return to school
of children who had been ill. In one family the children had stayed
at home several weeks after their recovery from influenza because
of the weather and roads, despite the fact that a horse had been
purchased to make the trip to and from school easy for them. A
14-year-old girl living 3 miles from school had left 39 days before the
end of the session because the roads and creeks were in such bad
condition that she could not make the journey to school. In bad
weather the father in another family had to walk to meet his 8 and
10 year old children and carry them across two streams. Three
children, aged 9, 11, and 13 years, in another family had missed 77
days because of bad weather and roads. None had been able to
complete more than the first grade.
i Page 3.

54914°—24-----3

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.
X I I .—Absence from school on account o f bad weather or roads and illness of
children in resident farm ing families, by race o f child and county o f residence.

T able

Children between 6 and 16 years of age—
Absent from school on account Absent from school on account
of illness.
of bad weather or roads.'

Race and county of residence.
Total.

Number. Per cent.

H ill County:
W hite........................................
Rusk County:
W hite.......................................
Negro........................................

Median
Median
days
Number. Per cent.
days
absent.1
absent.1

942
124

542
41

57.5
33.1

9.2

614
42

65.2
33.9

10.3

616
499

212
215

34.4
43.1

6.1
5.8

414
331

67.2
66.3

13.8
8.8

i Median not shown when number reported is less than 25.

Illness.—Illness was the reason for absence most frequently
given, but absences on account of illness were not of such long
duration as were those due to farm work. Table X II shows that the
average absence from this cause of children in each race in each
county ranged from 9 to 14 days during the year.
Illness added to farm work often works havoc with a child’s
attendance. A boy absent 45 days for farm work had lost 41 days
because of illness; a girl absent 70 days for field work had lost 25
additional days on account of illness. In one family the 13-year-old
daughter was still in the first grade; during the school year preceding
the survey she had been absent 95 of the 115 days during which
school had been in session, 40 for farm work, 55 for illness. An 11year-old boy whose father was a prosperous farmer had missed 69
days’ schooling, 46 for work on the farm, 23 for illness; his younger
sister had been out of school 10 days for farm work and 36 for illness.
Other reasons.—Another important cause of absence was the
frequent moving of tenants from one farm to another. Again and
again parents would say it “ wasn’t worth while sending him as we
were moving so soon,” or “ it wasn’t worth while going for the little
time left of the school term.” One child whose parents had moved
every year during his school life, had lost 20 days on account of
moving, 20 on account of farm work, and 23 because of illness—
three entire school months. Although 12 years of age he had com
pleted only the second grade. Two children whose family had moved
three times in 5 years had entered school 35 days late, owing to their
last move, and then had lost 16 more days because the roads were bad.
Other circumstances reported as interfering with regular at
tendance included lack of suitable clothing, conditions at school
considered unhealthful by the parents, disagreements with teachers
or other pupils, and loneliness of the road. In a few instances the

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

parents seemed unaware of the importance of sending the children
regularly. One father said that he had not sent his 10 and 12 year
old children to school because none of the children in the neighbor
hood had gone.
In perhaps the majority of cases several reasons combined to inter
rupt the child’s schooling. Thus, the 10-year-old son of a white
renter, apparently above the average in prosperity had been absent
from school 76 days, or 60 per cent of the school term. In the fall,
he had stayed away from school to pick cotton, not finishing
until “ along in January.” Then the roads and the weather were so
bad that 1‘ we just kept him home till it was so he could go. ” In
February he missed seven days because the “ creek was up, ” and in
the spring was ill for several days. It was hardly surprising to learn
that he had not completed even the first grade. The 11-year-old
daughter of a white landowner had missed 87 days of the school
term, 37 because she had been ill, and 50 because her older brothers
had stopped school to work on the farm, and it had seemed inad
visable for her to go 3 miles to school alone.
Retardation.
Considering the unsatisfactory attendance of many of the children,
it was to be expected that a large number would be retarded in their
school work. According to the standard adopted by the United
States Bureau of Education a child is regarded as having made nor
mal progress if 6 or 7 years of age when entering the first grade, 7 or
8 when entering the second, and so on; and to be retarded if he is 8
or 9 when he enters the first grade, 9 or 10 when he enters the second,
and so on. This standard permits a child who enters school at the
age of 6 to repeat one grade without falling into the retarded group.
Measured by even this conservative standard 58 per cent of the
white children included in the survey in Hill County were retarded
and 68 per cent of those in Rusk, while in each county an even
larger proportion of the negro children, with their more meager school
opportunities, had failed to make normal progress in school.8
8 General Table 6, p. 80.

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

T able X III.— Retardation o f children in resident farm ing fam ilies, by age 1 o f child, race,
and county o f residence.
Children between 8 and 16 years of age attending school and in area entire year.2
Retarded.
A ge1of child, race, and
county of residence.

Normal.
To
tal.

Total.

One year.

Advanced.

years
Two years. Three
and over.

Num Per Num Per N um Per Num Per Num Per Num Per
ber. cent.8 ber. cent.8 ber. cent.8 ber. cent.3 ber. cent.3 ber. cent.
HILL COUNTY.

58.2
39.7
65.6
79.9

167
65
73
29

25.9
25.3
28.9
21.6

109
32
52
25

16.9.
12.5
20.6
18.7

99 *15.4.
1.9
5
41 16. .2
53 39.6

644
257
253
134

375
102
166
107

13
10

465
174
188
103

317
90
138
89

68.2
51.7
73.4
S6.4

130
62
46
22

28.0
35.6
24.5
21.4

94
22
45
27

20.2
12.6
23.9
26.2

93
6
47
40

20.0
3.4
25.0
38.8

339
“8 years, under 11 . 139
11 years, under 14 128
72

285
99
116
70

84.1
71.2
90.6

94
63
24
7

27.7
45.3
18.8

66
25
31
10

19.5
18.0
24.2

125
11
61
53

36.9
7.9
47.6

W hite............................
8 years, under 11 .
11 years, under 14
14 years, under 16

10
8
i
1

10
4
6

1.6
1.6
2.4

143
81
48
14

30.8
46.6
25.5
13.6

5
3

1.1
1.7
1.1

54
40
12
2

15.9
28.8
9.4

2
2

21
9
11
8

5
1
1

40.2
58.8
32.0
20.1

259
151
81
27

RUSK COUNTY.

W hite............................
8 years, under 11 .
11 years, under 14
14 years, under 16

1 Age as of Sept. 1,1920.
2 Excludes 28 white and 5 negro children in Hill County and 1 white and 25 negro children in Rusk County
for whom age or grade was not reported.
8 Not shown where base is less than 100.

The proportion of children failing to reach grades considered nor
mal for their years practically invariably increases with the age of
the children, and the cumulative effect of conditions unfavorably
affecting school progress is very apparent among the children in the
areas studied. Among white children in Hill County, for instance,
the proportion of retarded pupils among children 14 and 15 years of
age was twice that among children 8 to 10 years of age. The amount
of retardation found among the younger children was, however,
unusually large: Thus 40 per cent of the Hill County white children
of 8, 9, and 10 years were below grades which were normal for their
years, whereas, at average rates for children of these ages,9 only 16
per cent of them would have been retarded..
Conditions associated with tenancy without doubt affect un
favorably the school progress of tenants’ children. The children of
tenants were more often retarded than those of farm owners, and
those of the poorer tenants more often than those whose fathers were
more prosperous. The poorer tenant was obliged to avail himself of
* Based on the proportions from a distribution of 1,142,179 pupils in 80 cities, 1917-18. Unpublished
figures furnished by the U. S. Bureau of Education.

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A S T A T E - A ID E D S C H O O L .

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v>-

-V :V .v:

BA D RO AD S.
T he condition of the roads often m akes it im possible for the children to reach school.

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

the labor of his children more extensively than those who had achieved
a greater degree of economic independence. Thus the sons of a
widow renting on half shares were much retarded in school; they
had missed 50 days because of farm work, and each, though 12 and
11 years of age, had completed only the first grade; their 10-year-old
sister who had had only eight days’ absence was in the third grade.
An unusually bright white girl 14 years of age had completed only
the fourth grade; her schooling had been much broken into because
of farm work; she had lost 40 days during the preceding school year
for that reason.
T

a b le

X IV .— Median 'per cent o f attendance fo r normal and retarded children, by race
and county o f residence.
M edian per cent of attendance.
Retarded.

Race and county of residence.
Total.
Total.

H ill C o u n ty 1: W h ite ...................... ......
R u s k County:

One
year.

Tw o
years.

Three
years
and
over.

Normal.

77.4

71.3

75.8

71.5

58.8

83.9

79.9
83.8

73.2
82.3

82.6
84.6

71.5
85.9

62.0
73.5

89.4
92.5

1 Median not show n for “ N egro” in H ill County, as num ber reported is less than 25.

Some of the tenant farmers in the area were so *poor that they
could not afford to buy clothes or school books for their children.
One 10-year-old negro girl whose father owned a small farm had
been promoted to the third graide, but had had to go back into the
second because she could not afford to buy the third-grade books.
One mother, referring to her children’s schooling, said, “ Can’t send
’em to school naked.” Another had “ peddled” through three towns
trying to buy second-hand shoes to fit her children so that they
might enter school. Children in families that had moved frequently,
as the poorer tenants were likely to do, were more retarded than
others; among the white children of Hill County, for example, the
percentage of retardation increased from 53 among children in
families that had not changed farms during the preceding five years
to 73 among those whose families had moved three or four times
during the period. While retardation is due to a great variety of
causes—social, economic, mental, and physical—it would appear
that a solution of the problem of regular school attendance and of
retardation is closely associated with the solution of the problem of
tenancy in the cotton-growing areas.

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

School organization and conditions.
The county-unit system of school organization,10generally conceded
to be the most satisfactory for rural school administrative and super
visory purposes, existed in Texas in what is known as its “ weaker”
form;11 that is, authority was divided between the county board and
local district boards. School districts were organized according to
one of three plans—as common-school, independent-school, or con
solidated-school districts. By far the greatest number, in the
territory covered by the study, including most of the distinctly
rural ones, were common-school districts which were under the
management of local boards of trustees who acted with the advice
of the county superintendent of public instruction. The few in
dependent districts reported directly to the State superintendent of
instruction and had the advantage, which previous to the passage of
the amendment of the school law in 1920 other types of school
districts did not have, of being able to increase taxation for school
purposes above 50 mills on the dollar.12 The superiority of the
schools in these districts, especially those in the larger towns, was
pronounced, and children who lived near them were often trans
ferred to them from the districts where they resided. Consolidation
of school districts could be arranged if there were less than 20 chil
dren of either race in a common-school district and that district
and one adjoining wished to unite in providing a school 13 or if it
were deemed desirable to establish a high school for the use of two
or more districts.14
Schools were financed by local taxation and by State and county
funds apportioned according to school population. Until the school
law was amended in 1920 the school-district tax in common-school
districts could not exceed 50 cents per $100 property valuation.15
Schools coming up to certain standards were eligible under a rural
aid law passed in 191516 to receive State aid, the amount to any
one school being limited to $500. This law had done much to
improve conditions in schools attempting to qualify as well as in
those succeeding in meeting the requirements. Federal aid under
the Smith-Hughes law 17 was limited to the few city schools having
a special teacher for vocational subjects and meeting certain other
requirements. Annual expenditures per capita, based on the school
census, averaged in 1917-18, the last year for which such' information
was available, $12.14 in Rusk County Schools 18 and $10.96 in Hill
io a Manual of Educational Legislation. U . S. Bureau of Education Bulletin 1919 No. 4, p. 16. Wash
ington, 1919.
n Review of Educational Legislation. U . S. Bureau o Education Bulletin 1922 No. 13, pp. 7-8. Wash
ington, 1922.
u Texas, Revised Statutes 1911, arts. 2827, 2857.
w Texas, Revised Statutes 1911, art. 2759.
K Texas, General Laws of 1915, ch. 36, sec. 4.

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

County.19 The average expenditure per pupil for current expenses,
based on enrollment, was $12.78 in Rusk County,20 whereas Montana
spent in the same year $59.61 and New Jersey $44.09 per pupil
enrolled.21 The corresponding figure for Hill County expenditure is
not available.
Public-school buildings.—The rural aid law had enabled a number
of the school districts to provide new, well-constructed school build
ings.22 In common-school districts schools for white children were
usually two or three room frame buildings in good repair. Several of
those in Hill County were built of brick and had plastered walls.
Thirteen of the 24 visited had cloak rooms for the children’s wraps,
which in the remaining buildings had to be hung on nails or hooks in
the schoolroom or kept at the children’s desks. The independent dis
tricts had brick schoolhouses, well plastered, of five or more rooms
for classes and in addition cloak rooms, principal’s office, and library.
One of them had a music room and an auditorium that seated 200
persons. Few of the children included in the survey, however,
shared in such advantages. Most schools for negro children were
either poorly built one-room structures, many of them unceiled, or
church buildings used as schools during the week. Five of the 11
negro schools were held in churches erected by the negroes. The
lighting in most of the white schools met the accepted standard;
they had windows at the left or rear and left of the room.23 Most of
the teachers reported shades or blinds at all or some of the windows.
In six rooms in the negro schools, on the other hand, the children
faced the light—in one room there were windows on all four sides_
and in the remaining rooms visited the light was admitted from the
two sides or from the rear and right. In one instance only was the
lighting from the left or rear and left, and no room had shades or
blinds.
Egui'pment.—All except 2 of the 21 white schools reporting were
equipped with jacketed stoves, all reported adequate heat, and
15 In November, 1920, following an active state-wide campaign an amendment to the State constitution
was passed which raised the maximum district tax for school purposes from 50 cents to $1 per $100 valuation
of taxable property. This change in the law merely extended to the common-school districts the same
privilege that independent districts had previously had. Some Recent School Legislation, p. 8, Depart
ment of Education State of Texas Bulletin 99.
. 16 Twenty-first Biennial Report State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Texas, 1916-1918, p. 341 .
Austin, 1918.
» 39 Stat. 929.
18 Twenty-first Biennial Report State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Texas, 1916-1918, p. 600.
Austin, 1918.
19 Ibid., p. 593. The amount is reported to have increased considerably since this date.
2» Ibid., p.600.
21 Statistics of State. School Systems 1917-18, p. 67. U . S. Bureau of Education Bulletin 1920 No. 11.
Washington, 1920.
22 In the H ill County territory included in the survey there were 50 comparatively new buildings, 25 of
which had been completed since 1918.
23 Public School Laws of the State of Texas, Department of Education Bulletin 70, sec. 143 (State
schoolhouse building law) and sec. 203 (rural school aid law).

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWlNG AREAS.

nearly all had cold-air intakes or some means of ventilation in con
nection with the heating system. The negro schools visited were
not so well equipped, only 1 of the 11 having a jacketed stove,
adequate heat, and means of ventilation other than doors and
windows, and in some of the buildings, cracks in the floors and walls.
In all except one of the common schools, both white and negro,
the responsibility for sweeping and dusting and for building fires
and care of the stove rested with the teachers, who usually enlisted
the help of the older children. In one white school one of the older
boys was hired to care for the building.
The dug well, usually equipped with pulley and bucket, was the
most common source of water supply, though a few of the schools
had cisterns or drilled wells and five had spring water. Most of the
white schools were provided with “bubblers” or inexpensive drinking
fountains. In the few schools not so equipped individual drinking
cups were the rule, although a few of the schools reported a common
cup or dipper. The water for three of the white and five of the
negro schools had to be carried 100 feet or more, and for 3 schools,
600 feet. In none of the schools were washing facilities provided.
About half the white schools reported sanitary privies; 4 of the
24 reported pit privies; and 7 had the surface type of privy, open
in the back. All had separate toilets for boys and girls. Five of
the 11 negro schools visited had no toilets at all; one of these schools
was attended by 105 children; and in four others the toilet was
reserved for the girls. Six negro schools had surface, open-back
privies. Only two reported separate toilets for boys and girls.
The white schools were fairly well supplied with the most important
articles of teaching equipment—all had blackboards, and 17 of the 24
for which information was secured had maps, globes, and books for
supplementary reading. All the Rusk County and most of the Hill
County schools were equipped with teachers’ desks and with individual
seats for the children. Only a few double seats were reported. Many
schools had pictures and flags, and a few had clocks and thermom
eters. Some schools had playground equipment such as basket-ball
apparatus, volley ball and net, footballs and baseballs, and swings
or seesaws.
Schools for negro children were lacking in even the most essential'
equipment. Only 4 of the 11 visited had a commercial type of
blackboard. Five schools had blackboards composed of ordinary
boards nailed together and painted, or rectangular spaces on the
walls painted black. This type of board was especially unsatisfac
tory because of the poor arrangement of the windows in most of
these schools. Individual desks were found in none of the schools
for negro children; in fact, the only desks in the schools visited were
a few double ones in three of the schools. Rough benches or church

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

pews commonly served as seats. In a two-room school having 105
pupils there were 16 double seats and 6 benches built by the children’s
parents; the children who could not secure these accommodations
sat on the floor. The teachers’ desks were crude, handmade tables
or cracker boxes standing on end. None of the schools had libraries
or books for supplementary reading; a few, however, had a small
collection of free textbooks. Only one of the schools (had maps or a
globe; four had flags, only one had a clock, only two had bells.
Three had baseball outfits, croquet sets, or swings.
Teachers.—The majority of the teachers were inadequately trained.
Of 28,823 teachers in service in the State in 1918, about 40 per cent
(11,384) were graduates of no school above elementary grade; 26 per
cent had graduated from high school; and 34 per cent, or a total of
9,847, had graduated from normal schools, colleges, or universities.24
As these figures were for the State as a whole and included the more
highly trained teachers in high schools, normal schools, colleges, and
universities, in all probability the great majority of the rural and
small-town schools were taught by persons who had had no more
than an elementary or, at best, a high-school education. The State
law provided that no person was entitled to teach in the public
schools of the State who did not hold either a county or State
teacher’s certificate,25 but no educational prerequisites to the taking
of teachers’ examinations were specified in the law. Only about
one-eighth of the white teachers in the survey area held permanent
certificates, and the proportion of teachers in these districts holding
low-grade certificates was high as compared with the State as a whole.
In a few independent-school districts each teacher taught two or
three grades only, but in common-school districts, where most of the
children included in the survey went to school, teachers of schools
for white children taught three or four grades and those in negro
schools as many as five or six.
Salaries were very low. A number of the white common-school*
district teachers reported annual salaries of $400 or less. Eight
hundred dollars was considered an exceptionally high salary. Teach
ers in negro schools almost invariably reported lower monthly and
yearly salaries than white teachers. One teacher in a negro school
in session only two months reported a yearly salary of $75, but the
majority received between $200 and $400 per year, the most usual
monthly rate for negro teachers being between $50 and $60.
School activities.—/Twelve of the 35 schools reported no outside
school activities whatever. Among the others the most common
form of activity for the pupils was athletic teams, such as boys’ and
girls’ basket-ball teams, tennis clubs, and baseball and football teams.
24 Biennial Report State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1916-1918, p. 643.
26 Texas Revised Statutes, 1911, art, 2780.

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Austin, 1918 ,

CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

One Hill County school had a corn-and-cotton club for the inter
mediate and high-school pupils. Another reported a social club, and
still others debating or dramatic societies. The Interscholastic
League, an athletic league fostered by the extension department of
the State university, had done much to encourage athletics and pro
mote school clubs and recreational activities. The county agent in
Hill County had organized agricultural clubs in several communities.
The child in the small rural school has few children of his own age
and sex with whom to associate. The school census showed that there
were in the rural districts from 16 to 232 white children of school age.
(The number of colored children of school age in each district was
usually considerably smaller.) Even if all these children had at
tended school (which was never the case) each child would have had
less than six children of his own age and sex to work and play with.
On the other hand, meager opportunities for companionship are partly
compensated by greater opportunity than the city child has for fish
ing, hunting, swimming, and other sports which may be enjoyed alone
or in company with one or two others.
The larger towns of both counties had flourishing parent-teacher
associations; a systematic effort was being made to organize such an
association in each district in Rusk County. In three white and one
negro common-school districts in Rusk County parent-teacher asso
ciations had been active during the winter of 1919-20, and the negro
women in another district had organized a mothers’ club which had
activities similar to those of the parent-teacher associations. Twentyfour white and 13 negro mothers visited in Rusk County were inter
ested in these clubs. Most of the teachers seemed to feel the need of
closer cooperation between themselves and the parents, though it was
the exception rather than the rule to have any definite visiting back
and forth. The parents came to the schools only for entertainments
or occasionally by special invitation, and most of the teachers called
•at the homes only in-case of sickness or trouble with the children.
Frequently, however, the teacher had been reared in the same neigh
borhood, or had lived there long enough to become acquainted with
most of the parents and therefore was more or less familiar with the
homes from which the children came.
Six of the white schools and the same number of negro schools
were used for religious services. Several were used for political or
other community meetings, lodge meetings, or social gatherings of
various kinds. Seven of the white and two of the negro schools were
kept exclusively for school purposes. In the independent districts
the school buildings with their larger auditoriums were used for lyceum
courses and were becoming more and' more popular for all kinds of
public entertainments.

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

Private schools.—The German Lutheran Parochial School and the
Holiness School were the only important private schools in the area
studied. The German Lutheran Parochial School, attended by most
of the children of German parentage included in the study, had a
total enrollment in 1919-20 of 89 children.26 It had outgrown its oneroom school building and had converted part of the church auditorium
into a classroom by removing the pews from around one of the stoves
and putting in double seats. Beaver board painted black served as a
blackboard. The schoolroom itself had maps, a globe, teacher’s
desk, bell, and flag, but the annex had no equipment except the
homemade blackboard and a small table and kitchen chair for the
teacher. The principal was a graduate of a State normal school and
his assistant was within one year of completing a theological course
in one of the Lutheran seminaries. Both were ambitious to have a
new building and to raise the standard of the school to the level of the
public schools.
The Holiness School for negro children was maintained by the
communicants of the Holiness Church in and around Hillsboro. It
followed the curriculum prescribed for all the county schools by the
State superintendent of public instruction and in addition gave reli
gious instruction. The school was held in the large wooden taber
nacle used also for worship and was very limited in its equipment.
* Children attending parochial schools are exempt from the requirement of the compulsory school at
tendance law providing the principal or teacher notifies the county school authorities of the enrollment of
these children. Texas, General Laws of 1915, ch. 49, secs. 2 ,8 .

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THE CHILDREN AT HOME.

Living conditions.
Houses—The cotton planter or the tenant farmer in central and
east Texas lives in one of three types of houses—the typical southern
farmhouse with wide, open passage through the middle from front
to back and a chimney at each end; the square house with hipped
roof; or a barnlike structure with, in some cases, an ell at one side to
provide more room. The houses of the families included in the study
varied in size from one room to eight or more rooms, but the majority
of those occupied by the white families had four or five rooms.
Among negro families the three or four room house was the most
common. Practically all were one-story frame buildings with no
basement and no foundation other than pillars of masonry or wooden
blocks. The open space under some houses was fenced in, in order
to keep out the chickens, dogs, and other domestic animals that
sought shelter there. A few farmhouses were well painted and clapboarded, but most were of rough, unpainted, upright boards with
weather strips over the cracks, affording scant protection against
storm and cold. Twenty-seven per cent of the white families visited
in H ill County and 41 per cent of those in Rusk County were living
in houses the walls of which consisted of but a single layer of boards,
only 8 per cent in both counties were living in plastered houses. As
might be expected, negro families lived in much poorer houses than
white families, and farm tenants were more poorly housed than farm
owners.
Household conveniences.—Few houses had any modern conven
iences. In Hill County most of them were heated by stoves, but in
Rusk County 89 per cent of the white and 82 per cent of the negro
families visited depended upon a fireplace for heating. In Hill
County, also, 82 white families had oil stoves, or, in one or two
instances, an electric or gas range, for cooking; while in Rusk County
coal or wood stoves were used except in four instances (two white
and two negro families), where the fireplace was used for cooking
as well as for heating. Only three white families in each county
had either gas or electric lights. Only 32 per cent of the white
families in Hill County and 17 per cent of those in Rusk had water
in the house or on the porch. Among negro families in Rusk County
only 7 per cent, and only 2 per cent of the 51 negro families in Hill
County reported water in the house or on the porch. In Hill County
only 5 per cent of the white families, and in Rusk County only 2
38

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

per cent had sinks; none of the negro families in either county had
this convenience. These figures are all considerably below the
average for farm homes in 33 western and northern States reported
in a survey made by the office of extension work, north and west,
of the United States Department of Agriculture: Of over 9,000
families giving information on these points, 21 per cent secured
light from sources other than kerosene lamps, 65 per cent had water
in the kitchen, and 60 per cent had sinks.1
The distance of the water supply from the house is an important
factor in the work of farm women and children. Twenty-six per
cent of the white families in Hill County and 32 per cent of those
in Rusk County reported that the source of water supply was 30
feet or more from the house; 11 per cent of those in Hill and 5 per
cent of those in Rusk County had to go 300 feet or more for water.
A much larger proportion of negro families had to go long distances
for water; in Rusk County about half the negro families had to carry
water 30 feet or more, and 21 per cent carried it 300 feet or more.
For the families included in the Department of Agriculture survey
referred to above, 39 feet was the average distance water had to be
carried, although the averages for families in western States was 65
feet.2
Screens.—Large numbers of houses were without screens or were
not screened throughout. In Hill County one-fourth of the white
families and 44 of the 51 negro families visited were living in houses
inadequately screened. In Rusk County conditions were even
worse, for 64 per cent of the white and 92 per cent of the negro
families lived in unscreened houses. Unscreened houses were fre
quently the ones under which chickens, dogs, and other domestic
animals found shelter, and since many of them had no toilets, the
lack of screens was especially dangerous. In Rusk County 28 per
cent of the white and 75 per cent of the negro families had neither
screens nor toilets. Conditions in Hill County were better—only 12
per cent of the white families there had neither screens nor toilets.
As part of the program for malaria control, screening is of particular
importance in these areas. Malaria was common. Many a child
who had been out of school several weeks for farm work would
“ take to chillin' ” and miss several more. One girl had missed the
greater part of several school terms, it was reported, because she
was “ full of malaria.” Two other children living in an unscreened
house had “ missed lots of time” from school because of chills and
hookworm. They were retarded in school from three to five years.
1 Ward, Florence E.: The Farm Woman’s Problems. U . S. Department of Agriculture Circular 148,
pp. 4, 8-9. Washington, 1920.
s Ibid., p. 8.

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CHILDREN iN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

The father was a native white man, owning 186 acres of land. One
mother living on a rented farm said that because there were no
screens to keep out the mosquitoes, the entire family had been ill
during the summer. The 13-year-old girl had been ill with malaria
for more than two months, and in October still “ felt miserable.”
The rest of the family were said to have had large sores resulting
from mosquito bites, which were always followed by chills lasting
several days.
Overcrowding.—Overcrowding was considerably more common in
the areas studied than it is popularly supposed to be in rural dis
tricts. Thus, in Hill County one family of 10 persons was living in
a two-room house, another of 11 in a three-room house. Nor were
these isolated cases—room congestion was as great as that found in
the crowded tenement districts of large cities. For instance, a
study of families in tenements of Brooklyn showed 13 per cent living
with more than two persons per room ;! and a study of typical hous
ing conditions in Jewish, Italian, and negro quarters of Philadelphia
showed 21 per cent of the families living with more than two per
sons per room;4 the corresponding figure for the white families,
included in this study was 12 per cent, and for negro families 30
per cent. It must be remembered that these figures apply to a
group representative of all the rural homes in the counties in which
the survey was made and not, as in the case of the city studies, to
homes in sections chosen for study because of bad conditions. A
housing study in Detroit in 1920 in which blocks were chosen which
were representative of the best, as well as the worst conditions,
showed only 21 per cent of the population living with more than one
person per room.5 Sixty-four per cent of the white and 77 per
cent of the negro families included in the study of the Texas cotton
growing areas were living in homes thus congested. Table XV
shows that conditions were somewhat worse in Hill than in Rusk
County and considerably worse among negro than among white
families. Similarly, overcrowding was also more common among
tenant than among farm-owning families.
* Gebhart, John C.: Housing Standards in Brooklyn: An intensive study of the housing records of 3,227
workingmen’s families, p. 19. Brooklyn, 1918.
* Craig, Frank A.: A study of the housing and social conditions in selected districts of Philadelphia;
Eleventh Report of the Henry Phipps Institute, p. 64. Philadelphia, 1915.
s Vaughan, Henry F.- Housing problems in America—Proceedings of the Eighth National Conference
on Housing, Bridgeport, Conn., 1920, pp. 185-186.

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

T able X Y .— Average number o f persons per room in resident farm ing families, by
county o f residence and race.
Resident farming families.
W hite.
Average number of persons
per room.

Total.

Negro.

H ill County. Rusk County.

Total.

Rusk County.

Hill
Per
Per
Per
Per
Per
cent Num cent Num cent Coun Num cent
Num
Num cent
dis ber-. dis ber.
dis ber.
dis ty .1 ber.
dis
ber. tribu
tribu
tribu
tribu
tribu
tion.
tion.
tion.
tion.
tion.
Total................................

753

100.0

458

100.0

295

100.0

287

100.0

236

100.0

Less than one person..............
One person................................
Over one, less than tw o..........
Two persons..............................
Over two, less than three___
Three and over........................

156
117
327
59
74
20

20.7
15.5
43.4
7.8
9.8
2.7

90
64
195
38
. 52
19

19.7
14.0
42.6
8.3
11.4
4.1

66
53
132
21
22
1

22.4
18.0
44.7
7.1
7.5
.3

28
39
97
38
46
39

9.8
13.6
33.8
13.2
16.0
13.6

1
3
9
7
14
17

27
36
88
31
32
22

11.4
15.3
37.3
13.1
13.6
9.3

1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 100.

From the point of view of child welfare it is of more significance
to consider congestion from the standpoint of the number of children
affected rather than the number of families affected. For instance,
while only 12 per cent of the white families were living in houses
with more than two persons per room, 18 per cent of the white chil
dren were living under such conditions. As large a proportion of
adolescent as of younger children were subject to overcrowding.®
Toilets.—Sanitation was generally neglected. In 1916 and 1917
a sanitary survey in Hill County, made by the United States Public
Health Service, had done much to improve conditions of sanitation
in that county, but much of the value of this work had been lost
because adequate follow-up inspection and supervision had not been
provided. When the present survey was made—a little over three
years later—many of the sanitary privies previously installed had
fallen into disrepair. Only 20 white families (4 per cent) reported
sanitary-can privies, and only about 14 per cent reported the closedback or pit privies. A large majority of the families who had privies
reported the insanitary open-back type unprotected from flies,
chickens, and domestic animals. The most striking fact, however,
was that many white families (20 per cent) and 19 of the 51 negro
families had no privies at all.
6 General Table 7, p . 8.

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

T able

X V I.— Type o f toilet used by resident farm ing fam ilies, by race and county of
residence.
Resident farming families.
Rusk C ounty..

H ill County.
Type of toilet.

Negro.

W hite.

W hite.
Per cent
Number. distribu
tion.

Negro.1

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

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

458

100.0

295

100.0

236

100.0

P riv y ................................................
Surface___•..............................

361
318
274
44
22
20
1
6
90
1

78.8
69.4
59.8
9.6
4.8
4.4
.2
1.3
19.7
.2

32
32
29
3

194
191
185
6
2

65.8
64.7
62.7
2.0
.7

50
50
49
1

21.2
21.2
20.8
0.4

101

34.2

186

78.8

Pit

Closed................................

No to ilet..........................................

i Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 100.

In Rusk County the situation was worse. There were no sanitary
and few pit or closed-back privies. An even larger proportion of
families than in Hill County had no privy—nearly one-third of the
white farm owners, one-half of the white tenants, 71 per cent of the
negro farm owners, and 87 per cent of the negro tenants. The
importance of safe sanitation was seldom recognized. A white
renter’s family with no privy said that they thought the landlord ought
to build one for them, but they had never requested him to do so,
as there were so many things that they needed they were ashamed
to ask for anything that they could get along without. The dangers
inherent in the sanitary situation in these counties are especially
obvious where, as the State board of health points out, hookworm,
typhoid, dysentery, and other diseases may be traced to improper
disposal of excreta.7
Water supply.—Most of the Hill County families visited were
getting their water from shallow wells or cisterns liable to pollution
from various sources. Although in most of the county it was possible
to sink artesian wells, the necessary depth varied from 500 feet at
the western edge of the county to over 3,000 in the extreme east,8 and
few farmers could afford to drill such wells for themselves. The
geological formation of Rusk County rendered artesian wells out of
the question. Dug wells were reported by the great majority of the
families and a few used cisterns. Some families in each county
were getting water from springs or brooks. Two of these springs
7 Rural Home Sanitation. Texas State Board of Health Publication No. 2, p . 17. Austin, 1919.
»U. S. Geological Survey, Twenty-first Annual Report, 1899-1900, Pt. V H , Geography and Geology of
the Black and Grand Prairies, Texas, pp. 540-547.

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

were located in pastures where horses had easy access to them.
There was nothing to indicate that other springs in common use were
any safer. Five families in Hill County secured water from “ tanks; ”
that is, small reservoirs constructed in pastures to furnish water for
live stock. When a family’s water supply failed, water had to be
hauled from a neighboring farm and the inconvenience of a scanty
supply was experienced.
Most of the wells were equipped with a windlass or pulley with a
bucket or container, but in some cases a bucket and rope was the
only means of drawing water, rendering the task more arduous as
well as serving as a means of polluting the water.9 A pump, the
safest means of drawing water, was in use by only a small proportion
of the families visited, though some of the cisterns in Hill County
were above ground so that water could be drawn from a faucet near
the bottom.
T able X V II.— Source o f water supply fo r resident farm ing fam ilies, by race and county
o f residence.
Resident fanning families.
Rusk County.

Hill County.
Source of water supply.

Total.............................. .
Due w ell..........................................
Cistern.............................................
Spring or brook..............................
Other...............................................

Negro.

White.

White.
Per cent
distri
bution.

Negro.1

Number.

458

100.0

295

100.0

236

100.0

184
171
12
91

40.2
37.3
2.6
19.9

23
9
2
17

275
5
13
2

93.2
1.7
4.4
.7

191
1
43
1

80.9
.4
18.2

Number.

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

i Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 400.
T able

X V III.— Equipm ent o f water supply used by resident farm ing fam ilies, by race
and county o f residence.
Resident farming families.
Rusk County.

Hill County.
Equipment of water supply.

Total......................................
No equipment................................
Windlass and pu lley....................

Per cent
Number. distri
bution.

Negro.“

100.0

458
97
43
82
199
28
9

21.2
9.4
17.9
43.4
6.1
2.0

17
9
12
13

i Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 100.
* Listed under “ No equipm ent” in Table X V III.

54914°—24----- 4

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Negro.

White.

Per cent
Per cent
Number. distri Number. distri
bution.
bution.
295

100.0

236

100.0

15
7
1
265
6
1

5.1
2.4
.3
89.8
2.0
.3

19.5

Ì89
1

80.1
.4^

CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

Work of mothers.
Kinds and duration of worJc.—The cotton crop demands the labor
of women as well as children. In each county, more than one-half
the white mothers and 85 per cent of the negro mothers included in
the study had worked in the fields at some time during the preceding
year. Most of these women were used to farm work, having done it
as children. Since employment of the mother, even on the home
farm, involves many hours away from home, hurriedly prepared
meals, and a tax on the mother’s strength, it is likely to affect unfa
vorably the welfare of the children. The majority of the mothers
in this study who did field work had children under 6 years of age.
Field work was somewhat more customary for the wives of tenant
farmers than for those of farm owners, and much more customary
for the wives of negroes and the foreign born than for native white
women. Nevertheless, many native white farm owners’ wives
worked in the fields, labor shortage as well as economic pressure
being given as a reason for the widespread use of woman labor. One
of the white mothers in Rusk County said that inasmuch as they
could not get help to chop the cotton and “ the weeds were getting
ahead ” of them, she had been obliged to help out, although she was
pregnant. The work usually extended over several months, the
longest stretch being at cotton-picking time.10 Of the white mothers
who had done field work, 40 per cent had worked a total of from
three to six months of the year; 8 per cent had worked the equivalent
of six months or more. Slightly over half the negro mothers working
in the fields had worked as much as between three and six months;
one-sixth had worked six months or longer. About two-fifths of the
mothers in Hill County had picked cotton at least three months of
the year. The season in Rusk County had been considerably shorter.
T able X IX .— K inds and median duration o f field work 'performed by mothers in resident
farm ing fam ilies, by race and county ò f residence.
Mothers who did field work.
Kind of field work and county of
residence.

Median ®
M edian1
Number. Per cent. duration Number. Per cent.f> duration
(months).
(months).

H ill County: Total.
Cotton picking...................................
Hoeing and chopp ing.......................
Plowing, harrowing, and planting.
Cultivating..........................................
Loading and hauling.........................
Other....................................................
Husk County: Total.
Cotton picking....................................
Hoeing an d chopping...................
Plowing, harrowing, and planting.
Cultivating..........................................
Loading and hauling........................
Other.....................................................

Negro.

W hite.

236
186
29
32

100.0

3.5

88.7
69.9
10.9
12.0

2.4
2.2

12.0

148

100.0

195

100.0

133
124
15
4

89.9
£3.8

179
178
40

91.8
91.3
33.8
20.5

24.1

10.1

2.7
1.4
21.6

1.5
1.7

4.2

2.2
2.4
.7

o Median not shown when number reported is less than 25.
b Per cent not shown where base is less than 100.
10 As in the case of child workers the tim e spent by the mothers in field work was not necessarily con
secutive. See p. 9.

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

The most common field work was cotton picking, reported by about
90 per cent of all the mothers who had worked in the fields. A large
proportion of the mothers had, however, done other work also in
connection with the corn and cotton crops. Thus, 70 per cent of the
white working mothers in Hill County, 84 per cent of those in Rusk
County, and 90 per cent of the negro mothers who did field work in
both counties had done hoeing and chopping. About 1 in 10 of the
white working mothers, but 1 in 3 of the negro mothers, had done'
the heavy work of plowing, harrowing, or planting. One mother had
planted corn in February, hoed and chopped during June and July,
and picked cotton four months in the fall. Several others reported
a similar schedule.
T able X X .— Duration o ffield work o f mothers1 in resident farm ing families, by farm ing
status o f fam ily, county o f residence, and race.
Mothers who did field work specified number of months.
Total
Farm ing sta tu s of fa m ily ,
county of residence, and mothers.1
Total.
race.

Per
cent.2

Less
Three
than
months,
less than
three
six.
months.

Six
months
and
over.

Not re
ported.

White: T otal..................................

722

414

57.3

192

165

Owner...................................
T enant..................................

373
322
27

197
203
14

52.8
63.0

91
93
8

82
79
4

13
21
2

11
10

Hill county..................................

433

266

61.4

106

113

Owner........................ ..........
T enant..................................

176
243
14

103
154
9

58.5
63.4

33
68
5

53
58
2

10
20
2

7
8

Rusk County..............................

289

148

51.2

Owner...................................

197
79
13

94
49
5

47.7

58
25
3

29
21
2

3
1

4
2

Negro: T otal..................................

274

238

86.9

122

Owner...................................
Tenant..................................

101
160
13

8ft
146
12

79.2
91.3

22
33
2

46
70
6

10
34
3

2
9

B ill County................................

3
33
8

2
33
8

1
7
1

1
11
3

14
3

1
1

230

195

84.8

107

89.0

21
26
i

45
59
3

10*
20

2
8

Rusk County..............................
Tenant............... .................

98
127
5

78
113
4

1 Excludes 15 white and 7 negro mothers in H ill County and 4 white and 2 negro mothers in Rusk County
that had been in the area less than 1 year.
2 Not shown where base is less than 100.
3Includes farm laborer and father not farming.

Hours of work.—One of the outstanding problems confronting the
average farm woman is the shortening of the working day.11 Seventythree per cent of the white mothers in Hill County and 62 per cent
n Ward, Florence E.: The Farm Woman’s Problems.
Circular 148, p. 16. Washington, 1920.

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U . S. Department of Agriculture, Department

CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

of those in Rusk County who had done field work and reported hours
spent on the average 8 hours or more a day in the field during a con
siderable portion of the year.1* Among negro mothers one-fourth
spent 11 hours or more a day in field work, and nearly one-tenth had
done field work 12 hours a day or more.13
X X I .— Total daily hours’ work performed by mothers1 in resident farm ing fam ilies
while doing field work, and median period during which such hours were,worked,
by race.

T able

Mothers reporting total daily hours worked during field-work
period.
Negro.

White.
Total daily hours’ work during
field-work period.

H ill County: T otal. . .
8 hours and over.
10 hours and over
12 hours and over.
14 hours and over
16 hours and over.
Rusk County: T otal..
Less than 8 hours.
8 hours and over.
10 hours and over.
12 hours and over
14 hours and over.
16 hours and over

Median
period durCumulaCumula- ing which
Number.
tive
tive
such hours Number.
per cent.*
per cent.
were
worked
(months).*

Median
period during which
such hours
were
worked
(months).*

240

100.0

3.5

5.7

240
228
160
78
13

100.0
95.0
66.7
32.5
5.4

3.5
3.6
3.7
4.1
4.4

40
37
30
16
3

5.7
5.9
6.3

143

100.0

2.5

180

100.0

3.9

2
141
134
104
71
36

1.4
98.6
93.7
72.7
49.7
25.2

2.4
2.5
2.7
3.1
3.5

3
177
165
115
52
17

1.7
98.3
91.7
63.9
28.9
9.4

3.9
3.9
4.1
4.5

1 Excludes 15 white and 7 negro mothers in H ill County and 4 white and 2 negro mothers in Rusk County
that had been in the area less than one year; 167 white mothers and 1 negro mother in H ill County, and 141
white and 35 negro mothers in Rusk County that did no field work; 26 white and 3 negro mothers in H ill
County and 5 white and 15 negro mothers in Rusk County for whom total daily hours ’ work was not reported.
2 Median not shown when number reported is less than 25.
* Per cent not shown where base is less than 100.

Housework and the chores and garden work that fell to the lot of
most farm women, added to long hours in the field, made the work
ing day very long. Fourteen per cent of the white working mothers
had at least nine persons to provide for, and large households with
few household conveniences 11 and practically no labor-saving devices
make; housework arduous and time-consuming, however simple the
standard of living may be. Even when they were not helping in
the fields nearly one-third of the white mothers*in Rusk County and
one-tenth of those in Hill County who reported hours worked had
worked 14 hours or more a day. The average day for 9 or 10 months
12 In cases In which hours varied at different seasons of the year tabulations were based on hours pre
vailing during the longest period,
n General Table 8, p . 82.
14 The only important labor-saving, device in common use in either county was the sewing machine.
Washing machines were found only among white families in H ill County and were reported by only 15
per cent of these. (More than half the women replying to th e U . S. Department of Agriculture question
naire had washing machines.) Several housewives in H ill County had purchased gasoline irons.

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

of the year was about 12 hours for Rusk County white mothers and
10 hours for those in Hill County — longer than that of the aver
age farm woman, as comparison with the figures obtained by the
United States Department of Agriculture in the study referred to
above indicates. The replies to the questionnaires answered by over
9,000 farm women showed that the average working day was 13.1
hours in summer and 10.5 hours in winter, or 11.3 hours for the
year.15 When they were doing field work two-thirds of the mothers
in Hill County reported an average of 12 hours or more a day of field
work and housework; nearly one-third had worked 14 hours a day
or more. Such hours mean work from sunup to sundown or even
more. One mother who worked 12£ hours a day in the field said
she “ went with the rest,” having rushed through the housework
while “ the feeding was being done.” This mother had done field
work as much as five or six months of the year. Another mother,
who could not give exact hours because she had no clock, said she
usually got up about 4 o ’clock, went to the field as soon as the morn
ing work was done, and, except for about 1^ hours at noon, worked
there till sundown; after that she had to get supper and finish the
housework. Negro women worked longer hours in the field, but
spent less time in housework.
X X II . — Daily hours worked by mothers « in re sid e n t farm ing fam ilies while noj
cloing field work and median period during which such hours were worked, by race and
county o f residence.
________________________________ __

T able

Mothers reporting daily hours of work.
Negro.

W hite.
Daily hours’ worked while not doing
field work.

Median
period durCumulaCumula- ing which
tive
such hours Number.
tive
Number.
per cent.«»
were
per cent.
worked
(months).*»
32

8.9
9.2
9.0
8.8
8.8

14
18
14
7

272

100.0

10 .1

191

100.0

7.8

35
237
192
143
86

12.9
87.1
70.6
52.6
31.6

11 .6
9.9
9.7
9.8
9.6

50
141
104
59
28

26.2
73.8
54.5
30.9
14.7
1.6

8.4
7.5
7.3
7.1
7.4

325

Less than 8 hours.
8 hours and over..
10 hours and over.
12 hours and over.
14 hours and over.
16 hours and over.

80
245
169
92

Less than 8 hours.
8 hours and over. .
10 hours and over.
12 hours and over.
14 hours and over.
16 hours and over.

6.1

9.2

H ill County: T o ta l....

Rusk County: T otal...

Median
period durimt which
such hours
were
worked
(months). *>

100.0
24.675.4
52.0
28.3
(l)

a Excludes 15 white and 7 negro mothers in m u county ana » w m is ¡mu. *

white and 34 negro mothers in Rusk County for whom total daily hours work was not reportea
b Median not shown when number reported is less than 25.
c per cent not shown where base is less than 100.
15 Ward, Florence E.: The Farm W oman’s Problems. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Department
Circular 148, p. 7, Washington, 1920.

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

The total number of hours per day spent in field work and house
work by mothers who worked in the field was longest among white
mothers in farm-owning families in Rusk County, who reported an
average working day of 13 hours. Mothers in tenant farmers’ families
in the same county reported 12.9 hours of work per day. In Hill
County the working day was slightly longer for the wives of owners
of the smaller farms and was longer for those of third-and-fourth
tenants than for the wives of half-share renters. In Rusk County
the wives of half-share tenants reported the longest hours. The
greater number of hours worked by some of the more prosperous
mothers may be partially explained by their higher standards of
housekeeping. Working days of the number of hours of field work
and housework combined specified in Table X X III extended for
white mothers in Hill County over about three and one-half months
of the year and for Rusk County white mothers over about two and
onfe-half months.
T able X X II I.— Median daily hours' field work and median total daily hours' work o f
mothers in resident farm ing fam ilies while doing field work and median period during
which such hours were worked, by fa rm tenure, county o f residence, and race.
Mothers who did field work.
M edian1 total daily hours’
work while doing field work.
County of residence and race.

W hite......................................................................................
Hill County....................................................................
Rusk County..................................................................
Negro.......................................................................................
Rusk County..................................................................

Median
daily
hours’
field
work.

9.1
9.5
8.6
10.1
10.6
9.9

Total.

13.1
12.8
14.0
12.7
13.2
12.6

Median
period
during
which
Farm tenure
such
hours
were
worked
Owner. Tenant. (months).
13.5
13.1
14.1
12.4
12.4

12.8
12.7
13.0
12.9
13.3
12.8

3.0
3.5
2.4
4.1
5.6
3.8

1 Median not shown when number reporting is less than 25.

During the cotton-picking season the pressure of work is so great
that a woman’s working day is far longer than the average during
the rest of the year. A maximum working day of 10 hours or more
was reported by four-fifths of the white mothers in both counties;
one of 14 hours or more by more than one-fifth of those in Hill County
and by two-fifths of those in Rusk County. Sixty-two women
reported working 16 hours a day or more as a maximum.
Studies of maternity care in rural areas 16 have shown to some
extent the possible harmful effects of exhausting field work immeu Maternity Care and the Welfare of Young Children in a Homesteading County in Montana, pp. 58-60.
TJ. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 34. Maternity and Infant Care in Two Rural Counties in Wis
consin. U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 46, pp. 44-50. Rural Children in Selected Counties of
North Carolina, U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 33, pp. 34-36. Maternity and Child Care in
Selected Rural Areas of Mississippi, U . S, Children’s Bureau Publication No. 88, pp. 37-41,

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

diately before and after confinement. In this study no information
was secured about the relation of field work to pregnancy and con
finement. It is probable, however, that at any time work involving
undue strain will have an injurious effect upon a mother’s health and
consequently upon the welfare of her home and children.
T able

X X IV .— Longest daily hours' work reported during year preceding study by mothers1
in resident farm ing fam ilies, by race and county o f residence.
Mothers reporting longest daily hours’ work.
White.

Longest daily hours’ work reported dur
ing year preceding study, and county of
residence.
Total.

Negro.

Median
period
during
which
Cumulasuch
tive
hours
per cent.
were
worked
(months).

Total.

Median
period
during
Cumulawhich
tive
such
per cent.2 hours
were
worked
(months).*

Hill County: T o ta l...

325

100.0

9.5

7.1

Under 10 hours...
10 hours and over.
12 hours and over.
14 hours and over.
16 hours and over.

67
258
163
73
17

20.6
79.4
50.2
22.5

12.0
7.6
6.2
5.3
8.5

3
34
30
15
3

6r8
7.0

Rusk County: T otal..

270

100.0

11.1

192

100.0

6.6

Under 10 hours.. .
10 hours and over.
12 hours and over.
14 hours and over.
16 hours and over.

47
223
174
112
45

17.4
82.6
64.4
41.5
16.7

12.0
9.1
9.1
8.3
4.9

27
165
119
55
18

14.1
85.9
62.0
28.6
9.4

12.0
5.4
5.1
6.8

1 Excludes 15 white and 7 negro mothers in Hill County, and 4 white and 2 negro mothers in Rusk County
that had been in the area less than one year; 3 white mothers in Hill County, and 3 white and 5 negro
mothers in Rusk County that did no work; 105 white and 7 negro mothers in Hill County, and 16 white
and 33 negro mothers in R usk County for whom the longest daily hours were not reported.
s Per cent not shown where base is less than 100.
8Median not shown where base is less than 25.

Care of young children.—Especially difficult for the mother with
young children is the problem of their care while she is at work.
Sixty-four per cent of the white mothers who did field work had children
under 6 years of age. Most mothers took their children with them
to the field, either giving them what care they could themselves or
delegating the responsibility to older children. A 3-months-old baby
was seen lying in a cotton wagon while her brothers, 5 and 8 years of
age, respectively, took turns watching her. More than one-third of
the mothers who had children under 6 years of age to care for while
they were doing field work left them at home. In less than half these
families was there an adult to care.for the children; for about 1 child
in 5 the only caretaker was a child under 7 years of age. One mother
said that sometimes she was able to leave her baby with a neighbor
while she was at work, but often she left the baby in bed alone in the
house and took only her 2-year-old girl with her to the field.

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50
T able

CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.
X X V . — Caretakers o f children under 6 years o f age o f mothers 1 in resident farm ing
fam ilies, by race; H ill and Rusk Counties.
Mothers1 with children under 6 years
of age.

Caretaker of child.

Negro.

White.

Per cent
Per cent
Number. distribu Number. distribu
tion.
tion.
264

100.0

138

100.0

203
61
16
45

76.9
23.1
6.1
17.0

99
39
16
22
1

71.7
28.3
11.6
15.9
0.7

1 Includes only mothers who did field work.

Diet.
In considering the diet of country children, the food resources of
the farms are of great importance. Information was secured from the
families concerning these resources, and as an index of the kind of
meals the children were having, the foods that had been served the
day preceding the agent’s visit 17 were ascertained.
No attempt was made to determine the quantity of food used except
in the case of milk. Table XXVI indicates the types of foods the
menus contained, and General Table 9 (p. 83) gives the usual daily
milk supply. In order, to show the particular kinds as well as the
general types of food used the results of an analysis of 35118 reports as
to vegetables grown in the home gardens and menus for the day
selected are given.
Farmfood products.—Farm families, as a rule, either grow the fruits
and vegetables used, butcher cattle and hogs, kill chickens from the
barnyard flock, and secure milk and butter from their own or neigh
bors’ cows, or go without. For this reason data as to the food
resources of the farm constitute a more trustworthy indication of
what foods commonly appeared on the family table than menus for
any one day. The food possibilities of the farms deserve special
attention in this study because the days for which menus were secured
were in different seasons of the year—some of those for Hill County as
early as September and some of those for Rusk County not until
January—and are therefore not strictly comparable.
Ninety-six per cent of the white families in the study and 86 per
cent of the negro families in both counties had had home gardens the
17 If for any reason meals on that day had been unusual, information as to the meals of the most recent day
on which they had been representative of the customary diet was substituted.
i» One hundred white families in each county, 100 negro families in Kusk County, and all (51) of the negro
families in Hill County included in the study.

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

preceding summer. Gardens were reported more frequently by Rusk
County than by Hill County families, and by farm owners than by
tenants.
Because the information as to gardens was not secured until late in
the year it is quite possible that some of the families may by that
time have forgotten certain early spring vegetables, and undoubtedly
in some instances vegetables grown in the fields rather than in home
gardens but used by the families were omitted through misunder
standing. An analysis of the 351 schedules shows that 69 per cent of
the Hill County white families included had grown white potatoes,
and 79 per cent navy beans; the percentages of families that had
raised cabbage, lettuce, onions, peas, and tomatoes, ranged between
45 and 60; beets, cucumbers, okra, radishes, sweet potatoes, and
turnips were raised by from 20 to 40 per cent of the families. A few
of the gardens had furnished mustard, peppers, and squash.
The gardens of the 100 Rusk County white families included in the
analysis had yielded a slightly greater variety of vegetables than those
of the Hill County families. Navy beans, cabbage, onions, and
tomatoes had each been grown in from 80 to 93 per cent of these gar
dens; cucumbers, mustard, peas, white potatoes, sweet potatoes,
radishes, and turnips in between 40 and 60 per cent; collards, lettuce,
peppers, and squash in between 25 and 40 per cent.
About the same number of kinds of vegetables had been produced
in the gardens of negro families included in the analysis, but com
paratively fewer kinds had been grown in each garden.
With the long growing season and fertile soil in both counties
it would be possible to grow a considerably greater variety of vege
tables. String beans, carrots, chard, okra, beets, parsnips, egg
plant, kale, and spinach18 would readily grow in these localities, as
would rhubarb and many small fruits. The United States Depart
ment of Agriculture has called attention both to the value of home
gardens to farmers and to the fact that “ in most sections of the
South, though vegetables can be grown in nearly every month of
the year, the garden is neglected; in fact, no feature oi southern
agriculture is more neglected than the production of vegetables for
farm use.” 20
Unless the family lived near town it was largely dependent on
its own efforts in obtaining meat. Approximately 90 per cent of
the white farmers kept pigs, most of them five or more, and pork
in one form or another was consequently the most available meat.
Farm owners had, as a rule, more pigs than tenant farmers had.
About seven-tenths of the negro half-share tenants and a rather higher
» Thompson, H. C.: Home Gardening-in the South.
No. 934. Washington, 1918.
MIbid., p. 2.

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U . S. Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin

CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

proportion of white half-share tenants had pigs. Just after the fall
butchering fresh pork was available, but most of the meat was
salted soon after the butchering. In one community in Hill County
a beef club had been formed; each month one member butchered a
calf and distributed the meat among the other members. All except
5 of the white farmers in Hill County (4 of them tenant farmers)
and 9 of the 51 negro families (all of them half-share croppers) kept
chickens. In Eusk County all the white families reporting kept
chickens, but 11, or 5 per cent, of the negro families had none. Eightyseven per cent of the white families in Eusk County had flocks
numbering 25 or more; 42 per cent of the negro families had flocks
as large as this.
All except 28 of the white families kept milch cows. In Eusk
County three-fourths but in Hill County only half of the negro
families kept cows. The higher percentage of families having cows
in Eusk County was possibly due to the larger proportion of farmers
there who owned their farms, as farm owners were found to be more
likely than tenants to have cows.
In connection with the relative use of home products by the
different tenure classes, the following quotation from a survey of
Farm Ownership and Tenancy in the Black Prairie of -Texas, made
by the United States Department of Agriculture,21 is of interest:
Share tenants (one-third and one-fourth share tenants) received from the farm (in
garden, dairy, poultry, and pork products) a value that is about 75 per cent as much
as owners thus receive, while croppers (half-share tenants) receive only 41 per cent
as much value from these sources as owners. The most striking lack of these articles
is, therefore, found with croppers.
An interesting fact brought out in connection with the data on value of groceries
purchased is that croppers, with the lowest standard of living [annual amount ex
pended], buy the most groceries; while owners, who have decidedly the highest
standard of living, buy the smallest amount of groceries, notwithstanding the fact
that they have the largest families. The edibles from the farm for share tenants and
owners supplement their groceries sufficiently to maintain about the same difference
in values of foods that are found in clothing values.32
The usual diet of operators who do not cultivate gardens and raise fresh meats con
sists almost* entirely of groceries bought at local stores, few of which handle fresh
vegetables and fruits. As a result, these important constituents of a well-balanced
diet are often wanting in the meals of those who do not have gardens. Furthermore,
g®od milk is relatively hard to buy in many localities. It is the lack of these important
articles of food, or their inferior quality when bought, that makes the money value of
family living an inadequate measure of the difference in family living standards.
21 Farm Ownership and Tenancy in the Black Prairie of Texas, pp. 53-54. U . S. Department of Agri
culture Bulletin No. 1068. Washington, 1922.
22 Owners spent for groceries on an average $294; share tenants $296. and croppers 1310. Average ex
penditures per family for clothing were $358 for owners; $259 for share tenants; and $201 for share croppers.
Meat, poultry, garden, and dairy products from the farm were estimated as being worth on an average
$450 a year to farm owners’ families; $338 to share tenants’ families; and $184 to share croppers’ families.
It will be seen, therefore, that although share tenants spent more than did farm owners for groceries the
value of their total food supply was only about 85 per cent of that of farm owners, while that for share crop
pers, who bought most and produced the smallest proportion of what they ate, totaled only about 66 per
cent of that of owners.

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

Dietaries.—Menus for the day preceding the agent’s visit or the
most recent day on which the meals had not been unusual, though
by no means showing exactly what the-children ate, indicate in a gen
eral way what was available for their use.
Only 14 per cent of the white families in Hill County and 7 per
cent of those in Rusk reported the use of fruit of any kind—fresh,
dried, or canned. Of the negro families, 10 per cent of those in Hill
and only about 3 per cent of those in Rusk County had had fruit.
Although vegetables 23 had been used more generally than fruit
over one-half the white families in Hill County and one-third of those
in Rusk had had neither fruit nor vegetables at any meal, on the pre
ceding day. Very few negro families in either county had had both
fruit and vegetables, and almost half had had neither (43 per cent of
those in Hill and 47 per cent of those in Rusk County).
A tabulation of the menus of the 351 families whose reports on
home gardens were analyzed showed that cabbage was the vegetable
most frequently occurring in the Hill County menus (reported by 13
per cent of the families.) Peas, turnips, turnip greens, onions, collards, pumpkins, tomatoes, com, lima beans, peppers, beets, and
cushaws were also reported. Peaches, apples, and cranberries com
prise the list of fruits. In the Rusk County menus greens occurred
most frequently (turnip greens 66, and “ greens,” 22 times). Peas
had been served in 29 white and 7 negro families. On the whole,
fewer vegetables were listed in Rusk than in Hill County menus,
possibly because the data were obtained earlier in the autumn in Hill
than in Rusk County.
T able

X X V I.— Dietaries in resident farm ing fam ilies, by county o f residence and race.
Resident farming families.
W hite.

D iet items.»
Total.

Negro.

Rusk
Hill
Hill
Rusk
Total. County.
County. Total. County. County.

1,040

753

458

295

287

236

Adequate m ilk supply....................................

606

520

321

199

56
265
372
494

46
140

Vegetable....................................................
Meat.............................................................
Butter..........................................................

57
309
424
554

41
50
57

29
38
284

28
37
54
188
253

24
31
44
85
133

19
37
195

18
36
179

17
30
81

18
4

T otal........................................................

210

Fruit, vegetable, m eat, and butter___
No fruit, vegetable, m eat, or butter.. .

202

302

125
170
192

44
52
60

4
6
10

103

1
1
1
22

120

1
6

1
1

1
2

1
1
22

31
1

1
1

a A daily supply of 9 pints per fam ily was considered an adequate m ilk supply. The term “ vegetable”
has reference to vegetables other than or in addition to potatoes and navy beans. The term “ meat ” is used
to represent the group of foods that includes fish, poultry, and eggs. Bacon, however, is excluded because
of its small protein content.
' » Other than or in addition to potatoes and navy beans.

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C H IL D R E N I N

TE X A S C O TT O N -G R O W IN G AREAS.

T able X X V I.— Dietaries in resident farm ing fam ilies, by county o f residence and
race—-Continued.
Resident farming families.
Negro.

W hite.

D iet items.
Total.

Rush
H ill
Rusk
Hill
Total. County.
County. Total. County. County.

Inadequate milk supply............................

366

203

123

163

122

Fruit................... .....................................
V egetable........... , ................................
Meat___ 1 : . . : ........................................
Butter............................................. . . .

40
165
266
260

30
83
162
167

39
90
97

44
72
70

82
104
93

6
22
21
21

4
60
83
72

Fruit and vegetable............................
Fruit and meat.................................
Fruit and b u tte r ..... .........................
Vegetable and m ea t...... ...... .............
Vegetable and butter..........................

18
34
27
109
126

13
27
24
70
77

9
17
16
31
34

4
39
43

5
7
3
39
49

10
8

3
4
3
30
37

Fruit, vegetable, and m eat................
Fruit, meat, and butter.....................
Vegetable, meat, and butter.............

15
26
92

11
22

7
14
27

Fruit, vegetable, meat, and butter..
No fruit, vegetable, meat, or butter.

12
8

10
2

6
2

2
6

N ot reported................. ..............................

4
8

4
3
27

3
9

12
1

3
3

Navy beans and potatoes, excluded from the foregoing list on ac
count of their markedly different food content, were mentioned in a
large proportion of the menus—sweet potatoes in 42 per cent, white
potatoes in 30 per cent (relatively oftener in Hill County than in
Rusk), and navy beans in 42 per cent of the Hill and 7 per cent of the
Rusk County menus.
About 70 per cent of the menus of all the families included in the
study included meat;24 rather more than 80 per cent contained
butter; both articles were listed in almost 60 per cent of the menus.
In Hill County the menus of one-third of the white and more than
one-half of the negro families contained no meat, while one-eighth
of the white and one-third of the negro families in Rusk County
reported no meat. No butter appeared in the menus of one-sixth of
the families—one-tenth of the white families in Hill and one-sixteenth
of those in Rusk County, and more than one-half of the negro fam
ilies in Hill and nearly two-fifths of those in Rusk County had had
none. Five per cent of the 1,040 families had had neither butter
nor meat.
The special analysis indicated that fresh pork was the kind of meat
most frequently used. One-half the Rusk County families and
13.2 per cent of those in Hill County reported it. Pork was not so
often reported in Hill County because the inquiry in that county
was made in. the early fall before most of the families had butchered
24 The term ‘‘m eat” is used to represent the group of foods which includes fish, poultry, and eggs.
•Jacon, however, is excluded because of its small protein content.

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C H IL D R E N I N

R E S ID E N T F A R M IN G F A M IL IE S .

their hogs; hence, a somewhat greater variety of protein food was
reported—almost three-tenths of the families had had eggs, and a
few reported chicken, beef, fish, or game. About one-half the menus
(more in Hill than in Rusk County) contained bacon.
Of the menus studied in detail, 72 per cent included corn bread and
87 per cent biscuits. Light bread (mentioned more frequently in
Hill than in Rusk County menus) was reported by 14 per cent of the
families, and oatmeal or rice by 7 per cent. Breakfast cereals were
reported by a few white families, but very few negro families reported
any cereals other than com bread, biscuits, or rice.
Eighty-one per cent of the families had used sirup (a larger propor
tion in Rusk County, where ribbon cane was commonly grown, than
in Hill County), and a few reported preserves, honey, or molasses.
Slightly less than three-fourths of the menus included coffee, with
which milk or sugar or both were usually taken. Only a few families
reported the use of tea. Soups, gravies, and pastries appeared on
a few of the menus.
Although almost 90 per cent of the families included in the study
reported a regular supply of milk during most of the year and only 4
per cent were known to have had none or only small quantities of
condensed milk (usually used only with coffee), milk appeared as
an item of diet in only 81 per cent of the white-family menus in the
special analysis and in only 51 per cent of those of negro families.
A larger proportion of Rusk County families of both races than of
Hill County families had used milk.
The greatest deficiency in the diets was fruit, entirely lacking in
90 per cent of the menus. Only about 3 per cent of the families
had had diets including both fruit and vegetables 26 as well as meat
and butter on the day previous to the agent’s visit, and a little
over 1 per cent had not had any of the four. Thirty-four per cent of
the menus included meat, butter, and either fruit or vegetables; 59
per cent included both meat and butter; 12 per cent meat but no
butter; and almost 23 per cent butter but no meat.
In a large number of instances what would appear to be an insuf
ficient diet was probably enriched by the addition of a generous
quantity of milk. More than two-thirds of the white families in each
county reported that they used 9 pints or more of milk a day during
most of the year and an additional one-sixth reported a milk supply
. ample enough to allow 1^ pints a day for each member of the family
Over two-thirds of the white families whose diets lacked meat or
butter, or both, and the same proportion of families whose diets
lacked fruit or vegetables or both, reported 9 pints a day or more.
Thirty-three per cent of the Rusk County negro families reported
that they used 9 pints or more, and almost 15 per cent more had an
average of 1£ pints of milk per person per day.
* Other than or in addition to potatoes and navy beans*

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C H IL D R E N IN -T E X A S C O TT O N -G R O W IN G AREAS.

I t is clear, however, that in many families the dietaries were
inadequate to meet the needs of growing children. In some families,
for example, the day’s food had consisted almost exclusively of corn
bread or biscuits and sirup. Commenting on the sickness among
half-share croppers the report of the survey referred to on p. 52 states28
th a t “ * * * it is not at all unlikely that the lower dietary stand
ards of the poorest accumulators cause much of the larger amount
of sickness found among them * * *,” and that the percentage
of sickness which it points out is higher for half-share croppers than
for other classes of tenants is “ doubtless * * * due in large
part to the fact that croppers lack the fresh, home-grown foods that
the other classes have.” An unwise selection and preparation of
food, resulting from a lack of knowledge of dietetics, is also no doubt
an influential factor. In educating the housewife to the importance
of the various food elements it is believed that a home-demonstration
agent in each of the counties studied would more than pay for herself
in better health and physical development of the children.
Literacy of parents and periodicals taken.
There was the greater need for demonstration work among the
families included in the survey, in that many of the parents were
limited in their outside contacts by reason of illiteracy. Although
in the counties studied, the proportion of illiterate native whites 10
years of age or over (2.6 per cent in Hill County and 2.5 per cent in
Rusk) was lower than the average for the State as a whole (3 per
cent) the rate of illiteracy among negroes in both counties (19.8
per cent in Hill and 20.6 in Rusk) was in excess of the State average
(17.8 per cent). The high rate among the large negro population
in Rusk County raised the average for that county (9.7 per cent)
above the State average (8.3 per cent), but in Hill County where the
negro population was almost negligible, the county average was lower
than that for the State (5.4 as compared with 8.3 per cent).27
Since these figures are for the entire population 10 years of age and
over, and the rate of illiteracy has steadily decreased in recent years,
it is not surprising that the rate among the parents of the children
in this study should prove higher than the census rate. Of the
Hill County white parents visited 5.6 per cent, and of the Rusk County
white parents included in the study 4.4 per cent were illiterate.
Among negro parents the rate was 24 per cent for those in Rusk
County and 20.6 per cent in Hill. In 13 white and 36 negro families
in the two counties both parents were illiterate. The proportion
of illiteracy was greater in Rusk County, where the negro population
was larger, than in Hill, and a larger number of fathers than of mothers
were illiterate.
* Farm Ownership and Tenancy in the Black Prairie of Texas, pp. 48,53.
» Fourteenth Census of the U nited States, 1920, Vol. IH, Population, Table 9. pp. 919-1014.

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

T a b l e X X V I I .—P roportion o f resident fa m ilies in which parents were illiterate, by

race and county o f residence.
Resident farming families.
Race and county of residence.

Father illiterate.

Mother illiterate. -

Total.
Number. Per cent.1 Number. Per cent.1
HillCounty: Total.............................................................

509

W hite..........................................................
Negro........................................................................

458
51

31
11

531
295
236

Rusk County: Total............................................................
W hite................................................................
Négro................................................................

8.3

5.9

6.8

20
10

4.4

15.8

10.4

18
66

6.1
28.0

8
47

2.7
19.9

1N ot shown where base is less than 100.

For the illiterate, as has been said,’ educational work must be
largely through personal contact, but for others, especially on iso
lated farms, newspapers and periodical literature are*valuable not
only in enriching the family life but also in bringing to parents much
that they need to know in the interest of their children’s welfare.
Table XXVIII shows that about 16 per cent of the white and 61 per
cent of the negro families took neither newspapers nor magazines of
any kind; 31.5 per cent of the white and 25.4 per cent of the negro
families had only one type of magazine or newspaper. The number
and variety of periodicals accessible in the homes bore a direct
relation to the economic status of the family. Relatively more
farm owners than tenants reported that they subscribed for period
icals, and farm owners read a greater variety of papers and maga
zines than did tenants.
T able

X X V III. — K in d s o f periodicals taken by resident farm ing fam ilies, by race and
county o f residence.
Resident farming families.
White.

Kind of periodicals.

Total.

Hill.

Negro.
Rusk.

Total.

Rusk.

N um Per N um Per Num Per Num Per H ill.1 Num Per
ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.
ber. cent.
Total.........................................

753 100.0

458 100.0

295 100.0

Farm...................................................
Women’s .............................................
Children’s ........................... . ............
Newspapers......................................
Local only................................
Other only.........................
B oth..........................................
Newspapers, n. o. s . 2............
Religious...........................................
Fraternal.......................................
General and miscellaneous...........
N one....................................................

253 33.6
249 33.1
15
2.0
514 68.3
101 13.4
177 23.5
234 31.1
2 0.3
60
8.0
37
4.9
127 16.9
119 15.8

137 29.9
140 30.6
9
2.0
316 69.0
53 11.6
135 29.5
127 27.7
1
0.2
41
9.0
19 4.1
68 14.8
67 14.6

116
109
6
198
48
42
107
1
19
18
59
52

»Number only.

Per cent not shown because base is less than 100.

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39.3
36.9
2.0
67.1
16.3
14.2
36.3
0.3
6.4
6.1
20.0
17.6

287 100.0

236

100.0

24.0
10.8
0$
18.1
4.5
10.8
2.8

8
2

61
29

25.8
12.3

7
1
5
1

45
12
26
7

19.1
5.1
11.0
3.0

1.7

1.3

3
174

i.ò
60.6

3
140

1*3
59.3

69
31
1
52
13
31
8

>1. e., not otherwise specified

CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

It was difficult to classify exactly many of the periodicals reported;
and even where the periodical in question was plainly a woman’s
magazine or a farm paper or other type of magazine, it usually con
tained matter dealing with other interests. Many newspapers, for
instance, have a section devoted to women s interests, a children s
page, and articles of special interest to farmers, besides the usual
news items and editorials. From the point of view of rural child
welfare, periodicals dealing with women’s and children’s interests,
and also farm papers, are especially important. Three families re
ported all three kinds; farm papers or periodicals of special interest to
women were reported by about one-third of the white families, and
8 per cent of all Hill County families in the study and 14 per cent of
those in Rusk reported both farm and women’s papers. Very few
families took magazines or papers especially for children. News
papers were more commonly subscribed for than any other form of
periodical. One-fourth of the families taking newspapers took only
local papers; nearly one-half took both local papers and those pub
lished outside the county of residence.
Community life and social activities.
One of the most serious problems of rural life is that of affording
adequate means for social intercourse to families living at a distance
from towns or villages. The present discussion will be confined to
the forms of social activity actually reported in the homes and schools
visited. While the material is far from complete it does indicate the
kinds and extent of recreation and social organization in the rural
parts of the two counties. The members of 11 per cent of all the
families visited said that they had no recreation of any kind and
belonged to no social organization. About one-third of the families
reported only one kind of recreation;28 few reported three or four
kinds. Many of the mothers visited complained of the loneliness
of country life. The mother who, when asked what she did when
she was not working, replied, “ I jes’ sets ’round the house and gets
up and walks ’round the yard and looks at the chickens,” summed
up the situation for scores of families.
In rural communities where, because of isolation, social custom,
and their many common interests, neighbors are likely to be well
acquainted with each other, and where differences in economic
status are less emphasized than in the city, greater democracy in
social fife and social organization exists. It is therefore not surprising
to find that the social life of farm tenants was but slightly less varied
than that of farm owners.
» Included in this tabulation were (1) religious meetings, (2) school entertainments or mothers’ meetings,
(3) parties, socials, or dances, (4) going to town, and (5) games and sports.

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CHILDREN IN RESIDENT FARMING FAMILIES.

Schools a n d churches .—Schools and churches were the most im
portant community organizations affording opportunity for social
intercourse. The social intercourse supplied through activities
centering in the schools has already been described.2* Some of the
small towns with populations of only 300 or 400 had as many as four
or five churches of different denominations. For one-sixth of the
white and about one-third of the negro families church was the only
community organization providing social contact.
S o c ia l gatherings. Only about one-fifth of the white families in
Hill County and one-half of those in Rusk County reported parties,
picnics, or 1socials/ ’ The proportion of negro families in each
county having these forms of recreation was considerably smaller.
In the country social gatherings are usually attended by all the
members of the families, regardless of age. Many picnics were
reported. In some communities “ graveyard” picnics were held
once or twice a year, for the purpose of putting the cemetery and
churchyard in order. Many families in each county reported “ singings at which neighbors gathered to spend the evening singing
together. Dances and parties were also frequently reported.
G oing to to w n .—For many families in Hill County going to town was
the only recreation. On Saturday afternoon whenever roads were
passable the streets and stores in the small towns were crowded with
farmers in from the country to buy supplies and enjoy what amuse
ment the town afforded. The first Monday of each month was
another day when farmers gathered at the county seat to buy or
trade horses, mules, or cows, or to market farm produce. Probably
women and children went to town less often than the men, but
there were always a number of them in the market-day crowds.
Recreations which the towns offered—such as m o v i n g pictures, lyceums, and lectures—were reported by some families. County fairs held
annually and attended by most of the rural population not only
afforded a chance for recreation and sociability, but also aroused
interest in good stock, good farm products, and household arts. A
few of the families visited had attended State fairs.
The recreation and social intercourse of the towns was more easily
available to the people in Hill County than to those in Rusk County,
where there was only one town of any size. Somewhat over half the
families visited in Rusk County lived from 5 to 10 miles from town;
19 per cent of the white and 37 per cent of the negro families lived 10
miles or more from town. In Hill County, on the other hand, about
60 per cent of the families lived less than 5 miles from town and only
6 per cent were 10 miles or more from town. Families living near
town had more varied opportunities for recreation and social contact

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C H IL D R E N I N TEXAS C O T T O N -G R O W IN G AREAS.

than families living in remoter parts of the country. Telephones in
the homes of 64 per cent of the Hill County white families and 40
per cent of those in Rusk County, and automobiles owned by 57
per cent of the white families in Hill and 30 per cent of those in Rusk
County lessened the isolation to some extent. Only 8 per cent of the
negro families, however, had telephones and only 20 of the negro
families in the two counties had automobiles.

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CHILDREN IN MIGRATORY LABORERS’ FAMILIES.
Migratory labor was employed by Hill County farmers to supple
ment the local supply during the cotton-picking season, and to a
somewhat less extent also during the planting season. Families
coming in for seasonal work were not, of course, so well known as
were those living in the community all the year around; hence a
considerable proportion of them were probably overlooked, although
all that could be found were interviewed. These interviews showed
that at least 81 families, including 202 children, and 2 children
unaccompanied by their families had come into the school districts
included in the study principally to pick cotton. About half the
families were negro. Among the white families seven fathers were
Mexican and one was of German birth, the remainder being native
born. The two children working independently, both of them 12
years of age, went back and forth from their homes in near-by towns
to the cotton fields each day. Eight of the families also (four white
and four negro) had found places to live in town and were trans
ported to and from the fields by their employers. The remaining
73 families had found living accommodations in the districts near
their work. Only these families who came from outside and settled
for the period of their employment in the districts where they worked
are included in the following discussion of migratory families, those
who went back and forth between their homes and the farms where
they worked having been excluded from the tabulations.
Only 14 of these families had been with their present employer as
much as three months ; 25 had been with their employers for as much
as one month but for less than two months; and 21 families, for less
than one month. Of the families giving information as to their last
place of residence, 6 had come from outside the State; 23 (10 white
and 13 negro) from the larger cities 1 of the State; and only 13
(9 white and 4 negro) from towns in the same county.
In many cases, particularly those in which the families came from
cities, the employer had sought the workers; in others, the family
had come to the country looking for work. In still other instances
arrangements had been made through friends or relatives. Two
Mexican families had found work through a labor organization in
one of the larger cities of the State. The usual rate of pay for cotton
picking was $2 per 100 pounds, in some cases $1.75 per 100 pounds,
in addition to board. Chopping was usually paid for at the rate of
$3 a day.
1 The smallest of these cities reported had a population of more than 12,000.

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C H IL D R E N

T E X A S C O T T O N -G R O W IN G A R E A S .

In two white families the mother was the chief breadwinner. One
mother worked in a peanut factory in the winter, on truck farms in
the early spring, and in the cotton fields in the fall. The other
mother and her five children were traveling with another family and
picking up what work they could along the way. The sole occupa
tion of 8 of the white fathers or other chief breadwinners2 was
agricultural labor, and 13 more did some farming on their own
account, 12 of them helping other farmers. Three Mexican families
were traveling aimlessly through the country, living in tents and
picking up whatever work they could find. Several of the fathers
worked in town as day laborers, carpenters, barbers, or mechanics.
Seven negro mothers, most of whom did housework or laundry
work as well as field work, were the chief breadwinners of their
families. Most of the negro fathers who were chief breadwinners for
the family group had some occupation other than farm labor in
which they engaged during part or all of the year. Twelve of these
fathers, for instance, were general day laborers; six did farming on
their own account; one was a hotel porter; one was a janitor.
* In one instance the mother’s brother was the fam ily’s chief breadwinner.

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THE CHILDREN AT WORK.

In the migratory families were 180 children (90 white and 90
negro), 132 of whom (57 white and 75 negro) had done field work.
More of the older than of the younger children, both white and
colored, had worked in the fields. Of the 40 white children, between
10 and 16 years of age, 35 had done field work; 18 of the 25 between
6 and 10; and 3 of the 25 less than 6 years of age had also worked in
the fields. Proportionately more boys than girls had done farm
work. Most of them had begun field work at an earlier age than
children in resident families.
Cotton picking was practically the only kind of field work done by
these children. Seven white and three negro children had hoed and
chopped in the spring, and one child had helped in threshing.
Table

X X I X .— Daily hours’field work performed while not attending school by children
in migratory fam ilies, by total daily hours’ work and race; H ill County.
Children under 16 years of age—
Who worked while not attending school.

Daily hours’ field work while
not attending school, and
race.

Total hours.
Who
did no
work.

Total.
Total.

Less
than
8
hours.

8
hours,
less
than
10.

10
hours,
less
than
11.

11
hours,
less
than
13.

13
hours,
less
than
14.

5
19

1
s

W hite..............................

Less than 8 hours.....................
8 hours, less than 10................
10 hours, less than 11..............
11 hours, less than 13..............
Not reported.........................
Did no field work.........

5
17
28
2
5
33

5
17
28
2
5

2
11

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

Less than 8 hours.....................
8 hours, less than 10................
10 hours, less than 11.............
11 hours, less than 13.............
Not rephrted.....................
Did no field work...................

7
8
29
18
13
15

7
8
29
18
13

Not
re
ported.

8
7

2
13

Very few children in migratory families had farm chores to do;
none did milking, two helped care for stock, six helped care for
chickens; only three children did gardening. Seventeen white and
48 negro children, however, carried water, and 25 white and 51 negro
children carried fuel. The proportion of children reporting house63

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CHILDREN IN TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

work was much greater than the number reporting farm chores,
although smaller than the proportion of children in resident families
doing housework. Seasonal laborers had even fewer household
conveniences than resident families. One family had a sink, 1 had a
washing-machine, and 17 had sewing machines. Eleven white and
21 negro families got water from a source 300 feet or more from the
house; only 7 (all of them white families) had water on the porch or
in the house.
When field work was in progress the average total number of hours
worked by white children who went to the fields was 10.4 per day;
the number worked by negro children was 10.7. Inasmuch as most
of these children had few chores and little housework to do the total
number of hours they worked differed only slightly from the number
of hours spent in field work. For the same reason, as might be ex
pected, the average total hours of work per day was shorter for
children in migratory families than for children in resident families.
Working days of great length continued a shorter time for children in
migratory families than for those in resident families, the average
duration for children in migratory families being 1.4 months.

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THE CHILDREN AT SCHOOL.

One of the most serious effects of migratory farm labor is its
interference with school attendance. Only 2 of the 139 children of
school age (6 to 16 years) who had come to the country to pick
cotton had attended school while there. Compulsory education
laws do not function in such instances since these children are not
residents of the school district to which they go and are out of the
jurisdiction of the districts from which they come. If they return
to the city or town schools, they are likely to have lost several weeks
of school work that can be made up only with the greatest difficulty,
if at all. One family with two boys, 12 and 14 years of age, had left
Tyler the very week school had opened. They had done the same
thing the year before with the result that neither year had the boys
entered school until the week before Christmas—75 days after
school had begun.
Eighteen white and 20 negro children between 6 and 16 years of
age had never attended school; 9 of these children were of compul
sory school age, i. e., between 8 and 14. Forty-three of the white
and 69 of the negro children had not attended school during the
year 1919-20. Thirty-four of the children who had started school
had not done so until they were 8 years of age or older. As the
school records of the children of migratory laborers were available
in only a few instances, it was impossible to secure reliable data in
regard to the median number of days attended or the per cent of at
tendance for the group. According to statements made by parents
and children, 21 of the 65 white children attending school had
stayed out during part of the year to do farm work. Most of these
children had lost less than 20 days; but two had missed between
20 and 30 days and five had lost 40 days or more of school. Only
11 of the children had completed a grade higher than the second,
though 57 were at least 12 years of age, and 29 were 14 or 15.
66

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THE CHILDREN AT HOME.

Living conditions.
Since migratory laborers seldom stayed on the farms longer than
a month or two, they were usually given makeshift living accommo
dations. Some lived in the same house with their employers, others
in tents or in farm buildings. On one farm a Mexican family of two
children and three adults was living in the smokehouse, a building
with no floor or windows and only one door. They slept on cotton
sacks and had only the few dishes and cooking utensils which they
had brought with them. Eight persons, a Mexican family of six
and two single men, were housed in an old one-room shack. A
native white family of seven persons was living in a tent barely large
enough to shelter the three beds which it contained. Cooking was
done on a stove in the open. Near by was another tent sheltering
10 persons. In the farm house, which had been vacated by the
farmer so that it might be occupied by cotton pickers, a family of
four was living in one room and another of six in two rooms, while
a single man occupied the hall between. Another migratory la
borer’s family was living with his employer’s family in an old, poorly
built frame house having great cracks in the walls and holes in the
roof. The household of 14 persons lived in four rooms. Because
the cistern needed cleaning, all the families on this farm were getting
water from a reservoir or tank from which mules, cows, and poultry
also drank. Negro families had worse living conditions than white
families. Practically every negro family had “ doubled up” with
some other family and quarters were very crowded.
The average number of persons in a household was nine. Half
the families were living in houses of one or two rooms. Fifteen of
the 35 white families had but one sleeping room; only eight had as
many as three or four. Twenty-six of the 38 negro families had two
sleeping rooms; four had three or four. Negro families averaged
slightly larger than white families, and their houses were on an
average smaller. More than half the white families and seventenths of the negro families were living with three or more persons
per room.
At the time the study was made 10 white and 21 negro families
were using dug wells, 4 families secured water from springs or brooks;
17 from cisterns; 13 used drilled wells; and 6 had “ tanks.” Privies
had been provided for only 18 (about half) of the white families and
only 15 of the negro families. Nearly all were of the open-back
type. Only 12 families, all of them white, had screens. Fifteen
white and 23 negro families had neither screens nor privies.
66

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H O U S I N G : A B O V E , F A R M H O U S E IN C E N T R A L T E X A S ; C E N T E R , M I G R A T O R Y
W O R K E R S ' T E N T H O U S I N G 11 P E R S O N S ; B E L O W , S H A R E T E N A N T ' S H O U S E
IN E A S T T E X A S .

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CHILDREN IN MIGRATORY LABORERS’ FAMILIES.

Work of mothers.
In 29 of the white and 33 of the negro families the mother, or some
one who took her place, had come to the district with the family.
Nineteen of the white mothers and 32 of the negro mothers worked
as cotton pickers; 2 negro mothers had done hoeing and chopping;
but none reported any other field work. Twenty-eight of the mothers
who worked in the fields had children under 6 years of age. Only
three had an adult to care for their children while they themselves
were away at work. One mother left her child at home alone; five
others left the little children at home in care of other children, the
“caretaker” in one family being less than 7 years of age. The more
common practice was to take the child to the cotton field.
All except 1 of the 51 mothers (19 white and 32 negro) who worked
in the field reported a working day of 9 hours or more while field work
was in progress. Only five white mothers reported less than 12
hours; eight reported from 12 to 13; and four mothers had had even
longer working days. Working days for negro mothers averaged
slightly shorter than those for white mothers. Nevertheless twothirds of the negro mothers who reported length of the working
day had worked 12 hours a day or more. One-half the white mothers
and two-thirds of the negro mothers had spent 10 hours or more in
field work; 30 mothers had worked 12 hours or more in the fields.
Although housekeeping was primitive and the diet simple, housework
added at least one or two hours to a long day’s work in the fields.
Field work for most of the mothers who did such work was coexten
sive with their stay in the district. Eleven mothers worked the
number of hours specified above less than one month; 20 reported
working these hours for one month but less than two months; and
the remainder had had working days of these lengths during longer
periods.
Diet.
The diet of migratory farm laborers’ families was more restricted
than that of resident families. Moving from place to place, as the
migratory families did, it was not possible to keep cows or chickens,
and only four white and five negro families had had gardens during
the year of the study. Only 12 of the 35 white and 21 of the 32
negro families submitted menus for the previous day that contained
vegetables other than potatoes or dried beans. The diets of 22
families included what was probably a fairly adequate supply of
fresh milk (8 pints or more a day), but 7 families were having less
than 3 pints a day, and one-third of the families reported no regular
daily supply of fresh milk.

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CH ILDREN- I N

TE X A S C O T T O N -G R O W IN G AREAS.

Literacy of parents and periodicals taken.
The proportion of illiteracy was much, higher among the parents
in migratory laborers’ than in resident farmers’ families. Table
XXX shows that in 8 families both parents were illiterate, and in
15 either father or mother was illiterate. Native white parents had
a lower illiteracy rate than did negro parents, but in four of the
seven Mexican families both parents were illiterate.
Only 11 families, 6 white and 5 negro, took any periodicals what
ever; 3 of these families took farm papers; 4, women’s papers; and
9 , newspapers.
Table

X X X .— Literacy o f parents in migratory fam ilies, by race and nationality of
father; H ill County.
Migratory families.
Liter acy1 of par ents.

Race and nationality of father.
Total.

Both
parents
literate.

Father
literate.

Mother
literate.

Both
parents
illiterate.

Not re
ported;
one or
both
parents
absent.

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

W hite...................................................................

35
27
8
1
7
38

21
19
2
1
1
18

3
1
2

4
4

3
3

2
4

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

4
4
4

i Ability to read and write in any language.

Social life.
About one-third of the families of migratory laborers had to go 5
or more miles to reach the nearest town; only one-fifth of them lived
less than 2 miles from town. Very few of the families participated
in the activities of any society or club or attended social gatherings
while in the communities included in the study. Of the white fami
lies, four reported church attendance, three attended “singings” in
the neighborhood, and four reported “going to town” for recreation.
Negro families seemed to be even more cut off from social intercourse
than were the white families.

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CONCLUSION.
Many of the unfavorable conditions surrounding children described
in this report are closely related to the economic situation of the
farmer in cotton-growing areas. Tenants’ families, who are on the
whole poorer than those of farm owners, are not only less comfortably
housed and probably less adequately fed1 than the latter but also
the children and their mothers work in the fields longer hours over
longer periods, the children’s school attendance is less regular, and
the children are more retarded in school. Among children in negro
families a large proportion of whom are tenants and who, as a class,
likewise, are less prosperous than the whites, conditions are markedly
less favorable in every respect than those surrounding white children.
Better farming methods, with less reliance on one crop, an improved
system of marketing and of farm credits, and any measure which
will render the cotton planter more prosperous, may be expected to
advance the welfare of children in Rusk and Hill Counties. In its
study of the problems of tenancy in the black lands of Texas, the
United States Department of Agriculture points out in the following
words the relation of tenancy to child welfare, especially as regards
farm work and school attendance:
* * * th is d ifferen ce i n th e ec o n o m ic sta tu s of th e tw o classes cau ses te n a n ts to
draw m ore h e a v ily o n th e ir c h ild r e n ’s tim e for farm lab or th a n d o ow ners. I f th e
te n a n t w ere an o w n er, w ith h is p resen t w ea lth , h e w o u ld d o u b tless s t ill d em an d
m ore field w ork o f h is c h ild th a n th e average ow n er n o w d em a n d s of h is c h ild . Con
se q u e n tly , i t i s im p o ssib le to sa y h o w m u c h of th e b ack w ard n ess of th e te n a n t’s c h ild
is a ttr ib u ta b le to ten u re a n d h o w m u c h to fin a n cia l sta tu s. R egard less of th is q u es
tio n , i t is q u ite e v id e n t th a t th e te n a n t ’s c h ild i s h a v in g to b ear a h e a v ie r b u rd en
th a n is th e o w n er’s c h ild . A n d i t is e v id e n t th a t som e of th e m ore im p o r ta n t rural
sch o o l p ro b lem s o f th e area are c lo s e ly b ou n d u p w ith t h e p rob lem of te n a n c y , and
th a t t h e y m u s t b e so lv e d i n c o n ju n c tio n w ith so lu tio n s of th e ten u re p ro b lem .2

While increased prosperity, especially of the tenant and smallfarm owner, may be expected to improve the situation of children
in cotton-growing areas, there is need also for popular education,
especially in regard to sanitation and dietetics. The fact that 38
per cent of the families included in the present study had no toilets
of any kind, and that less than half of the dwellings had adequate
screening, indicates the need for popularizing, for example, informa
tion in regard to the relation between sanitation and infectious
diseases. Analysis of the dietaries of the families who were inter
viewed showed a lack of fruit and vegetables, due to some extent
1 See p. 52.
2Farm Ownership and Tenancy in the Black Prairie of Texas, pp. 59-60.

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CHILDREN IH TEXAS COTTON-GROWING AREAS.

at least to a limited knowledge of their importance. The possibilities
of the home garden need emphasis; not only were garden products
limited in variety and amount, but 6.3 per cent of the resident
families interviewed—all living on farms—reported that they had no
home garden. These are factors in the general welfare of the children
which could be improved by further support of the work of the county
agricultural agent and by the employment of a home-demonstration
agent in each county. The work of the latter, also, may be depended
upon to introduce into rural homes more household conveniences and
better methods of housework; labor-saving devices and even ordinary
conveniences were rare among the families visited, and the house
keeping activities of mothers were consequently unnecessarily pro
longed and laborious.
In addition to educational measures, some public supervision of
housing and sanitation would seem to be desirable. A more liberal
interpretation of the sanitary and health regulations now in force
might effect an improvement in housing, but the enactment of a rural
housing and sanitation law may be necessary in order to insure
healthful l i v i n g conditions for children growing up on the farms of
these counties.
Further and more scientific study of the effect of the various
kinds of farm work upon children’s health and development is
undoubtedly necessary before it can be determined whether or not
particular occupations are physically harmful to the growing child;
but the present survey indicates that many children both white and
negro in sections of the country where cotton is grown are working
long hours at tasks which appear to be too heavy for them to per
form without injury to their health and physique, and, in addition,
they are losing a large part of their schooling on account of the work
which they do in the cotton fields.
Practically all the children over 10 years of age, and a large pro
portion of younger children, living in the areas included in the study
had worked in the fields at some time during the year preceding the
inquiry. Ninety-seven per cent of the working children 10 years of
age and over reporting duration of work had worked at least 30
days, the median length of their working day being nearly 12 hours.
Parents need to be awakened on the one hand to the possible dangers
to the health of their children resulting from excessive hours and too
heavy work, and on the other to the importance of regular school
attendance. The compulsory school attendance law should be strictly
enforced, and school terms should not be shortened for the benefit of
farm work. Possibly school sessions for older children might be
adjusted, in spite of the administrative difficulties involved, to
seasons of the year when the children are not so acutely needed on
the farms, but there is always danger in such an arrangement that

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CONCLUSION".

the needs of the children will be lost sight of and the demands of
field work given first consideration. In addition to any measures
designed to insure rural child workers an adequate amount of school
ing, some legal restriction on the age at which children may begin
to do farm work and the number of hours a day which they may
work would seem necessary under present conditions to protect them
from the hazards of unregulated farm labor.
Although field work seriously interferes with schooling, irregular
school attendance in Hill and Rusk Counties is by no means entirely
due to this cause. Forty-six per cent of the children in Rusk County,
for example, stated that they lived
miles or more from the nearest
school and so were exempt from the compulsory school attendance
laws unless transportation was provided. The provision of trans
portation to and from schools for both white and negro children is
urgently needed. Consolidation of school districts should be en
couraged. In this connection the desirability of better roads should
be mentioned. More emphasis should be placed upon the provision
and improvement of school facilities for negroes. Improvement in
the schools would probably in itself bring about an improvement
in school attendance. Better-qualified teachers, a curriculum more
suited to the needs of an agricultural community, and better school
equipment are needed. Further State aid to rural schools would
enable such schools to lengthen the term, provide better equipment,
and pay higher salaries. A complete, instead of partial, countyunit form 3 of school organization should result in improved adminis
tration.
The welfare of children in migratory laborers’ families deserves
special consideration, particularly as regards their education and
housing. Few communities making use of migratory labor make
any provision for the schooling of the children in the seasonal workers’
families or attempt to enforce the compulsory school attendance law
in their behalf, though so far as the community profits by such labor
the responsibility of providing adequate schooling is clearly a local
one. If, however, local authorities can not or will not meet the need,
some provision should be made by the State. In California 4 special
schools for the children of seasonal laborers are provided by the
State in the localities to which the workers migrate. California has
also for some years been trying out a system of State supervision of
housing for migratory workers.8 Both of these experiments should
prove of practical value to States such as Texas having similar
problems.
•S e e p . 32.
4California Laws of 1921, eh. 691.
6Advisory Pamphlet on Camp Sanitation and Housing (Revised 1919), p. 5. Commission of Immigra
tion and Housing of California. San Francisco, 1919.

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CHILDREN I N TE X A S C O TT O N -G R O W IN G AREAS.

T able 1.— Number o f removals o f resident farm ing fam ilies during last five years, by
farm ing status o f fa m ily and race; H ill and Rush Counties.
Resident farming families; H ill and Rusk Counties.
Number of removals during five years next preceding the tim e of survey.
Fanning status of
fam ily, and race.

No
removals.

To
tal.

Three to
four.

Two.

One.

Five and
over.

Not
reported.

Per !Num Per Num Per
Num Per Num Per Num Per Num-| cent.1
ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1
ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1 ber.
W h ite................ 753

47.3

356

18.2

137

13.3

106

14.1

5.8

4.7

1.3

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

Owner............................ 382

260

68.1

17.0

8.9

Less than 100 acres. 137
100 acres, less than
200........................... 157
200 acres and over. . . 82
6
Acreagenot reported

62.0

18.2

9.5

8.0

2.2

105
67
3

66.9

32
7
1

20.4

15
5
1

9.6

4
2
1

2.5

1
1

0.6

343

23.9

19.8

19.0

24.5

10.2

74
5

7
21

Negro.................. 287

121

Father not farming..

Owner............................ 104
Less than 100 acres.
100 acres, less than
200 .......................
200 acres and over..
Acreage not reportec
T enant........................

28.0

55
5

20.8

1
3
42.2.
76.0

60
16

36
9
9

27
5
8

5
3

166

21.7

52
5

19.7

59
4

22.3

8.0

2.6

3
1

1.1

2
2

3
1

One-half share.......... 59
One-third and onefourth share.......... 264
Other.......................... 20

1.3

100

20.9

13.9

13.2

6.6

15.4

4.8

1.0

3.1
1.9

....

3
1
1

1
1
25.3

19.9

20.5

9.0

3.6

One-third and onefourth share........ .
Other........................

8
1

3 ..........

.
Father not fan ning.. .

13
4

3
3

1 N ot shown where base is less than 100.

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G E N E R A L TABLES.
T a b l e 2 .—

Total daily hours' work performed while not attending school by children 1 in
resident farm ing fam ilies, by daily hours’ field work.
Children under 16 years of age who worked while not attending school.
Total daily hours’ work.

Daily hours' field work while
not attending school and race
and county of residence.

13
12
11
10
6
14
8 ! hours,
Dotal. Less hours, hours,
hours, hours, hours, hours, Not
than
less
less
less
re
less
less
less
and
6
than than than than than than over. sorted.
hours.
12.
13. i 14.
11.
10.
8.

HILL COUNTY.

W hite.............. ..............................

Negro...............................................
T

759

104

34
47
133
232
162
103
5
2
41

4
20

4
19
69

2
2

43
55

203

145

1
3
18
133
48

1
2
2
33
74
32

6
18
12
27
19
19
3
1
8

3
33
34

1
1
28
5
2

113

2
9
9

5
6

64
2
1
1
7
6
9

38
9

1
8

10
5

6
10

1
14
5

3
3
1

1
7

BUSK COUNTY.

W hite................ .............................

■vj

Negro.............................. ...............
t

539

54
50
124
126
106
39
1
36
3

13
28

5
20
66

448

23
29
76
134
102
43
3
34
4

6
12

1
10
21

39
22

125

1
3
24
22

2
1
4
8
1

2
1
12
50
6

1
41
72
9

1
2

1
4
32
33

12
56
5

4
32
46
3

3
37
18

39
1
2
3
8
22
3

50
1
1
3
9

35
1
56
1
2
5
7
6

__
34
1

i Excludes 58 white and 14 negro children in Hill County, and 13 white and 3 negro children in Rusk
County who had been in the area less than one year; also 448 white and 35 negro children in H iu County,
and 280 white and 217 negro children in Rusk County who did no work while not attending school.

5 4 9 1 4 ° — 2 4 -------6

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C H IL D R E N I N

TEXAS C O TT O N -G R O W IN G A R EAS.

T a b l e 3 . — Number

o f days' school attendance by children in resident farm ing fam ilies,
by age and race o f child and county o f residence.
Children between 6 and 16 years of age—
Attending school specified number of days.

Age and race of child and county of
residence.

Total.

Less than
20 days.

20 days, less
than 40.

40 days, less
than 60.

60 days, less
than 80.

Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per
ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1
HILL COUNTY.

W hite............................................................

942

1.2

3.0

4.4

10.5

6 years, under 8....................................
8 years, under 11..................................
11 years, under 14................................
14 >ears, under 16................................

195
295
284
168

5
2
1
3

2.6
.7
.4
1.8

10
3
7
8

5.1
1.0
2.5
4.8

4
16
12
9

2.1
5.4
4.2
5.4

5
38
35
21

2.6
12.9
12.3
12.5

124

2.4

• 32

3.2

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

25
41

W hite............................................................

616

2.8

3.1

6.8

9.9

6 years, under 8....................................
8 years, under 11..................................
11 years, under 14................................
14 years, under 16................................

126
184
195
111

4
4
6
3

3.2
2.2
3.1
2.7

6
7
3
3

4.8
3.8
1.5
2.7

3
12
12
15

2.4
6.5
6.2
13.5

5
20
23
13

4.0
10.9
11.8
11.7

2
1
1

3
1

RUSK COUNTY.

Negro............................................................. 2 486

1.6

5.3

9 5

12.3

109
155
140
82

3
4
1

2.8
2.6
.7

11
4
6
5

10.1
2.6
4.3

11
12
14
9

10.1
7.7
10.0

6
20
16
18

5.5
12.9
11.4

6 years, under 8...................................
8 years, under 11..................................
11 years, under 14...............................

i Not shown where base is less than 100.
1 Excludes 13 children for whom age was not reported, 2 of whom were not attending school.

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GENERAL TABLES.

T a b l e 3.-—Number

o f days' school attendance by children in resident farm ing families,
by age and race o f child and county o f residence—Continued.
Children between 6 and 16 years of ageAttending school specified number of days.

Age and race of child and
county of residence.

80 d a y s. less than
100.
Number.

Per
cent.1

100 days, less than 120 davs, less than 140 days less than
120.
140.
160.
Number.

Per
cent.1

Number.

Per
cent.1

Number.

Per
cent.

HILL COUNTY.

W hite....................................
6 years, under 8 ..........
8 years, under 11........
11 years, under 14___
14 years, under 16___

155
14
58
53
30

16.5
7.2
19.7
18.7
17.9

175
11
66
65
33

18.6
5.6
22.4
22.9
19.6

84
4
28
39
13

Negro....................................
6 years, under 8 ..........
8 years, under 11........
11 years, under 14___
14 yearsi under 16___

1.6

1
1

8.9
2.1
9.5
13.7
7.7
;

46
2
20
18
6

4.9
1.0
6.8
6.3
3.6

1.0

1
2
3

1.0
2.7

RUSK COUNTY.

W hite...................................
6 years, under 8 ..........
8 years, under 11........
11 years, under 14___
14 years, under 16___
Negro....................................
6 years, under 8 ..........
8 years, under 11........
11 years, under 14___
14 years, under 16___

114
2
39
44
29
129
6
48
47
28

18.5
1.6
21.2
22.6
26.1
26.5
5.5
31.0
33.6

130
6
46
55
23
46
1
16
20
9

21.1
4.8
25.0
28.2
20.7
9.5
.9
10.3
14.3

58
1
25
23
9

9.4
.8
13.6
11.8
8.1

Children between 6 and 16 years of a g e Attending school specified number of
days.
Age and race of child and
county of residence.

160 days and over.
Number.

Per
cent.

Not attending

In area less, than
one year.

Not reported.
Number.

Per
cent.1

Number.

Per
cent.1

Number.

Per
cent.1

HILL COUNTY.

W hite...................................
6 years, under 8 ..........
8 years, under 11........
11 years, under 14___
14 years, under 16___
Negro....................................
6 years, under 8 ..........
8 years j under 11........
11 years, under 14___
14 years, under 1 6 ....

19
3
8
7
1

2.1
1.5
2.7
2.5
.6

87
7
29
29
22
32
2
12
10
8

9.2
3.6
9.8
10.2
13.1
25.8

152
124
13
1
14
62
20
17
17
8

16.1
63.6
4.4
.4
8.3
50.0

45
6
14
17
8
14
3
6
2
3

54
5
20
20
9
91
11
41
30
9

8.8
4.0
10.9
10.3
8.1
18.7
10.1
26.5
21.4

105
91
9
4

17.0
72.2
4.9
2.1
.9
15.8
55.0
6.5
2.1

10
3
1
3
3

4.8
3.1
4.7
6 .0

4.8
11.3

HUSK COUNTY.

W hite........................ ...........
6 years, under 8 ..........
8 years, under 11........
11 years, under 14___
14 yearsi under 16___
Negro................................ ,.
6 years, under 8 ..........
8 years, under 11........
11 years, under 14___
14 years, under 16___
1 N ot shown where base is less than 100.

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77
60
10
3
4

1.6
2.4
.5
1 .5

2.7
.6

2.1

C H IL D R E N I N TE X A S C O TT O N -G R O W IN G AREAS.

T a b l e 4 . —Per

cent o f school attendance by children in resident farm ing fam ilies, by age
and race o f child and county o f residence.
Children between 6 and 16 years of age.1
8 years,
under 11.

Total.
Per cent school attendance, race of child,
and county of residence.

11 years,
under 14.

14 years,
under 16.

Under
8
Per
Per
Per
Per
cent
cent Num cent Num cent
Num distri years.2 Num distri
distri ber. distri
ber.
ber.
ber.
bu
bu
bu
bu
tion.
tion.2
tion.2
tion.2

HILL COUNTY.

W hite..................................................................

745

100.0

268

100.0

266

100.0

146

100.0

Less than 25 per cen t...............................
25 per cent, less than 50...........................
50 per cent, less than 60...........................
60 per cent, less than 70...........................
70 per cent, less than 80..........................
80 per cent, less than 90...........................
90 per cent, less than 100.........................

3.6
10.3
6.8
11.4
17.9
20.3
17.6
.4
11.7

11
9
3
9
8
11
5
2
7

3
28
22
30
48
58
50

1.1
10.4
8.2
11.2
17.9
21.6
18.7
10.8

1.5
8.3
7.1
10.2
19.5
20.3
21.8
.4
10.9

6.2
12.3
4.8
13.0
17.1
19.2
12.3

4
22
19
27
52
54
58
1
29

9
18
7
19
25
28
18

N ot reported. . ..........................................

27
77
51
85
133
151
131
3
87

15. i

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

100.0

2
5
3
1
2
2
1

i
1
I
1
•

1
1

4
1
1

2
1
1
2

1
10

RUSK COUNTY.

W h it e ..............................................................

501

100.0

174

100.0

188

100.0

107

100.0

Less than 25 per cen t..............................
25 per cent, less than 50..........................
50 per cent, less than 60................. « ....,
60 per cent, less than 70...........................
70 per cent, less than 80...........................
80 per cent, less than 90...........................
90 per cent, less than 100........................
100 per cen t................................................
N ofreported........................................ .

27
52
38
49
67
93
109
16
50

5.4
10.4
7.6
9.8
13.4
18.6
21.8
3.2
10.0

1
4
3
1
5

6
18
14
12
29
34
39
4
18

3.4
10.3
8.0
6.9
16.7
19.5
22.4
2.3
10.3

9
11
11
24
25
36
46
7
19

4.8
5.9
5.9
12.8
13.3
19.1
24.5
3.7
10.1

4
19
9
11
12
19
21
4
8

3.7
17.8
8.4
10.3
11.2
17.8
19.6
3.7
7.5

Negro............ ............... ¿ . ................................. 3 406

100.0

145

100.0

134

100.0

, 78

100.0

7
42
26
27
37
79
82
15
91

1.7
10.3
6.4
6.7
9.1
19.5
20.2
3.7
22.4

4
17
3
3
3
6
1
1
11

3
7
6
10
11
26
33
8
41

2.1
4.8
4.1
6.9
7.6
17.9
22.8
5.5
28.3

10
12
3
13
28
34
4
30

7.5
9.0
2.2
9.7
20.9
25.4
3.0
22.4

5
11
10
19
14
2
9

4
2

1 Excludes 45 w hite and 14 negro children in H ill County and 10 w hite and 3 negro children in Rusk
County, who had been in area less than one year; also 152 white and 62 negro children in H ill County and
105 white and 79 negro children in Rusk County, who were not in school.
* Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 100.
»Excludes 11 children for whom age was not reported.

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G E N E R A L TABLES.

T a b l e 5 . —Absence from school on account o f fa rm work o f children in resident farm ing

fam ilies, by age and race o f child and county o f residence.
Children between 6 and 16 years of age.
Under 8
years.

Total.
Absence from school on account of
farm work and race and county of
residence.

years,
under 11.

years,
under 14.

14 years,
under 16.

Per
Per
Per
Per
Per
Num cent
Num cent
N um cent
N um cent
Num cent
dis
dis
dis
dis
dis
ber. tribu ber. tribu ber. tribu ber. tribu ber. tribu
tion.1
tion.1
tion.1
tion.1
tion.

HILL COUNTY.

W hite....... ............... .............................

942

100.0

195

100.0

295

100.0

284

100.0

168

100.0

N o absence for farm work..........
Less than 10 days.........................
days, less than 20.....................
20 days, less than 30.....................

572
61
85
51
37
24
42
70

60.7
6.5
9.0
5.4
3.9
2.5
4.5
7.4

184

94.4

141
25
34
25
14
9
13
23

70
15
18

60.0
6.4
9.8
4.7
4.1
2.7
3.1
9.2

49.6

4
1

177
19
29
14

41.7
8.9
10.7
6.5
6.5

124

100.0

61.3

1
2

20
1
1
7
6

50 days and over...........................
N ot reported..................................

2
1

18
27

1.6
.8
14.5
21.8

616

100.0

2
1

1.0
2.1

.5
1.5

12
8

9
27

BUSK COUNTY.

"White......................................................
No absence for farm work..........

10days, less than 20.....................
50 days and over................... .
Not reported..................................

8.1

184

100.0

195

97.6

135

73.4

54.9
14.9

16
5

8.7
2.7

107
29
16

9
3

4.6
1.5
3.1

5486 100.0

109

66.9
4.7

10.2

1
1

102
1

6.3
3.1

1.0
1.6
6.0

11 6.0

.8
.8
100.0

2
8

155

120
6
2.8 10
6

93.6
.9

1 .9
2 1.8

* Excludes 13 children for whom age was not reported.

1
9

2.2
1.1
1.6

8.2
12 6.2
6

8
7
10
12
7
8

4.3

100.0

140

100.0

77.4
3.9
6.5
3.9
1.9

50.0
7.9
16.4
9.3
4.3
.7
2.9

33
5
14

5.8

23
13

4 .2

11.3

10.1

100.0 111 100.0

100.0
.8

7
19
17

126

11
11

123

1Not shown where base is less than 100.

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

4.9
3.2
4.6

67.7
417
48
7.8
4Ô1 6.5
4.4
27
25
4.1
1.9
18
2.9
29
4.7

325
23
50
31
15
5
N ot reported..................................

8.8
12.0
8.8

. 6,7

6
1
4
12 8.6

12
6
3
3

46.8
7.2
6.3
9.0

10.8
6.3
7.2
6.3

C H IL D R E N I N

TEXAS C O TT O N -G R O W IN G AREAS.

T a b l e 6.-—Retardation o f children1 between 8 and 16 years o f age in resident farm ing

families, by farm ing status o f fa m ily, race, arid county o f residence.
Children between 8 and 16 years of age attending school and in area entire year.
Retarded.
Farming status of
family and race and
county of residence. To
tal.1

Normal.
Total.

One year.

years
Two years. Three
and over.

Advanced.

Num Per N um Per Num Per N um Per N um Per N um Per
ber. cent.2 ber. cent.2 ber. cent.2 ber. cent.2 ber. cent.2 ber. cent.*
HILL COUNTY.

644

375

58.2

25.9

109

16.9

284
84

138
41

48.6

66
22

23.2

33
7

124
73

59
36

47.6

29
14

23.4

12
12

13.7
9.7

18
7

3
331
16
Father not farming. 13

217

¿4
5

19.3

57
7

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

Owner........................
Tenant.......................

7
30
3

29
3

W hite............................ 465

317

339

224

W hite............................

100acres, less than
200.......................
Acreage not re-

65.6

167

96
3

29.0

2
10
2
7
1

259

40.2

11.6

140
41

49.3

14.5

61
37

49-2

3.2

17.2

1
111
1

33.5

0.9

2
21
2
17
2

2
5

10 1.6
6 2.1
2

15.4

2
1
1

BUSK COUNTY.

Less

than

100

68.2
66.1

130

28.0

29-2

20.2
66 19.5
22 21.0
94

105

64.8

30.5

143
84

94
59

65.7

40
27

28.0

28
15

Acreage not re
ported..........t . r.
7
T enant....................... 104
Laborer......................
Father not farming.

3
87

83.7

24.0

Negro............................. 339

285

84.1

Owner........................ 157
Less than 100
acres.................... 74
acres, less
than 200............. 49
acres and over. 18
Acreage not re
ported................. 16
Tenant....................... 176
Laborer......................
4
Father not farming.

124

79.0

100 acres, less
than 200.............
200acres and over.

1
21

100
200

20.0

143

30.8

17.4

111

32.7

13.3

34.3

19.6

26
17

18.2

46
25

32.2

26.9

32.7

4
17

16.3

27.7

19.5

125

36.9

15.9

32,5

19.1

27.4

21.0

39
13

16
7

16
5

14
156

5
42

5
34

4
80

2
20
1

88.6

1.1
1.2
1 1.0
2.1
3
5

23.9

19.3

1
1

45.5

11.4

Excludes 28 white children and 5 negro children in H ill County, and 1 white and 25 negro ciiildren In
Rusk County for whom age or grade was not reported.
* N ot shown where base is less than 100.

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

G E N E R A L TA B LE S.
T a b l e 7 . — Average

number o f persone per room in dwellings o f children in resident
farm ing fam ilies, by age. and race o f child, and county o f residence.
Children under 16 years of age.
Average number of persons per room.

Age and race of child
and county of resi
dence.
Total.

Less than
one.

Over one,
less than
two.

One.

Two.

Over two,
less than
three.

Three and
over.

Num Per Num Per N um Per Num Per N um Per N um Per
ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1 ber. cent.1
HILL COUNTY.

W h ite.......................... 1,265

139

11.0

139

Under 7 years........
7 years, undSr 1 0 ...
years, under 13..
13 years, under 16..

420
290
289
259
7

52
27
31
29

12.4
93
10.7

53
35
29

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

162

Under 7 years........
7 years, under 10...
10' years, under 13..
13 years, under 16..

52
40
33
37

11.2
.6

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

22
4

11.0
12.6
12.1
10.0

573

45.3

128

10.1

204

16.1

6.5

42.1
44.1
47.1
51.0

41
36
26

9.8
12.4
9.0
7.7

69
46
50
37

16.4
15.9
17.3
14.3

28
18
17
19

6.7

8.5

1771
128
136
132

2.5

11.7

11.1

36.4

37.7

7
3
3

2
2

5
4
5
4

6.2

5.9
7.3

20
1161

1131

BUSK COUNTY.

W hite...........................

832

110

13.2

11.5

444

53.4

81'

Under 7 years........
7 years, under 10...
10 years, under 13..
13 years, under 16..

277
195
193
167

9.4

33
27

53.4
52.8
57.5
49.1

15.0
20.4

148
103

29
34

11.9
13.8
10.4
9.6

668

5.7

8.7

239

35.8

223
152
151
129
13

11 4.9
12 7.9
9
6.0
6 4.7

18
9
9
17
5

8.1
5.9
6.0

80
52
53
51
3

35.9
34.2
35.1
39.5

Negro...........................
Under 7 years........
7 years, under 10...
10 years, under 13..
13 years, under 16..
Age not reported..

21 10.8

1 Not shown where base is less than 100.

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

13.2

111
82

11.5

14.4

137

20.5

13.9
14.5

47
32
38

21.1
21.1

9.7

10.1
21 10.8
14
7.3
18 10.8

19
24

12.6
18.6

21 10.8
18
9.3
17 10.2

25.2
15.5

.6
2 .7
2 1.0
1 .5

100

15.0

36
25
23

16.1
16.4
15.2
8.5

151

C H IL D R E N I N

TEXAS C O TT O N -G R O W IN G AREAS

T a b l e 8 . — Total daily hours worked by m others1 in resident farm ing fam ilies, by daily

hours of field work, race, and county o f residence.
Mothers who did field work.
D aily hours of mother in field
work and race and county of
residence.

Total daily hours in all kinds of work.
Total.

hours, 9 hours,
hours, 13 hours,
less than less than less than less than 15 hours
and over.
9.
.
13.
15.

Not re
ported.

HILL COUNTY.

W hite.............................................
Less than 7 hours...................
7 hours, less than 9 ............
9 hours, less than 11..............
11 hours, less than 13..........
13 hours, less than 15.........
N ot reported...........................
N egro.....................................
Less than 7 hours...............
7 hours, less than 9 ..........
9 hours, less than 11........
11 hours, less than 13.........
13 hours, less than 15__
N ot reported................

266

51
54

16
5
13
35

7
7
3
18

64
64

4
3
17

1
1

11
3
5

21
46

2
1

2
10
2

1
%

1
1

4
5
i
i

2
2

RUSK COUNTY.

W hite..........................................
Less than 7 hours...................
7 hours, less than 9 ............ ..
9 hours, less than 11..........
11 hours, less than 13___
N ot reported.........................
N egro..........................................
Less than 7 hours..................
7 hours, less than 9 ................
9 hours, less than 11..............
11 hours, less than 13__ . . . .
13 hours, less than 15..........
N ot reported...........................

148

47
33

9
5

16
13

7
3
17

15
7-

8
1

195

9
14

4
23

46
70
38

1
5

20g
30

2
12
2
i

i Excludes 15 white and 7 negro mothers in H ill County, and 4 white and 2 negro mothers in Rusk
County, who had been in area less than one year; also 167 white mothers and 1 negro mother in trill County
and 141 white and 35 negro mothers in Rusk County who did no field work.
'

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

G E N E R A L TA B L E S.
T a ble 9.

-A m o u nt o f m ilk used daily in resident farm ing fam ilies, by number in
household, race, and county o f residence.
Resident farming families.

Number in household,

residence.

Amount of m ilk used daily.

Total.

None
Less
and con than 3
densed.1 pints.

3 pints, 6 pints, 8 pints,
less than less than less than
8.
6.
9.

9 pints
and
over.

Not re
ported.

HILL COUNTY.
W hite..........................

458

2............................
3.................. .........
4............................
5............................
6............................
7............................
8............................
9. f ........................
10..........................
11..........................
12..........................
13..........................

3
36
76
74
81
59
51
40
19
11
2
6

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

3............................
4............................
5............................
6............................
7............................
8............................
9............................
10..........................
11.....................
12..........................
15 and over...........

5
6
4
9
7
5
6
2
3
2
2

2
1
1
2
1
1

295

9
2
2
1
1

1
1
1
4
2

1
4
5
5
5
2
1

1
1
3

1
1
3
2
1

3
1
1

14
20
9
10
9
6
4
4

1
1
1

1
2
1
1
1
1

1
3

321
2
16
43
55
58
42
40
34
15
8
2
6

14
i
4
1
4
2
2

BUSK COUNTY.
W hite..........................
3............................
4............................
5............................
6............................
7............................
8............................
9............................
10..........................
11..................
12..........................
Negro..........................

2................................

3 ............................
4 ............................
5 ............................
6 ............................

7 ............................
8............................
9............................
10..........................
11..........................
12..........................

26
51
57
53
1
35
40
22
6 ...............
...

1
2
1

1
1

5
3
2
,

199

11
15
16
16
5
3

10
28
36
35
24
33
22

4
1
4
1
4
2

6
3

236
4
25

38
45
32
29

25
17

25
2

6
6
5
4

8
10
12
13

2
3
3

4
4
4

1
1

8
3
3

1
1

4
4
6

2
2
1

2
2

10
11
8
15
11
10
3
4

1
1

10
2
2
7

1
1

1 Condensed milk was in most instances used in such small quantities, usually in coffee or tea, as to be
almost negligible.

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Full text of The Welfare of Children in Cotton-Growing Areas of Texas, Bureau Publication No. 134

FRASER