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LLE HEr Y COLLE E LIBRA. Y
j n7'45
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
FRANCES PERKINS, Suretary
WOMEN'S BUREAU
FRIEDA-S. MILLER, Director
+
.WOMEN'S EMERGENCY FARM SERVICE
ON THE PACIFIC COAST IN 1943
BULLETIN OF THE WoMEN's BuREAu,
No. 204
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1945
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C.
Price 10 cents
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR,
OJ.\,IEN's BUREAU,
vV
Washington, F ebruary 13, 1945.
MADAM: I am submitting herewith a description of the work on the
Pacific coast farms done by nonfarm women and the conditions under
which such work was organized and carried out in 1943. The survey
records efforts to utilize this group of workers e:ffeotively in a wartime
labor-shortage market and the difficulties encountered under Pacific
coast farming conditions.
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The field surveys were made and the report has been written by
Frances W. Valentine.
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Respectfully submitted.
FRIEDA S. MILLER,
HoN. FRANCES PERKINS,
Secretary of Labor.
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Director.
CONTENTS
Page
Letter of transmittaL----------- --- ------------ - ------- ---~---- ------Part L Introduction________________ _________________ ___ _______ ______ _
The agriculture of the Pacific coast_____________ __ _______ _____ _____
The food-processing industry of the Pacific coast...:______ ____ ____ __ _
Part II. The labor supply_____ ____ __ ___ ____ __ ____________ _________ ____
Peacetime sources __________ ________ _____ __________ _- -- ----- ----The crisis in 1942____ _______ _____ ___ _______ _____ _____ ____ __ __ ____
Examples of 1942 camps for women_~--- ------------------ --Employment of young people________ ___ _____________ __ ___ ____
Federal Government plans for 1943_____ ____ __ _____ ___ ____ _____ ____
Part UL California's use of women in 1943___ ___ _____________ _____ __
Standards established__________________ ____ ____________ ______ __ __
Contract with farmer . :. _____ _____ _---------------------------Workers' enrollment_ ____ ___ ___:__ _______ ______ _______ ___ ________
Recruitment of women______ ____ ______ ______ ____________ __ _______
Women who served___ ____ ___ ___ ___________________________ ______
Work done by women_____ ___ _______ ____________ ______ __ __________
Wages; earnings, and rates of paY-- - ----------~---------- ---- - ---Hours__________ ________ ___ __ __ ________ ___ ______ __ ______ ___ ______
Transportation- ------------------------ -------------------------Housing___________ ____ ____ _________ ____ __________ _______ ____ ____
F"ood_________________ ___________________ ____ __________________ __ _
At titude of farmers toward nonfarm women__ __ ____ __ ____ ____ _______
Part IV. Oregon's use of women__ ________ ___ ___ _________ __ ___ ________
Oregon agriculture______ _________ __________ ____________ ___ ___ ____
Labor requirements in Oregon____ __ ___ ________ ____ _______ ___ _____
The 1943 program------ ------- ----------------------- - --~----- --The women who worked_____ ____ _________________ _______________ _
Work done by women ____ _____ - - - ----------- - --- --- - ----- --- --- -Earnings____________________ _____ __ ______ ____ _____ ______________
Earnings in other farm work ________ __________ ___ __ _________
Hour~------ ------------------- -------------- ------- ------ ------Rest and lunch periods___ ______ ____________ __ ______________ _
Drinking water________ ___ ___ _____ ____ __________ _____ __ __________
Sanitary conditions__ ___ ___ __ __ ___ __ ____ __ ____ ____ ____ __ _______ __
Transportation__ _______ __ ___ __________ __ _____ _____ _________ ___ ____
Insurance_____ _______________ ___ ___ ______ ______ _____ ________ ____
Part V. Washington's use of women __________ ____ __ ___ ___ ___ ____ __ ____
Washington agriculture________ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ____ __________ ____ __
Labor demands_____ __ ___ ____ ___ __ ___ ____ ___ __ __ _____________ ___ _
The demand in 1943___ _________ ___ ________ ___ __ ________ __ _____ ___
The women who worked_______ ______ ____ ____________ __ ___ ____ ____
Work done by women____ ___________________ __ _______ _____ _______
Earnings_ _____ __________________________ _________ ________ ___ ____
Hours___________ ___ ____ ____ ____ ______ ______ ___ ___ __ _____ __ ______
Sanitation __ ___ _____ --- - - - - ---------- ------------------------ --Health and safety---- --- - --- - ------ ---------- ------------------Part VI.- Conclusions_____ _____ ___________ ____ __ _________ __ __ ___ _____
Screening of workers and farmers _____ ____ _____ ____________ _____ _
Sanitary facilities __ _______________ _,_ __ ___ ___ _________ ___ ______ ___
Washing facilities ____ __________ ..,__ __________________ _________ ___
Drinking water in fields___ __ ______ ___ _________________ __ __ ______ _
Hours __ ____ ___ ______ ___ ____ ___________________ __ __ __ ______ __ ____
Production and earnings-- - --- -----~-------- - ------ ---- - ---------III
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Women's Emergency Farm Service on the
Pacific Coast in 1943
PART 1.-INTRODUCTION
THE AGRICULTURE OF THE PACIFIC COAST 1
I n a consideration of the use made of women in the agriculture of
the three Pacific Coast States, the types of £arming found there and
the types of labor ordinarily prevailing are factors that must be given
attention. These Stat es are extremely important in the country's
agriculture; in fact, many products have their highest output in a
State of this group. E specially do the States rank high in the crops
with which this report is concerned-berries, tree fruits, grapes, hops,
and certain vegetables.
I n the matter of vegetables, for example, California, Oregon, and.
Washington together, led by California, yield one-third of the celery;
two-fifths of the carrots, the peas, the asparagus; two-thirds of the
lettuce. Washington outranks all other States in the production of
apples ; Oregon all other States in the production of hop and of
filberts; and Califo:t nia, as is common know ledge, leads in the production of grapes, English walnuts, peaches, apricots, plums, prunes,
and many other fruits important to the American table.
California's variety of soil and climate is such that it can grow
almost every vegetable, fruit, and nut that can be grown anyw ere
in the United St ates. F urthermore, it produces some that are grown
commercially nowhere else.
In California the citrus fruits predominate ; in Oregon it is pears
and in Washington apples that are most valuable. Apples, pears,
peaches, prunes, ,and cherries are grown ext ensively in each of the
States ; apricots in California and Washington. Berries are raised
in quantities in northern California, Oregon, and Washington.
I n addition to the great variety this area produces, the quantity
of such crops is enormous. When one £arm or ranch has 8,000 acres
of grapes alone, for example, and is planting more, an idea of the h uge
numbers of farm laborers needed may be conceived. Though the vast_
grain fields, devoted chiefly to wheat but with some barley and oats,
and -such crops as the peas grown in great quantity for the canneries,
are planted and harvested almost entirely by machinery, crews to
operate the machinery are necessary. The range of t emperature is
such that in every month of the year some crop is being harvested.
Due to this variety in temperatui·e, which ranges from the intense
heat of the Imperial Valley in southern California to t he more tern1
Figures from U. S. D epartment of Agriculture' s "Agricultura l S t atistics, 1943."
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WOMEN'S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
perate valleys of northern Washington, the t~me of rip~ni_ng of the
various crops proceeds slowly north. The highly speciahze:d £arm
labor, in ordinary times, follows the crops as they ripen. Agriculture
in California at least is practi'Cally a year-round industry, though ·
of course the peak of, the harvesting comes in the summer and early
fall months.
The majority of the farms producing these crops a.re highly specialized. There a.re acres of nothing but lettuce in the area where lettuce
is grown. There are valleys where every small farm grows ,t he cane
berries and nothing else; tracts where strawberries are grown; enormous areas-thousands and thousands of acres-of citrus fruits; thousands of acres of string beans, carrots, tomatoes, onions, potatoes.
Most farms grow only one vegetable. There are whole valleys of
orchards of apples, pears, prunes, cherries, English walnuts; miles of
spina:ch, lettuce, asparagus. There are vineyards by the mile in certain sections. One part of a State is devoted to growing cannery
peas, another to sugar beets or wheat. The crops of all ,t hese States
are widely diversified, but the farms are not, most farmers confining
themselves to one or two major crops.
Even poultry farming, which could be carried on anywhere, is
. highly concentrated in certain areas. Sometimes great orchards,
groves, vineyards, or vegetable tracts are own~d by companies rather
than individuals and there may be no "farm home" close to the
fields. The magnitude of agricultural operations on the Pacific coa.s t,
particularly in California, and the great number of farm laborers required, make farming truly a "war industry" of major importance.
THE FOOD-PROCESSING INDUSTRY OF THE
PACIFIC COAST
The food-processing industry is so closely allied with the £arming
of the Pacific area that it can scarcely be considered separately. In
fact, in many cases the canneries own and operate farm areas for the
great food-processing industry of California. The fruits and vegetables produced here are canned, frozen, or dehydrated and shipped
throughout the country and all over the world, sup'plying the armed
forces as well as the civilian population.
Of the "green" fruit, the greater part is packed in large packing
houses, usually located near the orchards. Canneries, on the contrary,
have tended to move into or near the large cities and towns where
more labor and shipping facilities are available.
PART 11.-THE LABOR SUPPLY
PEACETIME SOURCES
The care of and more particularly the harvesting of the products of
this vast a aricultural territory ( California, Oregon, and Washington)
have been argely dependent on an army of migratory farm workers
who appeared out of winter quarters and started in with the crops in
southern California, working north with the advancing seasons and
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THE LABOR SUPPLY
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varying crops, and upon Japanese citizens or aliens who as owners,
renters, or workers cared for market-garden crops. Some workers
were specialists--cherry pickers, apple pickers, beet workers, softfruit pickers ( soft fruit includes peaches, apricots, and cherries), or
berry pickers. Others worked at any kind of harvest, but all had
developed through the years an ambidextrous rapidity which is simply
impossible for an inexperienced harvest hand to duplicate. They are
called unskilled labor. In reality they have a highly developed technique that the average "green" worker cannot acquire for a long time.
With the tremendous expansion of the shipbuilding and airplane
industries on the Pacific coast, the emergency demand for labor offered
these migratory farm workers steady employment at high wages and
many of them forsook the farms for other war industries. The J apanese citizens and aliens were moved out of the coastal region.
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Also, as in the East, many small farmers whose efforts had never
brought in much income found it more profitable to leave their farms
while they could earn high wages in industry. This was particularly
true where they were so near centers of industry as to be able to live at
home and drive back and forth to their work. Farms deteriorated, but
the owners got more income from their wages than they had from their
crops and could return to farming later.
There had always been a nucleus of permanent help on the farms,
who stayed the year round if the farms were large enough to demand it.
Most of the labor, however, was taken on for harvesting the various
crops, though certain stages of production-"aS blocking and thinning
sugar beets, chopping cotton, pruning vineyards and orchards, pegging
and stringing hops-needed extra workers before harvest time.
Throughout the Pacific States it had been the custom for many years
for boys, girls, women, and often whole families who lived in towns or
cities to go out from their communities in the summer and earn money
by helping to pick fruit. These were families or individuals whose
regular occupation was not agriculture, who did it both to earn money
and as a pleasant change from town life. They took their own camping outfits and went to friends or relatives or to places where they had
been before and knew conditions were agreeable. Sometimes the man
of the family remained in his job and joined the family only for week
ends. Naturally, these workers went where comfortable and clean
housing was :furnished by the farmer. They stayed several weeks and
did a good job. It was not unusual, moreover, for families who had
small :farms to work for their neighbors at harvest time.
While family help was common, it was only supplementary to the
migrants. The "fruit tramps," usually men alone, went from one
orchard to another, from one State to another, findings jobs where they
could. They were skilled by years of experience.
Though all these types of labor-migrants, fruit tramps, town boys
and girls, and families seeking harvest work as a change-had done
the harvesting for years, as the war progressed their ranks became
depleted by the demands of the shipyards and war industries, which
offered the irresistible inducement of more money than agricultural
workers had ever earned before. Thus agriculture, unable to compete
with war industry, found itself with crops to be harvested for which
there was no labor.
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WOMEN'S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
THE CRISIS IN 1942
1
By 1943, producers in the three Pacific States were fully aware of
the situation and made every preparation to meet it. Before examining what was done in 1943, however, what happened in 1942 must be
considered.
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Throughout the whole country 1942 was a record-breaking year for agriculture. Rainfalls and temperatures were propitious, droughts
and floods few, and the Pacific area found itself with huge crops to
be harvested and a serious shortage of labor. The only Government
agency doing anything about farm labor was the United States Employment Service, which also was the agency supplying the war industries. It bent all its efforts to the job. The appeal for help was
made directly to the public. Through the press, the radio, State departments of agriculture, chambers of commerce; through "harvest
councils" hurriedly organized in the larger cities; through the efforts
of various organizations-YMCA, YWCA, Boy Scouts, Girl Scoutsmany people went out to "help save the crops."
, Day workers were the harvest help sought in the main. They were
persons who went out from their homes by the day, taking their own
food and furnishing their own transportation if they could. Gas
could be provided for those who had cars. If they had no transportation, buses or farm trucks would take them to the locality for which
they were booked, where farmers would meet them if necessary. Men,
women, and children went out in this way, but the adults were largely
a group of persons engaged through the week in other occupations
who were contributing their week ends and vacations to harvest work.
In the small towns, which were surrounded by agricultural lands and
whose very life depended on agriculture, it was easy to understand
that the crops must be taken care of. Most of the people in the towns
had worked on farms at one time or another. To great numbers of
people harvesting was not a new experience.
Even in 1942, however, an attempt at organization was being worked
out. Many groups of young people went to farms, though often
without adequate supervision; camps for youth were set up without
enough planning or good management. But the· faults were recognized and plans were made for much better organization in 1943. In
1942 the USES was the Government agency that placed farm labor,
but it had no authority nor funds for supervisory work. In some
areas a very active effort was made to get women for farm work, but
in most localities · no effort to place women except as day workers
was made because ( 1) there was no housing for women on the farms,
and ( 2) most farmers did not want women.
In CaHfornia the American Women's Voluntary Services had anticipated this need and had realized early in 1942 that there was much
work that women could do. .An Agricultural Committee was formed
under the leadership of an able and enthusiastic chairman. After
study of -the Women's Land Army in Britain and the use of women
in this work in various other parts of the United St ates, and after
consultation with several Government agencies, with State chambers
of commerce, and with growers, the committee decided to work on a
project of recruiting and housing women over 18 who were willing
to help in harvesting the crops of California.
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THE LABOR SUPPLY
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Examples of 1942 Camps for Women.
Some of the more hard-pressed farmers were ready to consider using
women. In June a farmer from Vaca ville, Calif., went to the A WVS
chairman and said that he had read about women being recruited for
farm work, and that he and a group of farmers were ready to put
$100 each into a pool to finance a camp for women if the A WVS
would recruit them and supervise the camp. To the question as to
where they could be housed, he replied that the district school board
would give permission to establish the camp in the high school and
to use the school buses to transport the workers; that they could
even take the school ·buses out of the county to get workers if they
would pay the mileage. ( Since some of the farmers who wanted help
were members of the school board, and others were influential members
of the community, the practical value of using the school was easily
understood.) The A WVS agreed to recruit the women, and this
camp, successfully carried through in 1942, was the forerunner of the
many camps of workers, both women and young people, established
throughout California in 1943 in school buildings. This camp set
up in the high school with a capacity of 70 workers, maintained about
50 women picking apricots. The qomestic-science room was used as
a kitchen; the gymnasium, supplied with cots, was used as a dormitory; and an excellent camp was maintained. Other camps were set
up as the need increased. The personnel of' this camp were chiefly
women who were able to take their vacations at this time or had no
regular employment. No report of their earnings was available.
While this was being planned in northern California, in southern
California the A WVS had been recruiting harvest workers. Booths
had been put up in the streets of Santa Barbara and prospective
recruits had signed up for harvest work. In cooperation with the
USES, ranches were sought where the "volunteers" 2 could work.
Several apricot growers were found who thought they would need
women but had no housing facilities for them. (The housing that
had been used by migratory workers was not satisfactory for women,
nor were there sanitary or bathing facilities, and the growers frankly
preferred Mexicans if they could get them, who would accept the
housing they had.)
One grower who said he would like a group of women had the best
apricot crop in his experience and did not know where he could get
labor. He could provide a beautiful camp site with fine water piped
to it. Tents with stoves, tables, and chairs were furnished and beds
with springs (but no mattresses) or canvas cots. Outdoor showers
were provided and the hot sun warmed the water in the metal pipes.
Drinking water was hung in water coolers. Outdoor privies, inclosed but not roofed, were supplied, three for women at the camp
and some out in the orchards. The campers bought and prepared
their own food.
The women picked and halved apricots, using ladders that they
moved themselves, and earned-partly on piece work and partly on
hourly rates-something over $3 a day . . The hours were 9 a day,
Sunday as well as weekdays, as the work lasted only 3 weeks.
2 In California the men, women, and young people who were not ordinarily agricultural
workers but who went out to harvest were called "volunteers" though they were paid.
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WOMEN'S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
On the whole; the experiment was satisfactory to both the grower
and the women. Even at that early day the factors that were to
· prove essential to good camps were noted. Supervision was needed,
the training of new workers was insufficient, careful explanation and
demonstration of the work to new employees as they came on would
have insured better work.
A tomato-picking camp recruited from the Los Angeles area was
not entirely satisfactory, as the housing arrangements were difficult
and the picking was not good enough at the rate paid to satisfy the
women or enable the girls who followed them to make more than
would pay their board. They did, however, enjoy their experience
at the camp. They did not work full 8-hour days.
The camp in 1942 that really began to develop the possibilities 0£
adult women workers was sponsored and recruited by the A WVS 0£
southern California at the request of one of the largest California
fruit growers. One hundred and fifty women were requested, to pick
grapes in the San Joaquin Valley. The company would house them,
feed them ( the excellence of the food was soon to become known
throughout the valley) ; maintain janitor service, and pay a camp
director selected by the A WVS. Bus fare would be paid one way if
the work_ers stayed 3 weeks, both ways if she stayed 6.
Women were housed in converted box cars, six workers to each
car. There was a utility building with flush toilets, hot and cold
showers, and wash bowls, and a building with the supervisor's quarters, living room, and place to lounge or play games, also tubs for the
washing of clothing.
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The women worked under the immediate supervision of regular
ranch foremen; they were carefully instructed in their work and
were not expected to be profitable workers the day they started.
The pay was 65 cents an hour for all, and the working day was 9
hours-from 7 to 5-with a hot dinner at noon in the company dining
room. A full week's pay was $35.10, and after deduction for board
$26.35 remained for the worker.
Employment of Young People.
While the A WVS was busy with camps for adult women,. its major
interest, the YWCA had done similar work in organizing camps for
girls of school age. It is not the province of this report to discuss the
employment of youth and children in harvest or farm work, though
in 1942 they- were unquestionably the largest group of volunteer workers secured for harvest work in all· the three Pacific Coast States.
The efforts of 1942 sho~ed clearly the need of definite organization
standards and supervision. In California, the YWCA appointed 'a
State Chairman for· Agriculture and, in cooperation with the YMCA,
the USES, the A WVS, the Chamber of Commerce, and the education
authorities under the auspices of the San Francisco Harvest Council,
worked during the winter of 1942 to establish standards that should
enable the employment of youth to be more effective and satisfactory.
As many of the same problems come up with adult women, standards
were made to cover both young people and adults.
In Washington in 1942 the Governor sent out an appeal for alJ
who could do so to offer their services, and asked the University of
Washington to cooperate by sending groups of students to h~lp harvest
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CALIFORNIA
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apples. This job was put in the hands of the college dean, who turned
the recruiting over to the students, a chairman for the women and
one for the men being appointed. .An office for registration was set
up, and registration blanks were sent to all the organized groups of
students ( from church groups to fraternities there were some 200
student organizations). Altogether about 1-,000 students, both men
and women, went out to the two big apple sections, Yakima and
Wenatchee. In both sections an alumnus who knew all the arrangements was on call ready to give' assistance, and in each area there were
women chairmen and local women who could be reached in any
emergency to act as chaperons for the girl students. The Employment
Service took over the job of arranging housing at ranch homes or
at the YMCA for part of the men.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PLANS FOR 1943
At the end of April 1943 -the Congress appropriated funds for a
farm-labor program to be administered by the Extension Service
of the Department of Agriculture through its various State offices.
As one part of the Emergency Farm Labor Program, the Extension
Service formulated plans for the greater use of women in farm work
by setting up a Women's Land Army program. Miss Florence L.
Hall, Extension Service, was named Chief of the Women's Land Army
Division, United States Department of Agriculture. This did not
mean that a new women's organization was to be set up, but rather
that the use of women to replace men farm workers was to be promoted where needed and every encouragement given to such a movement. While each State was free to appoint a Women's Land Army
leader, there was no compulsion, and the States made their own plans
for using women on the farms. The National leader stood ready
to give all help possible. Every woman who took part in the agricultural work of the country would be given a certificate of membership and partioipation in the Women's Land Army.
All three Pacific Coast States appointed WLA leaders from the
regular personnel of the Extension Service, Home Economics Division.
These women worked as assistants to the Farm Labor Supervisors,
and though, because of the late passage of the bill, they did not participat e in the early planning, they got into the work as soon as that
was possible. While at first the real magnitude of the WLA job
was not always foreseen, and leaders sometimes were carrying the
double burden of an old plus a new job, the irpportance of the job
· became increasingly apparent to all. It was a job where "the more
you do, the more you have to do," and where the success and enlargement of the program would depend to some extent on the interest,
ability, and enthusiasm of. the WLA leaders, and on the support and
interest of others members of the Extension Service staff in the
program.
PART 111.-CALIFORNIA'S USE OF WOMEN IN 1943
With the experience of 1942 behind them, much planning and organization was done during the winter o:f 1942-43, particularly in Cali-
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WOMEN'S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
fornia, where it was expected to have a considerable number of camps
in 1943.
. California already had done far more than most Stat es in preparing
to go to work itself on its farm-labor problem. Through its Food
and Fiber Production Act it had appropriated a million and a half
dollars to be administered by the California Farm Production Council, which was ready to help women's groups with plans.
STANDARDS ESTABLISHED
In March 1943, before the harvest season started and before the
Federal and State Extension Service of the Department of Agriculture had been assigned the job of recruiting and placing farm workers,
the San Francisco Harvest Council had appointed a committee and
gathered material from such agencies as the A WVS, the YWCA, the
California State and San Francisco departments of education, the
USES, the Pacific Camping Association, and others, and had put
out several manuals relating to harvest camps.
One of these manuals related to the duties and n~sponsibilities of
camp directors, one to those of the camp supervisor, one was on
standards for Ii ving and working conditions in student camps, and
another on the same for adult camps. The manuals also included a
suggested contract to be signed by farmers who sought labor from
the camps and an agreement to be signed by the workers enrolling.
These handbooks became guides for the establishment of the 1943
camps, and while not every camp could meet every detail of the
plans set forth, there was a definite standard that the camps sought
to maintain. Having this standard down in black and white made
its attainment much easier.
To discuss these manuals briefly : They recognized that the prime
necessity of a satisfactory camp, one that not only gave good service
to the farmers but kept the workers content~d a]).d working hard with
good morale, was good supervision and.leadership .. As most of the
harvest camps were .for 50 or more persons, manuals set up duties for
both a camp director and camp supervisors.
The director had the responsibility for the whole camp; was expected to be familiar with the labor needs of the farmers, with the
potentialities of the camp members, and see that both were met;
to know the plan and aims of the camp sponsor and work out the
many problems that arise in any such organization. He or she was
also to furnish the li~ison between various community organizations
in the vicinity of the camp, so that the community as a whole should
be informed, interested in, and ·c ooperative about the project.
The actual business management of the camp was the director's
duty, including keeping the records, purchasing supplies, collecting
and accounting for the board money, and so forth. He or she was
responsible also for planning menus, for the morale, health, and physical welfare of the workers, the general upkeep of the camp, personnel
problems, safety, and prevention of accidents.
In addition there were two manuals-for students and for adultson standards for camps as they relate to living and working conditions. The first was prepared by the council subcommittee for Adult
Harvest Camps and covered such topics as ( 1) health, including
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CALIFORNIA
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nutrition, medical supervision, housing, (2) safety, including camp
site, accident prevention, transportation, and telephone, ( 3) sanitation, covering milk, water, dishwashing, garbage, pest control, animals,
latrines, showers, laundry facilities, ( 4) conditions of employment,
including selection, wages, working conditions, supervision, community relationship, and a sample medical-report card.
The standards were, of course, utopian. It would have been im
. possible to attain all these goals. But the fact that they were established as what camp. sponsors would like to have in their camps, and
in part would insist on having, was important. It let farmers, workers,
directors, supervisors, all know that the aim was to have for these
inexperiencell workers good camps, weU run; that a good director
with common sense and a sincere interest would be backed up.
Contract With Farmer.
Ther~ had been occasional difficulty in 1942 in getting farmers to
stick to their agreements. Sometimes, seeing their crops approaching harvest time and without sufficient help to harvest them, they
requested that a harvest camp be set up to serve them~ After all the
organizing and recruiting had been done and a camp was practically
ready to open for operation, a farmer might get migrant or Mexican
labor and change his mind about the camp, regardless of the time and
effort that had been spent in getting workers for him.
Consequently, in 1943 a contract was drawn up for use between
the "camp sponsor" and the grower or group of growers, or processor,
which agreed that the sponsor should recruit a specified number of
physically capable workers for an 8-hour day, 6-day week, and should
maintain the camp at the number of W!)rkers agreed upon. The camp
sponsor would be responsible for the staff and for the board of the
workers, and also for the insurance of workers while at the camp
buildings or grounds. It was agreed that the growers should provide
housing and equipment, sanitary facilities, water, electricity, fuel and
telephone, services (garbage disposal, ordinary maintenance service,
police protection), transportation to and from place of work but not
from recruiting centers to camp and return. The growers should
provide also first-aid kits at work place, fresh drinkjng water in
approved covered containers rea.dily accessible, and proper toilet fa- .
cilities convenient at the place where field work was performed.
When there was no work for a camper who was available, her expenses at camp must be paid by the grower. All growers must guarantee workmen's compensation and liability insurance to campers
while on the job and while being transported, and must guarantee
liability insurance on all buildings and living accommodations.
A council of three was to be chosen to which any difficulty that
might arise should be referred.
These in general -were the provisions of the contract. There was no
way of enforcing its provisions. The farmer might not have enough
work; the sponsor might_not recruit enough workers. The good will
and good faith of both groups were vital.
Workers' Enrollment.
All workers recruited through the A WVS signed an enrollment
application, were required to file a statement of physical fitness ( a
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WOMEN'S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
woman physician in San Francisco offered to give the medical examination to women recruits for $1.50, or they could apply to their own
doctor), and if accepted were given an assignment card which they
presented at the camp. A postcard was sent by the recruiting office
to the camp with a return postal which acknowledged their arrival.
Junior workers had to have the approval of parent or guardian. A
general description of work plan was given, the hours of work ( 40
to 48), the cost of board ( $1.50 a day) , the personal belongings to be
brought (bedding and all personal equipment).. Rates of pay were
specified only as "prevailing wages will be paid."
RE CRUITMENT OF WOMEN
The extremely serious shortage of harvesters in 1942 and the wide
publicity given to the need for emergency help had made the whole
population farm-labor conscious by 1943. This interest had been
kept up through the winter by meetings of all organizations concerned
·in helping and having something to contribute, combined with press
and radio publicity. In California, with the opening of the 130 new
farm-labor offices by the Extension Service in 1943, each with a conspicuous and easily read sign outside, every important agricultural
center and all large cities had offices, usually with a man and a woman
ready to talk to recruits about the need and opportunities for both
men and women in farm work and also to take the farmers' requests
for help and to cooperate with existing organizations.
The Harvest Council, organized in 1942 in San Francisco and in
several other large cities and with a membership representing all
important organizations, had .done and continued to do much work
in getting emergency service reople out for day-haul and week-end
work. The American Women s Voluntary Services in California had
been the outstanding organization promoting the use 0£ women in
farm work, and they continued and expanded their campaign, recruiting for both camp and day workers. In general, the women
who went to camps were recruited largely through the A WVS, which
worked in close cooperation with the farm-labor offices. The women
who went out on day work registered through the farm-labor offices,
the AWVS, or local committees, depending on the locality.
In 1943 .the effort was made to base recruiting on actual needs reported, rather than a general cry for help. Where definite information as to time, place, work, cost, and probable earnings could be given ,
better results were obtained. Recruiting far ahead had been found
unsatisfactory. Workers who were expected did not always turn
up, had changed their minds.
Business houses and stores in the large cities were consulted to see
if vacation times could be made to fit into harvest needs. Groups
of foreign-born women, in some cases refugees ftom European countries, gave valuable help.
While there had been considerable publicity about a "vacation with
pay in the country," more sensible recruiters were pointing out that
though it was an essential job, and a patriotic service, it was hard,
hot, dirty work, and were not urging people to go unless they "could
take it." Recruiting for the camps involved, of course, women who
were free enough of home responsibilities to stay away for at least a
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week, preferably longer. This was more difficult, but women who
can work 1, 2, and 3 weeks or more at a job become much more valuable than those who work £or a day only.
In recruiting women for the camps the A WVS 0£ San Francisco
particularly tried very hard to screen the applicants and send only
those who seemed likely to :[X'OVe satisfactory workers. They reported much better success when that was done. If, due to a shortage
0£ applicants, anyone who thought she wanted to go was sent, the
turn-over was much greater, resulting in added cost and lowered
efficiency.
··
WOMEN WHO SERVED
The women who went to the California camps were, £or the large
part, women who were or had been employed, who normally earned
. their own living. While there were a few college students, these were
definitely in the minority. There were, however, µ, good many
teachers and other professional women, as well as women from all
sorts 0£ business occupations.
There were a few homemakers whose families were 0£ such ages
or occupations that they could be left to look out for themselves. Occasionally there was a well-to-do older woman who had lived for
years on "income" and now felt an obligation to help in the great
emergency.
WORK DONE BY WOMEN
In general, £armers on the Pacific coast sought women for harvest
work only. For the basic planting and cultivating they felt they must
have men-Filipinos, Mexicans, Italians; the fields were considered
too large, the work too heavy, to be suitable for women. In 1943 the
demand for inexperienced women workers was considerably less than
in 1942, but the kind of work for which they were wanted was the
same. This was due partly to the smaller over-all production of the
crops £Qr which women were used, but more largely to the importation
by the Government of agricultural woi·kers from Mexico and to a
larger number of regular migrants than had been anticipated. The
Mexicans were imported through a contract with the Mexican Government, and worked at a prearranged rate per hour of 65 cents, or
sometimes at piece work.
Cherry ri,cking was an early-season job. Expert cherry pickers are
rapid, ambidextrous, and skillful. "Greenhorns" were not so skillful
but could do and did the job. Many children were used, as well as
women. Sweet cherries are picked on the stem, graded and packed at
the packing houses. Sour cherries can be pulled off, as they go to
canneries and may be picked with less care.
Berry picking has always been considered a "women's and children's job," doubtless because small hands and fingers are supposed to
get among the vines and canes more easily, and the stooping and bending over for low fruit such as strawberries is accepted more willingly
by women and children.
Many of the berries picked in the Pacific States are canned or made
into jams. Where that is done the berries often are picked into pails
and emptied into barrels, requiring much less careful handling than
if picked into pint or quart boxes for consumption :fresh.
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WOMEN'S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
In the fruit orchards other than citrus many women were employed,
but here again lighter crops than in 1942' in almost all fruits lessened
the labor demand. vV omen thinned, picked, packed, and canned
peaches, pears, plums, and apples as the harvests came along. Occasionally they sprayed fruit trees. Picking, in the case of all fruits,
is done chiefly from three-legged ladders, wide at the bottom and
tapering to a point at the top. The ladders are of various lengths
according to the size of the trees-from 8 to 18 feet, sometimes longer.
Almost any woman who is physically equal to farm work can move
an 8-foot ladder and set it up if she has been given instruction with
a demonstration of how to do it. Some can move longer ladders . . Two
together, properly taught, can move and set up any ladder they would
use.
Picking the fruit was work that women accomplished with satisfaction to the $rowers after a little experience and instruction, and many
women with and without former experience did this work. In the
pear orchards much of the picking was done by size, pickers being
given a ring and told to pick only fruit the size of the ring. They
soon learned to gage by the eye the proper size to pick. Apple orchards
were sometimes picked twice, the first picking taking only the wellcolored fruit. Picking requires very careful handling of the fruit,
not to bruise it, and women generally were more careful than boys.
It is heavy work, too, the full picking bags, which are hung over the
shoulders by straps, holding about 25 pounds. Some growers considered these too heavy for women to carry down the ladders. It is
simple for women to fill the bags only part full, so that they may be
easily handled. This of course makes more trips up and down the
ladder and so slows the work somewhat.
Apricots and pears were the principal fruits cut to be sun-dried.
The cutters halve the ripe fruit, flicking out the apricot pits with a
twist of the knife but leaving pear cores in, and spread them on wooden
trays that are left in the hot sun until the fruit. is dried, after which
they are stacked in sheds until ready to pack. Some women prefer
the stationary job of cutting and others the more active job of
picking:
Prwnes and EngUsh w·a lnuts.-In September and October the harvest of prunes and of walnuts, coming at about the same time, demanded
thousands of harvesters. Both crops are picked up from•the ground,
having been knocked or shaken from the trees-sometimes by a homemade shaker consisting of a rope tied to a tree and then to a truck
which, alternately pulling and slackening the rope, shakes the fruit
off the branches. Women crawl aro1md or bend over and pick up into
buckets the prunes or nuts; the fruit is put into lugs (boxes), the
walnuts into sacks. Prunes vary in size and obviously large prunes
fill boxes more rapidly than small ones. The condition of an orchard ·
or grove also influences the speed of the work. If the ground is
clean, cultivated, and smoothed before harvesting, the picking up is
easy and rapid. If it has grown to tall weeds and the furrows are left
from the last cultivation, the work is much harder. Often the buckets
provided by the grower are too large and heavy; women do better with
smaller pails.
Hops called for many pickers. TJ:ie hops are very light and are
picked into huge burlap ,bags, care being taken not to include leaves.
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Workers can stand erect. Bags are weighed and marked with the
worker's number. Women were used also as day workers for pegging
and stringing hops. These were largely women _accustomed to agricultural work who went out from nearby towns and worked by the
hour.
V egetable orops.- By midseason vast acreages of string beans and
lima beans were ready to be picked. Women and children were again
, called on in great numbers. Many of the youth camps were established for vegetable picking, and numerous women helped pick by
the day, particularly beans but to some extent carrots, onions, and
potatoes.
Tomatoes were another orop that called :for women and children.
Many small farms had tomatoes, and unable to get either Mexicans or
migrants, called for women a~ day pickers or from camps. Tomato
picking requires care in handling the fruit, and when fruit is going
to the cannery care in putting only acceptable :fruit into the boxes.
It is a hot, bending-over job and the juice from the vines covers the
pickers . with black stains. Farmers reported that boxes picked by
emergency-service women were seldom rejected when inspected at
the canneries :for over-ripe, green, or damaged :fruit.
The lettuce industry employs many women regularly in cutting,
washing, and packing, but no camps were set up for women in the
lettuce area. Many migrants worked there, and the Women~s Land
Army did not report any special recruiting for that work.
Grapes, a major crop in California, cover thousands of acres and
employ thousands of women. )Vomen were employed for picking,
turning, and rolling grapes in many vineyards; also for thinning, that
is, taking off leaves that shade the bunches. One of the largest growers, who had employed women in two camps all through the 1943 season, picking fruit and later grapes, kept on a group through the winter
of 1943-44. The weather in the valley was mild enough to work
out-of-doors all winter. Under an experienced foreman the women
were taught to prune and tie the vines.
Wine grapes are cut back to a few buds from the main stem, raisin
grapes have a few long canes left that must be twisted around and
tied to horizontal wires. On a visit to this crew in February' the
foreman was aske_d how the women were doing. "I ha.te to admit it,
but they do a better job than the men did," was his reply. They were
paid exactly the same wages as men, given the same excellent food,
lodged in comfortable quarters with a good camp director. In the
sprmg of 1944, 19 crews of 20 to 25 workers each were at work in these
vineyards and 16 of the crews were women; 3 of the crews were supervised by women. The women were paid the same rate as the men,
70 cents an hour. This employer believes that large-scale employment
of women is good business .for him, and he tried to attract good workers
by giving them good working conditions.
· Harvesting seedless raisin grapes, which were particularly desired
. by the Government :for their food value, consisted of four operations:
1. Cutting the bunches from the vines with a knife, and laying them
on a large sheet of paper (tray), and leaving them in the rows to dry.
2. Turning the grapes : After 10 days, if grapes are all dry, workers
turn them, two workers together taking the four corners of the paper
634134° - 45- -3
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WOMEN'S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
and flipping the contents over. This requires a continuous jack-knife
position for workets and makes some women dizzy.
3. Rolling : When grapes are dry, folding the edges of the paper
in over the grapes, rolling the tray up, and stacking at the side of the
row under the vines or in the sun, according to whether or not they
need further drying. This, like turning, is a back-breaking, musclestretching job.
4. Loading : Picking up the rolls and loading them on a tractor
trailer that takes them to the yards, where they are dumped into field
boxes and go to the packing sheds. Loading is easier than turning and
rolling. Work in the fields and in the packing sheds usually is done
by different groups of workers. Field workers worked 9 hours, packers 11.
WAGES, EARNINGS, AND RATES OF PAY
Because of the fact that most of the work was piece work, earnings
varied with the individual and with the crop. Another factor influencing the "average earnings" of a group was that sometimes women
with real harvesting experience were among the workers. In general
it may be said that inexperienced women, harvesting for the first time,
probably earned for the most part between 2 and 3 dollars a day. It
is reported that some, after they l,{new they had made enough to cover
their board, would ease up a little. Sometimes the inexperienced
were given poor fields, poor berry patches or badly cultivated orchards
where they could not possibly make good pay. Usually they had
little or no pr evious training and often received inadequate instruction and induction when they first came on the job.
Quoting from the A '-'VVS report for 1942, "Low wages in some crops
and low earnings capacity in others seemed to be the major complaints.
Many workers felt that wages should be paid on an hourly instead
of a piece-work basis. Efficiency always increased with practice.
Wages were generally adequate for fast workers."
The rate of pay and wages in 1943 were, undoubtedly, the highest
they had been in years. Hourly rates were everywhere high, 50, 60, 70
and 75 cents being reported, with 60 to 70 prevailing, but very few of
the inexperienced women harvesters worked at hourly rates. Some
of the farm-labor supervisors felt that women would not want to work
at hourly rates, because they could earn so much more at piece rates.
That may be true of the experienced migratory women who did harvest work, but such evidence as there is does not show that it would
be true of the nonfarm women as a whole. Nor were there any data
on the production records of the nonfarm women or on the quality
of their work compared to that of the :professional harvesters, that
would give farmers some basis for judgmg what a woman might be
worth.
It was rarely possible to get any pay-roll data as to the earnings of
inexperienced women, but certain general statements were made :
Berries, tomatoes, beams, all were harvest jobs, using great num~
hers of inexperienced harvesters, women and young people. Berries
particularly were a "family job," where man, wife, and children could
earn a good day's pay but the average nonfarm woman could not.
Strawberries paid 3 cents a pound.
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Bean pickers.-1½ to 2 cents a pound was paid to yield $3.50 to
$4 a day.
Tomato picking paid 15 to 20 cents a lug ( about 32 lbs.; a bushel
weighs 53 lbs.). This might yield average inexperienced workers
between $2 and $4 a day. The WLA leaders reported $2 a day for
women in one county and $5 to $6 in another, showing the great variation in picking conditions.
Prunes were a poor-paying crop. Picking small prunes off the
ground paid 20 to 25 cents a box, large prunes 30 to 35 cents. The
A WVS reported daily earnings 0£ $1.80 to $2 at one 0£ the best
camps. Apples netted all women better pay. At 15 and sometimes
20 cents a lug the majority 0£ women could make $4 a day; slow ones
$3, fast ones $5 and up.
P ears paid 15 cents a lug, later raised to 18 cents. The earnings
were about the same as for apples. When picking to size, using a
metal ring as measure, the earnings were less, but in the last picking,
when they stripped the trees, women made their best pay.
English walnuts.-The prevailing rates for walnuts were 30 to 50
cents a sack ( weighing 50 to 60 lbs.). The average adult woman
picked about 12 sacks a day, earning_around $3.50. One inexperienced
woman said she earned nearly $6 a day, and the all-time high was
made by a professional Portuguese picker who earned $11 in one day.
Containers, usually pails, were 0£ various sizes and were emptied into
the sacks.
At one camp, organized by the WLA, the average daily earnings £or
all (including the $11 walnut picker) were $3.84. This was an actual
pay-roll record. Women had picked walnuts and grapes.
Seedless-grape picking paid 5 cents a tray. A good picker might
pick 100 trays a day, a very fast picker 150, earning respectively $5
and $7.50. But the average inexperienced worker would earn considerably less than that, though some women reported $35 a week.
At the two camps employing steadily the largest numbers 0£ women,
hourly rates 0£ 70 cents were paid for whatever work was done,
whether picking plums or picking or pruning grapes. At a 9-hour
day this made $6.30 a day, from which $1.25 was deducted for board.
These camps had started at 50 cents an hour September 1, 1942,
had raised the pay to 60 cents two weeks later, to 65 cents in May
1943, and to 70 cents in October 1943. The weekly farm-labor reports
gave the prevailing hourly rate in the valley around Fresno as 70
to 75 cents.
For day-haul women, earnings would be about the same; certainly
no more, as they had less steady work through which they might gain
experience .
. SupervisCYrs.-Women who volunteered to act as field supervisors
received $1 an hour, paid usually by the £armers. These were principally women who 'went out in charge 0£ youth. H they were assigned
to a camp, they were paid by the California Farm Production Council
from State fonds $7.50 a day.
HOURS
The working hours at the camps usually were 9 a day, though some
women may have worked a little longer.
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WOMEN'S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
As almost all the work done by the women :from camps was piece
work, they were able to take wh at time they wanted for lunch, which
was eaten in the field. At the two camps where the girls were trucked
back to lunch, they h ad an hour from the time they stopped work till
they began again, which did not mean a full hour's rest. H ere they
worked 9 hours, and when the suggestion was made that they work
only 8, the women objected to losing the extra hour's pay.
The day-haul women's hours varied greatly. Many times they
could not work a full day. Naturally this lessened their efficiency and
their value to the farmers, but in the emergency program the help
they gave generally was acceptable for the time they could work.
R est periods.-No provision was made for any rest period. Women
took what they felt they needed. If working by the hour under a
foreman, they usually kept going; if on piece work, they could pause
if they chose.
.
·
TRANSPORTATION
The farmers arranged for the transportation :from camp to the
place of work and return. Sometimes the farmers had the use of
school buses, so the only expense was the driver and the gasoline, but
more often they used their own trucks. Transportation from home
to camp usually was paid by adult workers themselves.
HOUSING
'
Many California camps were housed in public-school buildings.
The life of the small communities in California is very closely linked
with agriculture. The members of school committees were in many
cases farmers. The district hi,gh schools were often fine buildings,
well equipped in every way, with gymnasiums, showers, kitchens,
cafeterias-even laundry facilities in some cases. Usually-they were
located in or near a town that was a business center £or the surrounding farms.
.
. It was therefore a natural thing for a number of farmers who wanted
to employ a group of women harvesters to suggest using the school
building to house them, and, further, to have no difficulty in securing
consent. Cots generally were set up in the gymnasium. The toilets,
hand bowls, and showers provided for the students gave ample sanit ary facilities. The rooms where domestic science was taught afforded
a place for cooking, and a lunch room or in some cases a cafeteria
offered a place for meals. Generally there were small rooms to serve
as offices, sitting rooms, and so forth. The farmer's group usually
provided the furnishings needed, as cots and mattresses. The farmeremployers paid for the telephone, gas, electricity, and any other fuel
used. In many little ways they assumed a share of the responsibility.
The A WVS continued in 1943 its sponsorship of camps for adult
women 3 18 years and up and two camps for junior girls. This included all the preliminary organization work, the recruiting, interviewing, and placing of workers, the arrangement for the staff of
the camp-cook, helpers, and camp director, the arrangements with
the farmers for employment, wages, working hours, and transportation from camp to farm; the facilities for transportation from city
a
Sebastopol, Sonoma, Selma, Arvin, Delano, and Hollister.
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to camp; and the arrangements for food, including buying and installing the necessary provisions to open the camp. Also, theirs was
the responsibility of passing on the housing suggested or offered by
the farmers; or if none was suggested, finding it.
If the housing was provided by the farm group asking for the camp,
it was subj ect to the approval of the AWVS chairman. For the
actual cost of board, which included, besides the food, the salaries 0£
the camp cook and kitchen assistants, the A WVS was recompensed by
the board paid by the women, usually $1.50 a day. The salaries of
the director and the supervisors ( the latter employed only in the
youth camps) were paid in 1943 by the California Farm Production
Council, the agency that disbursed the money appropriated by theState.
The cost of the housing, utilities, and equipment was met by the
farmers in the group; the organizing, recruiting, and general supervision was a volunteer service by the A WVS. This service was no
mean offering. The job took the full time of an able and experienced
committee chairman, with such part-time assistance as she could secure;
and clerical help in the organization headquarters amounting to one
part-time typist.
While the camps were run entirely on a nonprofit basis, :funds might
be trans:ferred :frdm one camp that was showing a small surplus to one
with a slight deficit.
Two of the camps were operated entirely by the A WVS. They
"sponsored" ·three other camps for adult women, two of which were
the result of the camp requested of the AWVS in 1942 by one of
the large fruit-growing corporations. This company furnished housing, board, all equipment, charging the women $1.25 a day for board.
They also paid the salary of the directors. Recruiting for these camps
was done by the AWVS and, later, also by the Farm Labor Offices.
One was a small camp located on an apricot grower's ranch. It was
a tent camp, with a cook-house built for meals and cooking. The
grower's sister acted as supervisor. Board was $1.25 a day. The
whole set-up was approved by the A WVS, which recruited 18 workers
for it, but it was operated entirely by the grower.
One more camp for adult women was opened in October at San
Ramon again at the request of a group of growers, and was staffed
and operated largely by the personnel of the local high school. It
was well run and successful, due largely to the school leadership.
Both the Farm Labor Office and the A VVVS recruited for it.
The seventh and last camp for adults was one sponsored by the
Sierra Club of California and included both men and women. The
Sierra Club, a very long -established club of mountaineers and hikers,
had responded in 1942 to an SOS from a large prune grower about
60 miles from San Francisco. They responded 200 strong, both men
and women ( of whom, it was reported, "at least 100 really worked").
Being experienced campers, all they asked was good drinking water
and toilet facilities; in other respe~ts -they could look out for themselves, est ablishing their own camp and cooking their own meals.
In 1942, they got 15 to 17 cents a lug (box) for prunes; women averaged 12 lugs a day, earning about $2.
In 1943 the growers asked the Sierra Club to help again, and this
time a schoolhouse offered its gymnasium as a place to house them.
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WOMEN'S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
The showers and toilet facilities of the school were made available,
the commissary was established in a nearby church, and a young
home-economics teacher presided over the camp and helped to cook
on days when the camp almost had to close for lack of a cook. The
superintendent of schools made contact with the farmers (he was
also on the County Farm Labor staff) and helped to distribute the
workers where they were most needed. In 1942 the Sierra Club had
worked for a large grower. In 1943 that employer had Mexican
labor and the campers worked for many small growers. The farmers
liked having some men in the group ( though they were far outnumbered by women) because the men could shake and knock down the
prunes with 15-foot poles and the women (who had been advised
to bring knee pads) could scramble around and pick them up.
These small orchards were not so well cultivated, weeded, and
smoothed as those of large growers, so picking was harder and slower;
nor were the small farmers so eager to make things easy and pleasant
for the workers as the large grower had been.
The Sierra Club workers filled their own canteens with drinking
water and carried them to the fields. Sometimes the farmers brought
• around cool drinks. They appeared surprised that the women would
really work. Women found the 15-pound buckets supplied by farmers
too heavy and usually took smaller ones of their own, holding about 7 ·
pounds. Toilet facilities, on many square miles of orchards~ were
nonexistent.
The camp was open 6 weeks. Members came and went, and in the
end both the farmers and the workers were pleased .with the service
·
rendered, though the amounts earned were not large.
FOOD
The camps furnished a hot breakfast, usually put up lunches during
the morning and sent them out to the workers, and gave them their
chief meal at night. The two company camps brought their workers
in to a hearty meal at noon, consisting ( at the camp visited by the
Women's Bureau agent in February) of soup, meat, potatoes, two
vegetables, bread and butter, tea, coffee, milk, and choice of two kinds
of dessert. This camp fed a large number of men workers from
the same kitchen. The camp furnished a hearty supper with meat.
The officials of this company said that if food was curtailed they
found their workers' production falling off. All the food used was
raised on the farm, but the company said the $1.25 a day did not pay
the cost of board. This and some other camps became known for·their
good food and attracted recruits, who chose camps with good living
conditions if they could. Occasionally there was complaint about
insufficient food and there is no doubt but that it takes experience to
gage the' appetites of vigorous farm workers, whether men or women.
ATTITUDE OF FARMERS TOWARD NONFARM WOMEN
· The attitude of the farmers who employed women-those actually
·interviewed and those whose feelings were reported by workers, camp
sponsors, WLA leaders, and farm-labor placement officers-:-did not
differ much from that of the farmers in the North Atlap.tic region.
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In general, they wer~ surprised and pleased at the ability of the women
to "catch on'' and to do really good work. There was expressed several
times the opinion that these women were much more careful about
their work, did not put leaves or bruised or over-ripe fruit into their
boxes, were "nicer" about their work than the boys or ordinary migrants. (This was said also in the canneries.) Many farmers said
that in 1942 and 1943 they did not know how they could have got
their crops in without the women and children.
Farmers and camp directors often expressed the idea that while.
the women worked hard in the morning they eased up after they knew
they h ad earned enough to cover their board. (This was said of camp
workers.) On the other hand, the largest employer of women, who
paid them the same wage as men, expressed the keenest satisfaction
with their work and ability and said that as far as he was concerned
they were there to stay if they wanted to. His foreman said, "The
women here come out to work. The quality of their work is very good.
After a few weeks the nonfarm women are as good as regular women
agricultural workers. They work right along, don't fool, catch on
quickly."
Another expression of opinion was that "the women don't do so well
as men when they get on tall ladders, and the effort will be to use
women for ground and short-ladder work."
When all was said and done, however, there was no question but
that farmers as a whole in 1943 preferred their regular migratory and
local workers, and failing them the Mexicans imported from Mexico,
and even prisoners of war, to the inexperienced nonfarm women.
Those who had employed women felt differently, and some expressions
of opinion related by the WLA leader in her report are quoted here:
(
San Joaquin County:
"In the packing shed, in the sorting and grading of potatoes and other products,
women are superior to men. In onions the women seem to grasp and under stand
the work better than the men and are faster with their hands. In the field
the women saved the crop, for which I had a Government contract, though it
was h ard work and women shouldn't have to do it. A woman takes more pains,
takes pride in her work, and she is very cooperative, does what she is tol d and
doesn't argue. The usual men workers don't care about the quality of the work."
Sonoma County:
"We couldn't have harvested our ci;op without these women. They have saved
my crop (pears) from the picking through the drying process. I certainly hope
the camp is here next year."
Contra Costa County:
"Due to the shortage of labor last year, we lost $15,000 on our walnut crop.
This year we will not lose any of the crop. The women are picking cleaner than
any group that ever worked for us. The spirit of the women is excellent. I am
sure you sent us the choicest women. We sincerely appreciate their help."
Contra Costa County:
"Last year the food losses in Contra Costa County, due to labor shortage, were
heavy. This year we anticipate none. We appreciate the fine contribution the
women have made and feel that they have aided an the farmers in Contra Costa
County by their specific contribution to the harvest in the San Ramon Valley."
Fresno County:
"'.rhe women have harvested my large crop of Thompson seedless grapes.
They picked, turned, and rolled quickly and efficiently. I am well pleased with the
results."
Orange County:
"For the past 8 or 9 months we have been using a crew of' women as lemon
pickers. Their work has proved very satisfactory on the whole and I would
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WOMEN'S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
estimate that they can put out just about three-fourths as much as men. We
have used them only for 5 days a week and 8 hours a day.''
Kern County:
"We have a camp of 200 women at Delano and a camp of 150 women at Di
Giorgio Farms. The women are used in all sorts of work, such as harvesti'ng
plums, grapes, and so forth. The women do excellent work. Volunteer labor
was satisfactory in saving a large portion of many of our crops. We believe
that this type of labor is successful, and that the use of such labor is essential
to 'the saving of a large part of California's crops."
PART IV.-OREGON'S USE. OF WOMEN
OREGON AGRICULTURE
The great variety in types of farming in Oregon, due to the diversity of soil and climate found in the State, makes a demand f~r practically every kind of labor, from the berry pickers in the western
part of the State to the grain-harvest crews in the eastern. Almost
every sort of fruit ( except citrus) that grows anywhere in the United
States grows in Oregon, with the pear, the sweet cherry, the apple,
and the prune the most important fruit crops. While some of the
tree fruit grown is sold as "green fruit" ( that is, not to be processed)
the bulk of the fruit and berry crop is processed-canned, frozen,
or dehydrated, and shipped all over the world.
Berries are grown extensively and in great variety-strawberries,
raspberries, boysenberries, youngberries, loganberries, blueberries,
gooseberries, and cranberries.
More hops are grown in Oregon than in any other State. Both
English walnuts and filberts are grown, the State ranking first in
filberts and second only to California in walnuts.
Almost every kind of vegetable is raised commercially. Beans are
important, as are peas, and both are primarily for the canneries.
Potatoes and sugar beets are grown in large quantities in a few areas.
O regon's dairy industry extends through western Oregon and the
great Willamette Valley. Some of the sugar-beet crops are harvested
particularly in the west and coastal counties. All these, with the
. big grain ranches in the eastern part of the State and the very important sheep- and cattle-raising business in the · east-central part,
which is not suited to crops, involve practically every kind of farming.
Up to the time of the present war, agriculture and lumber ,were the '
principal sources of wealth and employment in the State.
LABOR REQUIREMENTS IN OREGON
l
The farms of western Oregon are described by the farm-labor
supervisor of the Extension Service as being similar to New England
farms in size and diversity. There are many family-size farms, operated chiefly by the owner and his family, with extra help needed principally at harvest time. "One-man" fruit farms of 5, 10, and 15
acres, where everything but harvesting can be done by the owner, are
common. From 1929 to 1941, harvesting was done by the migratory
labor that came up from California, "following the fruit," either
specializing in certain crops ( as cherry pickers) or simply ~oving
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north as the season advanced. It is estimated that Oregcm always
needed 40,000 harvest hands over and above the regular workers.
In 1941 the shortage of migrants began to be noticed, many of
them having found more permanent and better-paying work in Pacific
coast shipyards and aircraft plants. When the migrants did not appear, the farm placement director of the USES', the Government
agency then in charge of farm labor, decided that responsibility
would have to be put on "the home folks," stating later that "had it
not been for the women and ·c hildren we should have been in a mess."
In 1942 the use of women and children for harvesting had become
prevalent, and much publicity was given to the need of having the
help of every man, woman, and youth who could come out and help
with . the harvests. This they did with a fine spirit. In Oregon
there was no women's organization that had taken special initiative
in interesting women in farm work. The needs were ma.de known
through press, radio, and from public platforms, and thousands of
women responded.
THE 1943 PROGRAM
In April 1943, with the provision by the Congress of a farm-labor
appropriation, Oregon, like some other States, drew up a contract
with the USES to recruit and place farm labor. The E'.xtension
Service employed State and county personnel for recruitment, training, and supervising the workers and appointed one to three farmlabor assistants in every county. In many cases one of these was
a woman-a school principal or a teacher-who helped in recruiting
women and children. It should be remembered that by far the greater
part of the harvesters recruited were school children and more attention was given to their recruitment and placing than' to that of
women. It was not that women were not wanted; they were urged
to come out for harvest work, but they were considered able to make
their own plans and look after themselves. Then, too, the need of
women workers in the canneries was fully as pressing as the need
for farm workers, and an active campaign was put on to get women to
take care of the fruit as it came to the canneries and packing houses.
Fruit once picked cannot be held long, and the work at the canneries
was just as essential as that in the fields. The two jobs must go along
together and the balance must be kept between help to harvest and
help to process important foods.
Oregon also asked for Mexican labor under the contract with the
Mexican Government. As a result, Mexicans were assigned to the
State to increase the farm-labor force. This, and the fact that many
of the crops were below normal in 1943, eased the emergency considerably. Nevertheless, the employment of women for farm work
was becoming increasingly common in 1943 in Oregon.
THE WOMEN WHO WORKED
In a State like Oregon, most of the population of the small towns,
and many in the cities, have an agricultural background. Great numbers have parents or relatives or friends living on farms. When the
emergency call went out for everyone who could do so to come out and
help with crop harvesting the townspeople not only knew what it
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WOMEN'S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
meant but knew how to do the work. Many small-town women and
women on small farms had been in the habit of helping to harvest
various crops when they had time as an additional source of income.
Most of these were housBwives; others worked in the various jobs
of any small town. Often women with children went for such work
as berry picking. Sometimes whole families went. The girls of
school age usually went out with the "platoons'' of school children,
which by 1943 had developed into efficient youth groups. They worked
under leadership so well organized that it increased production considerably, to the great satisfaction of employers. Many teachers went
as platoo11 leaders, supervising children's work.
In addition to all the town and city women who had some knowledge
of agriculture, many women with no farm experience went out. _T hese
included homemakers and business and professional women on their
week ends or during vacations. The women employees of the Statehouse and various other State offices gave generously of their Saturday afternoons, Sundays, and vacations. vVomen and men inmates
of State institutions also were sent out under supervision and did
excellent work.
At the beginning of the bean harvest, the farm-labor assistants went
to the Governor and asked permission to recruit 50 Statehouse employees to pick beans. As many as 150 responded and went out to
pick beans from 5 : 30 to 7 : 30 in the evenings, also on Saturdays and
Sundays. Around Salem alone 5,000 bean pickers were needed.
WORK DONE BY WOMEN
There are certain jobs ordinarily delegated to women and often
given the name of "women's and child.ren's jobs." They are, unfortunately, likely to_ be jobs with the lowest earning possibilities.
Whether that is the reason they are "women's and children's jobs," or
whether they are natural jobs for women and children, is of little
importance. Such jobs employed the greatest number of women.
B ean picking.-Bean picking ranked first in Oregon in the number
of pickers needed. From June through October, with the peak in August, nearly 6,000 placements of women as bean pickers were made;
probably many of whom there was no record went into the same work.
It requires little skill, but involves continuous bending over (unless
picking pole beans) and is monotonous.
.
Pickers fill baskets _a nd empty them into bags, which are weighed
and marked with pickers' numbers. There are huge acreages of beans,
and in one area alone 10,000 pickers were wanted.
Hop picking.-In 1943 Oregon produced over 50 percent of- the
United States output of hops, growing some 17,000 acres. This crop
required between 50,000 and 75,000 pickers in August and September.
The USES reported about 5,200 placements of women, but most
pickers got t heir own jobs. (Wherr it is known that there are more
jobs than workers, few workers take the time to go to an employment
office.) Two persons pick a row together, one on each side. A good
picker uses both hands, keeping her basket right under the hops being
picked. The picking baskets are large, holding 25 pounds, and are
dragged along the row until filled, then emptied into a large basket.
Leaves must be kept out of the baskets and hops must not be dropped
on the ground.
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Berry pioking.-The berry pickers gathered all varieties of berriesstra wberries, loganberries, boysenberries, youngberries, blackberries,
red raspberries, and blackcaps. Strawberries, though having a smaller
acreage than before the war when labor was plentiful and cheap, are
still an important berry crop. Picking strawberries is hard work, as it
requires constant stooping and careful handling of the fruit. One can
pick f ewer and earn less than in any other berry picking except pos.:.
sibly red raspberries. At one area where a count was made, 468 of
534 pickers were women and children and 66 were older men. About
3,700 placements of women as berry pickers were reported by the
USES.
1
Cranberries were picked almost entirely by women and children.
All are picked by hand, as rakes are believed to injure the vines and
fruit and do not pick clean.
Oherries.-Cherry picking, which requires the use of ladders, is
often considered not suitable for women and children. Yet due to
the anticipated shortage of men, Oregon decided that children of
the platoon groups were capable of learning to/ut up ladders and
to pick the cherries. Ladders (three-legged an from 8 to 16 feet
high) must be put up so that they will not hurt the trees and will
be close to the fruit. Cherries are picked into 8-quart buckets, which
are provided with hooks for hanging on branches or ladders. When
buckets are full, pickers go down and empty them into lug boxes.
There is a definite technique in picking sweet cherries so as not to
break the spurs. This takes time to learn. Sometimes when cherry
trees are very tall, men pick the tops from high ladders, being paid
an hourly rate, an<;l women and children pick the lower branches.
Cherry pickers consider themselves specialists. Cherries for eating
or brining are picked just as they begin to show color, before fully
ripe, but cherries for the canneries are picked when ripe, and therefore
have to be handled quickly and with care.
'
.
Last year there were many migratory workers in the section of
Oregon along the Columbia River and in the region around Salem,
which alone needed 5,000 pickers. Because of a light crop in California, the migratory pickers reached Oregon before they were needed
and waited for the crop. As a result, inexperienced women and
children were not used to any great extent.
· Apricots and peaches follow the cherries, but professional cherry
pickers do ·not stay for these harvests. Both of these were light crops
in Oregon as in California, and while some women picked and thinned
fruit, the numbers were not large.
Apples and p~ars.-In the Hood River Valley and other orchard
sections along the Columbia River the apple and pear crops were below
normal. Many migratory workers helped with the harvesting of
apple and pear crops. Many local women also assisted with this
harvest. Various growers had camps or camp sites where workers
put up their own tents or trailers. Mexican nationals also were there
for fruit picking and were satisfactory. In the Hood River area
three buses a day were run from The Dalles to the orchards, carrying
women and platoon children. These groups were taken to the young
orchards where the trees were smaller and there was · riot so much
ladder work. An Extension Service official said the objection of
farmers to having women on tree crops was the moving of ladders,
but he could not say that it was justified. The canvas apple-picking
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WOMEN'S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
half-bushel bags were considered too heavy (24-25 lbs. when full)
for women to use on ladders. These canvas bags, hung from -the
shoulders and fastened around the waist with webbing straps, are
used universally in the West. In the East, however, one-half bushel
and one-fourth-bushel baskets or sacks, with an iron hook to hang
on limbs while picking, are generally used. One-half-bushel baskets
·
weigh the same as sacks.
Prunes, English walnuts, and filb erts were other crops employing
large numbers of women harvesters.
·
Dairy work.-Farmers in Oregon, as in California, were unwilling
to employ women in dairy work, and did not believe women could
do such work. Once in a while they would take a married couple. At
a meeting of dairymen ( of whom two were women) called by the
YWCA General Secretary to discuss the possibilities of employing
women, there was a stone wall of opposition. Besides the belief
that women could not do the work, the housing of women workers was
a problem that the dairymen were not interested in trying to solve.
The Extension Service held a training course at the State College
at Corwallis, at which 5 women and 6 coeds were trained for dairy
work.
Platoon leaders.-One job for which nonfarm women were, used
was that of supervising school children. Oregon school and farm
authorities had realized that young workers are much more effective
when working in rather small groups under the supervision of a
responsible and trained adult.
Women were sought for these jobs. Often they were teachers,
members of parent-teacher associations, or mothers of children going
out. These platoon leaders were paid by the farmers a dollar an
hour. They not only watched the work of the children, saw that
they kept at work, but on occasion drove the buses. The platoon
children generally worked 6 or 7 hours, and these hours suited better ·
the women with home responsibilities who could not go out for 8 or
9 hours plus time consumed in transportation.
Other farm work.-N onfarm women undoubtedly were employed
in greater numbers than ever before. I:ri the· seasonal-crop harvests,
the percentage of women and youth is constantly increasing and that
of men decreasing. Women are doing new jobs in agriculture all the
time. A girl taxi driver spoke of having worked at picking up
brush in the orchards. , Other girls drove trucks in the wheat fields.
A good many worked on the peppermint £arms, where peppermint
is grown to be distilled for medicinal or cooking uses. Some were
employed in the pruning and tying of berry canes; in the cultivation of vegetables; in training hops, in haying, in helping (rarely)
with combmes or pea viners, or in tractor driving. It_ is not possible
to say how many nonfarm women worked nor how varied were the
jobs.
·
EARNINGS
Many times, in inquiries about women's earnings, the sum mentioned was the amount a regular migratory worker could earn. The
effort here · is to show, instead, what the inexperienced, nonfarm
women earned.
Hourly rates reported were from 60 to 75 cents. More may have
been paid to one who knew her job. But the nonfarm harvest workers
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were seldom paid hourly rates on any job that could have a piece
rate. The inexperienced worker went in at the piece rates for regular
workers and could not equal the professional in production, though
she was generally regarded as a more careful worker.
B ean picking paid 2¼ cents a pound, with ¼-cent bonus for those
remaining throughout. the season. One valuable record showed that
the average amount picked by adult women was around 190 pounds a
day, yielding about $3.75 a day ( or only 2 cents a pound) as average
earnings for all women workers in an 8.3-hour day. It is not known,
however, ho many of these women were experienced. At a camp
set up for migrant or other bean pickers near the coast, the WLA
leader reported that the women were not satisfied with their earnings
and would not stay. Few earned as much as $2 a day. What factors
brought those eamings down is not known. Another estimate for
women was $3 a day.
Strawberries and other berries.-Few migrants nowadays go to
Oregon to pick strawberries. More berries were picked by children
than by anyone else, and the women who picked generally had seasons
of experience. The piece rate was 3 to 4 cents a pound. Women with
several children often picked as a family. A condition that seems
no quite fair in berry picking is that the piece rate is about the same
for all berries ( except raspberries, that pay a cent more) though a
worker can pick 2 to 2½ times as many boysenberries, youngberries,
or loganberries in a given time as she can strawberries or rasrberries.
Children were reported as earning less than $1.50 a. day. Nonfarm
women earned more but "not very much more." One woman office
worker said she earned 75. cents in half a day. A city man and wife
said they earned $5 together in a day at picking raspberries; they
worked hard but did not have good picking. Of course there were
rapid pickers who made more, especially if they had good picking.
Experienced adults earned $4.25 a day.
Oherri es.-In 1943 cherries paid 3 cents a pound. That is a big
increase over the three-fourths of a cent or one cent paid before the
war. Now a top-notch professional cherry picker can earn, so the
county agent reported, $18 to $20 a day; an average man picker, $12
to $14 a day; a good man, inexperienced, $6 to $8 a day. There was
no report on nonfarrn women, but cherry pickers were earning "good
money."
P runes paid 15, 20, and 26 cents a lug or field box.
W alwuts and filb erts paid 1½ cents and 3 cents a pound, respectively.
P eaches.-Women who worked in the peach orchards got good pay,
but not many were needed. Those who thinned fruit from the ground
got 65 cents an hour, those who thinned from ladders 95 cents. They
worked an 8- or 9-hour day, the latter yielding earnings of $5.85 or
$8.55 according to job.
P ears.-The piece rate for picking Bartlett pears in Oregon waS'
15 cents a 40-pound box. One grower had Mexicans who were paid
70 cents an hour and picked about 70 boxes in a 7-hour day, but when
they were put on piec•e work production jumped to 120 boxes a day.
Nonfarm women should have earned $4 and $6 a day. Some earned
•mor~
.
Apples.-Apple picking, like everything else, has gone up in cost.
In 1943 the piece rate was 12 to 15 cents a box ( in the 30's it had been
as low as 3½ cents). A good many nonfarm women picked, and
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WOMEN'S FARM. SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
could earn $5 to $8 a day. ·An expert professional man picker, it
was said, could pick 200 boxes in 7 hours. That is close to a box every
2 minutes, an almost incredible speed that few if any men could keep
up.
Earnings in Other Farm Work.
What nonfarm women earned in other farm jobs was difficult to
ascertain. Hourly rates were 60 to 95 cents. Girl truck drivers got
$9 a day, and no doubt many individuals, in jobs they found for themselves, got higher pay than ever before.·
Here, as in California, there were no definite data on the earnings
of nonfarm women. The head of the Department of Farm Management had prepared the only factµal material yet found on the
amount of work done by women and youths of various age groups,
with and without experience.
HOURS
The regular working day on farms in Oregon was reported to be
10 hours. It is probable that the nonfarm women who went out to
harvest crops did not ordinarily work more than 8 or 9 hours. In
some jobs, as cherry picking, when the heat was intense in the afternoon (100°), the pickers' work began at 5 a. m. and stopped by noon.
In hops, 6 hours was given as the usual day. As the women had to be
conveyed to the job every day and l;)rought back at night, that added
from 1 to 2 hours to their day. Also, a complaint frequently registered
was that the farmer, after the harvest workers stopped for the day,
still had to do his chores _b efore he could drive the workers back, during which time the women and children had to sit around and wait,
so their arrival at home might be delayed till 8 o'clock or later.
Where special buses or private cars were used, this trouble did not
exist.
Rest and Lunch Periods.
There were no designated rest periods. Whether or not a woman
or girl paused to rest depended on how she felt or how anxious she
was to earn as much as possible. As far as could be learned, there
was no fixed hour or amount of time for lunch. In the study made by
Dr. Mumford of 19 farms and 704 pickers, the time taken for lunch
was 15 to 30 minutes. Few if any piece workers would take the one
hour universally recommended for women doirig hard physical work.
DRINKING WATER
Where children, especially platoon groups, were sent out under the
authority of the farm-labor program of the Extension Service and the
schools, it was required that the farmers have a supply of pure drinking water available for them. As the children would not use individual paper cups, a clean barrel, with a spigot at the bottom, with
the barrel placed on a box and tilted up, was reported as one sort of
home-made bubble fountain that was effective. Here again, since it
was impossible to visit the workers on the job at the time of the survey, it cannot be stated how carefully the precautions with regard
to safe drinking water were carried out, but observat~on and reports
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WASHINGTON
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indicated that here, as in almost every State visited in the Women's
Bureau study, much remains to be done to insure a supply of good
drinking water for workers in the fields.
·
SANITARY CONDITIONS
The sanitary conditions in the fields were reported as "improving,"
but without doubt there is room for much more improvement. The
fact that the platoon children would not be sent out unless there were
.~oilets in the field implies that many had no such facilities, as was
mdeed the case. Where there were toilets they generally were simple
board structures, unroofed and unscreened. One camp set up for bean
pickers ( about 400) had "two toilets for men and two for women,"
though 95 percent of the workers were women and children. No
standards were set up for women over 18 years of age.
TRANSPORTATION
Transportation was reported as one of the chief difficulties. For
short hauls farmers sent their trucks to cities or towns for workers.
Where they did not have trucks available, or where the workers were
to be distributed to several farms, school buses often were used, the cost
of gasoline and driver being paid by the farmers. The children and
adult workers generally paid th~ir own transportation costs. Sometimes a woman had a car and could bring 5 or 6 workers with her.
INSURANCE
There were no insurance provisions for women workers, except as
individual growers might so provide.
PART V.-WASHINGTON'S USE OF WOMEN
WASHINGTON AGRICULTURE
Like Oregon, Washington before the war was a State whose principal industries were agriculture and lumber. From the beginning of
the war, shipyards and airplane factories along the coast and other
war industries have offered new opportunities to every sort of worker,
making great inroads into farm labor, and this, of course, in addition to the draft. Washington leads the United States irn the production of apples, and produces more pears than any other State but
California and more cherries than any other but Michigan. 4 It ranks
third in the production of asparagus, fourth in the production of
cranberries.
In the rich farming section of the west are grown strawberries, red
raspberries and blackberries, some loganberries, sweet and sour cherries, and Italian prunes.
Beans, carrots, beets, and potatoes all are important vegetable crops.
These and many others of less importance are grown along the fertile
valleys of the west coast and in the southern part of the State.
4
Agricultural Statistics, 1942, Department of Agriculture, pp. 224, 234, 257.
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WOMEN'S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
In the production of cannery peas, Washington ranks fourth in the
United States. In recent years sugar beets have been grown to some
extent.
·
·
The eastern part of the State is given over chiefly to wheat and other
small grains, some cattle ranches, and such crops as hay, alfalfa, and
cannery peas that can be taken care of chiefly by machinery.
LABOR DEMANDS
All the crops but those requiring heavy machinery could use large
numbers of women as substitutes for men, and more and more women
are being so used. The farms are for the most part small. There
are many berry farms of 5, 10, or 15 acres, and other small-fruit farms
of 20 to 30 acres. One man with the help of his family can take care
of such farms except during harvesting season.
In the years of depression and before the war, the small farmers had
not been able to make much money in berries and many either sold out
or went into defense industries when the chance offered; so while in
earlier years they had a much larger berry acreage and large groups
of migratory workers, for the last few years migrants have not come,
and more and mor_e dependence has had to be placed on local women
and childr:en for harvesting.,
Beans were the crop that produced an acute labor demand in 1943.
Beans must be picked the day they are ripe or they get too large.
Vines have to be gone over several times. Given a rain followed by a
few warm days and the picking crisis becomes acute. Here again,
women and children were called on for much of the harvest work.
The Yakima Valley, one of the richest agricultural sections of the
United States, is the center of the farm-labor demand, for both fruits
and hops. The Wenatchee Valley is the second great fruit section.
Ordinarily thousands of migrants have come here annually for the
fruit and hop picking. As migrants went into war industries, so also
did many of the local residents who had lacked employment in the
off season for agriculture. The supply oecame short not only of harvesters but of labor for the spring work of pruning, thinning, and
spraying the orchards. Sugar-beet fields needed workers. Asparagus
had to be cut, hops trained, and in the fall the harvesting made its
heavy labor demands.
THE DEMAND IN 1943
In 1943 the program of the USES for recruiting farm labor and
utilizing nonfarm workers was under way when the Extension Service
was made the agency for handling farm labor. A contract was made
between the USES and the Extension Service whereby the latter did
the i;ecruiting and the former the placing in 1943. The shortage of
farm labor had become apparent in 1941. In 1942 the acute shortage
had caused alarm and State-wide plans were under way in 1942-43.
The Governor had appointed an emergency committee under the State
Secretary of Agriculture, with a representative from the USES and
an executive secretary. Chambers of commerce had appointed committees, the various cities had women's committees, all working to get
more farm labor. The concentration of effort was, however, on school
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29
children for harvest work. They were available in large numbers,
and could easily be directed into farm work as their war effort. Competing with agriculture for women workers were the huge canning
industry and the fruit-packing houses. Their peaks come at about
the same. time as the harvest peaks, and the bigger the fruit and
vegetable crops the more workers are needed to see that all this
produce is taken care of and not allowed to spoil. That is something
every homemaker can understand. So at the same time that-women
were being sought for harvest work there was a high-powered publicity campaign going on to get women to come into the canneries.
The need was so great that women could come for any time they
chose. An evening shift of 4 hours-morning or afternoon shifts"come any time as long as you come." Women were sought by press,
radio, sound machine, telephone calls, and personally written appeals.
While enough women responded to take care of the fruit, many more
could have been used to advantage.
Meantime, the Extension Service, through its WLA leader, the
assistant farm-labor supervisor, was planning a State-wide campaign
for women for the essential farm work. Quoting from her reportThe State was classified with 12 critical labor-shortage counties which needed
additional cooperation and supervision to fulfil the requirements during the
seasonal peak load of labor demands. Of these counties, 6 were served by city
farm-labor committees who worked in cooperation with the county farm-labor
committees. These city committees had been established before the Extension
Service was delegated the farm-labor responsibility. It seemed advisable, to avoid
confusion, to work out a State-wide program that would fit in with these committees already established and having women's programs well under way.
Cities having women's organizations in operation from which an active WLA
program was carried out in the State:
Yakima-Food-for-Victory Program.
Seattl~Women Victory Volunteers.
Wenatche~Victory Crop Volunteers.
Tacoma-vVomen·s Victory Volunteers.
Spokan~The Victory Crop Corps.
Mount Vernon-Skagit-Victory Harvest Campaign for Victory Harvest.
These volunteer committees carried out an effective recruitment program and
gave full cooperation to the State farm-labor staff. The recruitment was timed
to fill the needs of the State, county, and local community seasonal-crop peakload requirements. Publicity laid emphasis on recruitment needs as specified
by the county agent and his county farm-labor committees. This publicity invoked three newspapers and radio and local telephone volunteer committees.
State-wide recruitment for peak loads was accomplished by various organizations, such as the State F ederated Women's Clubs, the Business and Professional Clubs, the Altrusa and Zonta Clubs, the State Department of Education,
the Federal Works Agency, and so forth. These assisted in giving State-wide
and local support to the farm-labor program. These organizations were very
responsive to the program and pledged support in the recruitment and development of the farm-labor program in local communities for the harvesting of
farmcr~
·
During the early part of September, the colleges and universities in the State
were visited for the recruitment of students to be used in acute emergencies
in the harvesting of the apple crop of tl\e State. In some of the colleges and
universities the members of the student body set up standard working conditions they wanted established before they were willing to work in the apple
p.arvest. The majority of these requirements were reasonable and acceptable
to the growers. However, some of the requirements needed adjusting on the
part of the grower as well as in the usage of this emergency labor.
_A n educational training program was planned to assist in developing a better
understanding of the job needed to be done and in improving attitudes toward
the problem as a whole. The educational program was planned to be presented
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WOMEN ' S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
to the student body of each college and university 3 or 4 days before workers
were ca lled on for the emergency job.
Between 1;200 and 1,500 ·students volunteered to serve in this emergency
requirement, the college and university faculty members pledging their full
cooperation.
' The weather conditions, volunteer help in cities and local communities, and
the a ssistance of Mexican worker s were equal to the labor-peak load, so the
emergency labor supply was not needed in that year. The student-body meIDtber s and faculty members of these colleges and universities were sent letters
of appreciation for their cooperation and interest in helping to meet farm-labor
program requirements.
THE WOMEN WHO WORKED
The report of the WLA leader sums up the types of nonfarm women
who worked in the harvest as follows:
W omen of ma ny professions, such as teachers, clerks, stenographer s, librarians,
waitresses, nurses, homemakers, instructors in colleges, lawyers, technicians, and
so forth, were among the groups in the State of Washington who volunteered their
services in helping with the harvesting of crops.
WORK DONE BY WOMEN
The work done by the women of w·ashington was similar to that of
California and Oregon. Chiefly it was harvesting fruit, berry, and
vegetable crops. It was practically all done on a day-haul basis.
In the Spokane Valley women did an excellent job assisting in the
harvestin~ of fruit, the cane berries, and vegetable truck crops. The
Victory vrop Corps of Women were very conscientious workers.
They were praised highly by the farm folk as well as by the Extension Service.
The apple crop of Washington State, one of its major crops, was
harvested by the combined efforts of young people, men, and women.
In some sections of the Chelan County area nearly 50 percent of the
apple crop was picked and packed by women.
Few women were working on year-round jobs on large poultry
£arms. Several worked on dairy farms as helpers in the milk houses
and the delivery of milk. Two women served in the capacity of Dairy
Herd Improvement Association testers in the State.
As might be expected, women did more orchard work here than in
other States. They thinned soft fruit and apples. They even sprayed
orchards. One woman was observed spraying apples from a hose
attached to a laid-down pipe system as casually as a city woman
might water a lawn. (It is, none the less, a hard dirty job.) A woman
who managed her own apple, pear, and asparagus farm of about 140
acres said that her foreman's wife drove the big John Deere tractor
with ·a 600-gallon spray rig for spraying her orchards, which were on
hilly ground, and also entirely managed the asparagus fields, hiring
the ·pickers, supervising the sorting, and doing the selling. Naturally,
she had much farm knowledge and experience, but took active part
in all this work only in the war emergency.
S u pervisors.-In Washington as elsewhere, a really important job
for women that it was impossible to find enough women to take was the
supervising of groups of children who went out on day haul or from
the youth camps. It h as been found, in every State that uses children, that only when well supervised is the work they do satisfactory.
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Someone is needed not only to take instruction from the farmer as
to what he wants done but to see that the children pick fruit properly
without damaging the trees and do n·o t indulge in fruit fights.
Supervisors are needed also to look after the children's interests
and see that they get a fair deal and considerate treatment. Many
children went out who would not ordinarily be sent alone for such
work, and were "bossed" by men who little understood the handling
of youngsters. H children are to be used, attention must. be given
to good organization and supervision and to the education of the
farmers as well. A case in point reported by a berry grower was
that of a neighboring grower who insisted that the children fill the
berry baskets heaping full, instead of level as they must be for
shipping. The grower then skimmed off the extra mound and got
several crates of berries during the day's pick for which he paid
nothing.
The Extension Service would gladly hav~ arranged for the training
of supervisors had the need been recognized and candidates secured in
advance of the need. In fact it did, in at least Spokane and Tacoma,
have such an afternoon and _evening session.
The better supervisors were those who had had experience with
groups of children, such as mothers, teachers, scout leaders, or camp
counselors.
EARNINGS 5
Wage rates for experienced women were 60 cents, 75 cents, and
even $1 an hour. But these rates were not paid to inexperienced nonfarm women, who worked for the most part at piece rates and did not,
generally speaking, earn large amounts. Their speed, concentration,
and endurance, if they worked for occasional days only, were not up to
the high-pressure work rate necessary to earn high pay.
Berries.-Berry pickers were paid $0.90 to $1.25 a crate of 24 pint
boxes. (In depression years the rate was 40 cents or 50 cents, and
70 cents was considered good pay.) "A good woman picker in an
8- or 9-hour day should pick 3 to 4 crates." Yet one man volunteer
said he made only $1.50 in one day picking raspberries, though he
should have made $5 if the picking had been good. Nowhere were
production records available, or any records of earnings.
Berry pickers have traditionally been family groups with several
children, all of whom can pick. Regular berry pickers usually work
long days, starting sometimes as early as 4 a. m. and working until
dark, in order to earn as much as possible. From the information
obtainable it appears that less money was earned at berry picking
than at any other job. .
Apple pricking.-Here again piece rates had gone up. One man said
he remembers when 3 cents a box was the going price. In 1942, 6 and 7
cents a pox was paid ; in 1943, 10 cents was the prevailing rate and
15 cents was paid in some cases. Expert apple pickers (men) could
earn $18 to $20 a day; Mexican greenhorns, $6 to $8. Women were
reported to earn 60 percent as much as men, but here again no production records. were available. · On that basis the inexperienced nonfarm
5
In general, the cooperating committee orianizations, even the farm-labor supervisors
and USES, had nothing to say about rates of pay or earnings. As they were practically
the only persons who could be consulted during the off season in which this survey was
maide, earnings data for nonfarm women are incomplete and unsatisfactory.
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E E LIBRA
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WOMEN ' S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
women might have earned $3 to $5 a day. A Washington University
official reporting on the apple-picking work in 1943 said that the
typical girl student came back with $1.50 or $2 over and above her
expenses for 4 days ( for railroad fare and board these wer~ from
$15 to $17), so they may have earned $16 to $20 in 4 days, or $4 to $5
a day.
·
B ea:rns.~It was hard to find out what nonfarm women earned on
-beans. One committeewoman said they could earn $2 a day easily,
and that many earned $5. (Whether or not they had had previous
experience was not known, nor how long they worked.)
HOURS
Here again, in the matter of hours worked, there were few or no
records. There were no definite hours, and since the work was all at
piece rates many workers varied their hours to suit their own feelings
or abilities. Supervisors who went out in farmers' trucks with children on day haul often were picked up as early as 6 : 30 a. m. and
children were expected to be returned in -8 hours. Occasionally, the
drive home was after the farmer had finished his chores, though the
women and · children might have stopped work some time before.
Those who went in their own cars may have made it a 6- or 7-hour
day.
The regular migrants and the local people who came in on their
own initiative worked long hours. In the Puyallup Valley, it was
said, people put in as much as 12, 14, and 15 hours a day. This is ·a
large b'erry-growing region. The usual day for full-time nonfarm
workers might be said to be 9 to 10 hours.
Rest periods.-No rest periods for adult women workers were reported or even mentioned anywhere. Women were considered able to
make their own arrangements with the farmers, and to take rest if
they needed- it.
SANITATION
Drinking water.-From alt information obtained, it would seem that
the matter of pure, clean drinking water at working places needed
considerable attention. The customary method was to take water out
in a milk can. Children were supposed to bring their own cups, but
few did so. The same doubtless was true of women, as ·has been the
general experience. An effort was made to have State inspectors pass
on the water at farms to which camp children were sent, but there were
so many farms and so few inspectors that all the farms could not be
covered.
·
Sanitary arrangements.-At the farms where women and children
day workers were employed, these were reported generally as unsatisfactory. Often only a board privy, unroo:fed and unscreened, served
everyone. In some cases there was no prov..i~on at all.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
As'there were no camps for women there were no requirements as to
physical fitness. Women made their own decisions as to whether or
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CONCLUSIONS
33
not they were physically able to do the work. In the one camp for
youth, the doctor's certificate was waived, not because it was con~idered
unnecessary but because of difficulties in securing it.
Besides such usual farm hazards as fa-Ils, sunburn, insect bites, and
so forth, there was mention by some women apple pickers of unpleasant
effects of the heavy spray that covered the apples. They said it dried
out their .skin, made an irritating dust in the air, and got into their
clothes.
PART VI.-CONCLUSIONS
8CREENIN:G OF WORKERS AND FARMERS
During the 1943 season, in spite of a subnormal crop, more women than ever before worked in agriculture in the Pacific Coast States. In
California the Extension Service estimated that 15,000 nonfarm
volunteer women helped on farms because of the war emergency, and
that about half of these were placed through the farm-labor offices. · In
the two other States, also, thousands of nonfarm women helped with
the harvesting.
·
At time of survey (the early months of 1944) the prosp-ects were that
the crops needing women harvesters would be much larger than in the
year before. More women would be needed both in the harvests and in
the canneries. While the majority needed for harvest work probably
would be placed through the farm-labor offices, many were to be
recruited through various sponsoring agencies and some would find
their own jobs through advertisements and other publicity measures.
A thoughtful and intelligent farmer in Washington said that
"volunteers (i. e., inexperienced nonfarm women) should be disillusioned about what harvest work means, and that farmers must be
educated to treat their help right." That farmer summed up in a few
words what all promoters of the employment of women on farms know
must be made clear to recruits, to placement officials, and to farmers.
· Too often the women have no idea what the work is going to
be like, how hard physically it will be for women whose muscles are
soft from lack of physical exercise. That is why young women, fond
of sports and athletics, or women who have done ~ork calling for
some physical effort, often find it easier to accustom themselves to
active farm work than older women or women from sedentary jobs.
It should be a part of the duty of every farm-labor recruitment officer
to understand as completely as possible the job for which he or she
is recruiting workers, and to explain, equally fully and carefully,' just
. what it means in physical exertion and endurance, so that workers
who will stay only a day or two and decide they don't like it may be
eliminated in advance.
The farmers should be urged to give their: inexperienced women
"'orkers more careful explanation and instruction about the work to be
done. Good farmers are not always good teachers. Probably the Ex-tension Service Agricultural Agents can do more than anyone else to
impress on the farmers the importance of induction, getting groups of
farmers together and demonstrating good and bad techniques in starting inexperienced workers on.new jobs.
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WOMEN'S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
Through its educational functio11s the Extension Service can do and
is doing much to make farmers realize that to succeed with this new
type of farm worker they must have :patience, courtesy, and kindness
and take time to instruct women carefully in the work they are to do.
They must not 't ake advantage of women's inexperience by assigning
them to bad fields overrun with weeds, or orchards left rough and
weedy. They must not expect women to carry heavy boxes long dis~
tances, nor must farmers permit mistakes to be made in checking up the
amount of work done. Workers at one camp said of an employer, "We
always thought he cheated himself every pay day, he kept such careless
records"; while another said, "He always cheated the _girls, sometimes
several dollars." They did not want to be cheated noi1 to cheat; they
wanted just the right pay for the work done.
SANITARY FACILITIES
In all three States, sanitary provisions for field workers were almost
universally inadequate, often entirely lacking. As one man said, "Boys
take one corner of the field, girls another." This is, perhaps, a matter
of education of the farmer and of stipulations from sponsors or placement offices that suitable provision be made if workers are to be supplied. It is doubtful that, if a State pa~sed regulatory measures, there
would be any possibility of inspection and enforcement under present
conditions. Where women have to work all day or half days in the
areas far removed from permanent toilet facilities there should be
adequate provision in the field or orchard of portable pr~vies, screened,
·
roofed,6 and tight.
WASHING FACILITIES
Facilities for washing should be provided near where the workers
eat lunch. In the climate of the west coast during the months in which
rain never falls, an outdoor wash bench with basins, soap, water, and
paper towels would be adequate and inexpensive. Few if any farmers
eat their dinners without the refreshment of washing hands and face.
Yet few provide such opportunity for their harvest workers. A ·Red Cross first-aid kit should be supplied in the fields and someone who is
a qualified first-aider should be on hand and known to the workers as
the person to go to with cuts, scratches, and other minor injuries.
DRINKING WATER IN FIELDS
Except for Oregon's tipped-up barrel with a spigot, which afforded
a sort of home-made bubble fountain, nothing was heard of any effort
to provide clean or cooled drinking water in a region where the heat
during much of the harvest is terrific-90° to 100° or more, many times.
In some cases water was carried to fields in receptacles from which
workers drank or the workers used a common cup unless they took their
own. This is a practice that should be remedied. Desert water bags,
ollas, and canteens are inexpensive and practical, with individual
paper cups, as are large thermos cans, like milk cans, with a faucet .
6
•
If rain-proof roofs are not needed, screened roofs are.
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CONCLUSIONS
35
HOURS
Throughout all these States a working day of 9 hours, rarely longer
and sometimes 8 hours, prevailed for nonfarm women ( though not for
migrants). Sometimes on special crops the day was shortened. It
did appear, however, that where the pay was not an important factor
in their service, and where at best the earnings would be small, after
women had earned their board there was a tendency to ease up and not
work the full day. However, at a camp where earnings over and
above board really amounted to something, though women at first
asked ·for an 8-hour day they decided, after the matter had been taken
up and practically agreed on, that they would rather work the 9-hour
day and get the extra hour's pay. Here, as in the East, women seemed
able to work an 8- or a 9-hour day, though there is no information as to
output under the two schedules. If women work a 9-hour day they
should have a full hour for lunch, which was seldom _taken by piece
workers. .An hour for lunch was reported at two camps where the
workers were trucked back to a hot meal, but the hour included transportation. Experience indicates that women's working efficiency in a
9-hour day is increased by a 15-minute period of complete rest and
relaxation in mid-morning and mid-afternoon.
Where workers can go to a comfortable spot, wash, and sit in the
shade for a leisurely lunch, their after-lunch efficiency will be higher
than that of workers who snatch 15 minutes to eat and then go right on
working.
In these States the theory that adult women are free agents able to
take care of their own working conditions seems in some cases to have
had acceptance over the idea that to secure a new group of workers in
an industry care must be taken to see that working conditions are such
as to attract and hold them. Here again the farmers and all others
interested might well consider what has been demonstrated in war
industries that have taken women on for work new to them, namely,
that a good induction, a th_o rough understanding of the work to be
done and its part in relation to the whole, patient supervision at first,
and good working conditions will develop women more quickly and
efficiently into valuable workers than the old policy expressed in
"throw them in and they'll learn to swim."
PRODUCTION AND EARNINGS
It was very difficult at the time of year when this study was made
(February to April 1944) to secure adequate data on women's production or earnings in 1943; particularly for the day workers, who were
the overwhelming majority. Some camps that had wage data did not
have complete or uniform records. Even to secure the "prevailing
rates" on piece work was difficult. Hourly rates often were given,
but few of the emergency farm-service women worked at hourly rates.
Harvest work was almost entirely piece work.
The wage data given on the foregoing pages, therefore, represent
the best that could be secured from sponsors of the adult women's
camps, from individual women workers whose reliability was agreed
to by the A WVS or the WLA, and from the reports of the WLA
leaders of the Extension Service.
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WOMEN'S FARM SERVICE ON PACIFIC COAST, 1943
They do not represent the earnings of the regular and the migratory
farm workers, nor do they represent the large group of more or less
experienced volunteers who quite customarily help with harvest work
by the day in their own neighborhoods. Rather they are the earnings
of women who worked daily, from camps, over periods of from 1 to 6
weeks, of whom some were "green'' and others, having worked for
several weeks and become accustomed to it, were quite skilled, but all
of whom were women who had gone into agriculture as a new venture.
0
/,
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