Full text of Work of Children on Illinois Farms, Bureau Publication No. 168

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

CHILDREN’S BUREAU
GRACE ABBOTT, Chief

WORK OF CHILDREN
ON ILLINOIS FARMS
By
D O R O T H Y W ILL IA M S
AND

M A R Y E. S K IN N E R

Bureau Publication N o. 168

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1926


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SINGLE COPIES
OF THIS PUBLICATION M AY B E OBTAINED FREE UPON
APPLICATION TO THE CHILDREN’ S BUREAU

A D D I T I O N A L C O PIE S
OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM
THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON, D. C.
AT

15 C E N T S P E R C O P Y


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CONTENTS

Letter of transmittal_____ ._____________________________________________
Introduction_________________
Truck farming in the Chicago district__________________________________
The farms selected for study_________________________ _____________
Method and scope of the study____________________________________
The child workers_________________________________________________
The children’s work___________________________________________ ____
Length of the working day________________________________ 'i _____ J
Duration of employment______________________
Earnings of child workers___________________ _____ _________ ___ Jsf
School attendance and school progress_____________________________
Summary_______ __________________________________________ ,_______
General farming______________ _____ _________________ !___________- _____
The child workers____________ _________________ ,______________ ____
Conditions of work_________________________
Kinds of work___________________________________________ ___ A ____
Farm work and school attendance____ _____________________________
Summary _____________________ !____________________________________

Page
v
1
2
3
7
8
12
19
23
24
27
30
32
33
35
38
45
47

ILLUSTRATIONS
M ap .— Location of the more concentrated areas of truck farms where
children were found working in the Chicago district, and the type of
crops grown__________________________

4

Facing page

P late I.— Operations in truck farming_____________ _________________
P late II.— Operations in truck farming______________________________
P late III.— Operations in general farming_____________________________
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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

U. S. D epartment

of L abor,
C hildren’ s B ureau ,

Washington, October 16, 1926.
Sir : There is transmitted herewith a report on “ Work of Children

on Illinois Farms.” This report is the ninth and last of a series of
studies of the labor of children on farms, with special reference to
school attendance, which have been conducted by the industrial
division of the Children’s Bureau.
The investigation upon which the report was based was planned
and carried out under the general supervision of Ellen Nathalie
Matthews, director of the industrial division of the Children’s Bureau.
Dorothy M . Williams directed the field work and wrote the report
for the Chicago truck-farming district and Mary A. Skinner for the
general-farming counties.
Acknowledgment is made of the cooperation given the bureau by
State and county officials, local school principals, and teachers.
Respectfully submitted.
Hon. James J. D avis ,
Secretary of Labor.

G race A bbott, Chief.

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WORK OF CHILDREN ON ILLINOIS FARMS1
INTRODUCTION
This study of the work of children on Illinois farms was made in
Cook County (in the vicinity of Chicago) in the summer of 1924
and in Livingston, Shelby, and Marion Counties, lying respectively
in the northern, central, and southern parts of the State, in the spring
and summer of 1923. Cook County embraces one of the most im­
portant truck-farming districts in the United States. (See p. 2.)
Livingston, Shelby, and Marion Counties are representative of general
farming conditions in Illinois and to some extent in all the Corn Belt
States.
Illinois is' predominantly a corn-growing State and ranks second in
the United States in the production of corn. In 1919 the value of
the corn crop was 48 per cent of the value of all crops in the State.
Other products, however, have an important place. Cereals other
than corn (of which wheat and oats are the most important) con­
tributed 31 per cent of the total value of the crops in 1919; hay and
forage contributed 14 per cent; vegetables, fruits, and nuts 5 per
cent. ^ Most of these crops are raised to some extent in every county
in Illinois, but each has its area of largest production. By far the
greatest acreage of corn lies in the central and east central counties
where the soil is extremely fertile and where frosts do not prevent
maturing of the grain. Oats also are grown in this section, especially
in rotation with corn. In the south central counties hay and forage
are the principal crops. Wheat is grown in the southwestern coun­
ties, and orchard fruits in the extreme southern part of the State.
Some vegetables and small fruits are raised on every farm, but in
the vicinity of Chicago and of St. Louis extensive truck farming is
carried on.2
1 This study is one of a series of studies of rural child labor made by the U. S. Children’s Bureau. The
following reports in the series have been published: No. 115, Child Labor and the Work of Mothers in the
Beet Fields of Colorado and Michigan; No. 123, Child Labor on Maryland Truck Farms; No. 129, Child
Labor in North Dakota; No. 130, Child Labor and the Work of Mothers on Norfolk Truck Farms; No. 132,
Work of Children on Truck and Small-Fruit Farms in Southern New Jersey; No. 134, The Welfare of
Children in Cotton-Growing Areas of Texas; No. 151, Child Labor in Fruit and Hop Growing Districts
0 •
r^ ern Pac^ c Coast; No. 155, Child Labor in Representative Tobacco-Growing Areas.
__ Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910, Vol. VI, Agriculture, p. 422; Fourteenth Census of the
United States, 1920, Vol. VI, Part, 1, Agriculture, p. 373. Washington, 1913 and 1922.

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TRUCK FARMING IN THE CHICAGO DISTRICT
Truck farming in the vicinity of Chicago is overshadowed by the
industries and varied activities of a great city, and its extent and
importance are realized only when compared with truck farming in
other areas. In 1919 Cook County stood third in the entire country
in the value of its truck crops 1 and second in acreage harvested. It
was surpassed by only Los Angeles and Imperial Counties in Cali­
fornia in the value of these crops and by only Los Angeles County in
acreage devoted to them. It had 19,275 acres of truck crops (31.8
per cent of the truck acreage in Illinois), whereas no other county in
the State had as many as 4,000 acres and only two had more than
3,000 acres. It raised the largest proportion of the State's most
valuable truck crops, having 4,599 acres of sweet corn (17.3 per cent
of the acreage of the State); 3,566 acres of dry onions (79.3 per cent
of the acreage of the State); 2,459 acres of tomatoes (39.1 per cent of
the acreage of the State); and 2,330 acres of cabbage (61.6 per cent
of the acreage of the State).2
All these vegetables were grown in the Chicago district in the
summer of 1924. Other vegetables grown in the district (listed in
order of their importance in the State) were cucumbers, asparagus,
watermelons, lettuce, cantaloupes and muskmelons, beans (green),
peas (green), pop corn, celery, carrots, rhubarb, peppers (green),
radishes, beets, horse-radish, cauliflower, spinach, and squashes.3
The farming area around Chicago includes market-garden districts
usual in the neighborhood of any great city with products disposed
of by individual growers in the home markets. Chicago is also one
of the great wholesale produce markets of the country; and although
much of the produce of this territory is sold in the market for local
consumption, some undoubtedly is shipped outside the local area,
and a large proportion of the same crops is grown for manufacture,
canning, or pickling. Among the crops destined for shipment are
sugar beets and onion sets (small onion bulbs used for planting).
These crops are not included among the vegetables raised for sale for
which the census gives statistics, but as they are grown upon the same
land by much the same methods and with the same labor they have
been included in this study.
There are truck farms on all sides of Chicago a short distance
inland from the lake. On the northwest, back of the line of suburbs
fringing the lake, the truck farms begin almost immediately across
the limits of the city. At some points along the western boundary
1The census statistics quoted in this report are for miscellaneous vegetables raised for sale, exclusive of
potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams. According to the Fourteenth Census of the United States (1920, Vol.
V, Agriculture, p. 818) “ the group designated ‘miscellaneous vegetables’ is made up chiefly of those vege­
tables which would be classified as truck crops in case a distinction were made between truck crops and
farm crops or field crops. The grouping is not altogether satisfactory, since it includes sweet com, for
example, which is grown in many cases strictly as a field crop, and excludes early potatoes, which are fre­
quently grown with all the special care and attention characteristic of a track crop. The limitations of the
census inquiry made it necessary, however, to classify the whole of a crop either with the field crops or with
the vegetables.” In the present report the term “ truck crops” is used in substantially the same sense as
in the census reports (but see lines 33-36, p. 2). In previous studies of children’s work on truck farms
made by the Children’s Bureau (see footnote 1, p. 1) work on potatoes and small fruits was included; but
in Cook County small fruits are not grown to any extent, sweet potatoes and yams are not grown at all,
and no children found working in the areas selected for study had worked on white potatoes.
3 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Agriculture, Bulletin: Farm Vegetables, pp. 17-20, 64;
Vol. VI, Part 1, Agriculture, pp. 396- 405.
3 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Agriculture, Bulletin: Farm Vegetables, p. 27.

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of Chicago the farms begin almost on the line; at others they are
crowded farther west or replaced altogether by suburbs and by
manufacturing plants. On the south the trucking area closely ad­
joins the manufacturing and railroad district immediately outside
the city limits and even within them. This fringe, fairly outlining
the city at the northwest and southwest corners, gives way after 4 or
5 miles to farms devoted to field crops, although occasional trucking
areas extend to the very edge of Cook County and beyond. Farms in
the more concentrated area and within 5 miles of the city limits were
selected for study. The map on page 4 shows the location of the
more concentrated area of truck farms and the type of crops grown.
THE FARMS SELECTED FOR STUDY

As it was practicable to include in the study only a part of the
areas used for truck farming around Chicago certain districts were
selected (after interviews with persons conversant with the situation
from various angles— school-teachers, county public-health nurses and
probation officers in rural districts, and directors of the local associa­
tion of truck farmers) as fair samples of the various conditions under
which children worked on Cook County farms. The asterisks on
of the map on page 4 indicate the districts canvassed.
Within the city limits one district was canvassed. It was bounded
by One hundred and third and One hundred and fifteenth Streets,
and Stewart and Racine Avenues, most of the farms lying along
South Halsted and Wallace Streets, comprising an area 1 mile wide
and l }/2 miles long. South of the city three districts were studied.
One consisted of 1 square mile lying east of Blue Island, along Ash­
land Avenue and Halsted Street, Vermont Avenue and One hundred
and thirty-fifth Street. A second district, west of Blue Island, was
an irregular oblong area extending about 2 miles east and west and
1 mile north and south, bounded by the Sanitary Canal on the
south, Forty-fourth (Kostner) Avenue on the west, and San Fran­
cisco Avenue on the east to its junction with railroad tracks which
form the north boundary, the farms lying along One hundred and
thirty-first and One hundred and twenty-seventh Streets. The third
district on the south was near South Holland, where two sections
were included in the study; one was an irregular oblong extending
from One hundred and fifty-first Street to Little Calumet River,
from State Street to Greenwood Road; and the other was triangular
in shape, bounded by One hundred and fifty-ninth Street on the
north, State Street on the east, and the Grand Trunk Railroad on
the southwest. North of the city four districts were selected. The
first included a triangle along Milwaukee Road, Waukegan Road,
and Dempster Street, and a small triangle formed by Touhy Avenue,
Railroad Avenue, and Hart’s Road. The second section lay along
Irving Park Road, Phillips Road, Lawrence Avenue, and Harlem Road.
The third lay along Twenty-fifth Avenue to North Avenue, and along
North Avenue to the River Road, extending 1 mile north and south and
1 }/2 miles east and west. The fourth consisted of a group of farms on
the River Road, Higgins Road, and Mannheim Road, near Schiller
Park. Ten of the farms visited lay outside any of the districts selected,
two in the city, three on the south, and five on the north.
Several of the truck-farming districts are rapidly changing in char­
acter. Subdivisions being promoted in Roseland will take farming
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Location of the more concentrated areas of truck farms where children were found working in the
Chicago district, and the type of crops grown


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land in the South Halsted Street district within the city; and sub­
divisions near Niles Center are taking farming land west of Evans­
ton toward the Milwaukee Road, including many of the farms visited.
The territory farther to the west and farther south included in the
study is not in such immediate demand for urban development.
The general aspect of the truck farms is poor. Those south of the
city are especially unattractive. The fields are far from neat, the
houses and farm buildings old, inconvenient, and not well kept up.
On the north the fields are better kept; but the houses and buildings
are in a poor state of repair, and most of them show no attempt at
comfort or stability. In the district around Schiller Park, north­
west of Chicago, however, both the buildings and the fields of a num­
ber of farms are neat and well kept, and the buildings are larger and
more attractive than in the other districts.
The average size of the farms visited was 27.9 acres, and the average
acreage in truck crops was 19.13. This is more than twice the aver­
age acreage in vegetables of the 2,412 farms raising vegetables for
sale in Cook County in 1919.4 About one-half of the farms were used
entirely for truck crops. All but 2 of 25 farms within the city limits
of Chicago which were visited and which reported on the type of
crop were entirely truck farms, whereas only a few more than onethird of those outside Chicago were used entirely for truck.
The city farms are part of an old settlement of Hollanders. Most
of the farmers there to-day are sons of immigrants who came to the
district as many as 70 years ago, though there were Dutch settlers
in the district before that time. The farmers recall farms of 160
acres largely devoted to the raising of hay which have been reduced
gradually to their present size of 5, 10, and 20 acres and are devoted
to the production of vegetable crops only. This district specializes
in early vegetables as the district to the north of the city does in
late crops. Many of the boys working on these farms live in the
neighborhood and work regularly and for continuous periods on one
farm, so that the farmers take a friendly interest in their welfare
while at work. On one farm it was stated that boys younger than
10 years were not employed unless they came with older brothers.
Girls were not often in the field, and women did not do field work.
In the sections on either side of Blue Island Dutch and German
farmers apparently predominate; the labor supply, however, is prin­
cipally from Italian and Polish families. The district is intermediate
between the city district and the northern districts in the distance of
the work from the source of the labor supply, in the length of contin­
uous work on one farm, and in the interest and supervision given the
child workers. A number of the farmers obtain their child workers
from near-by villages or towns and others obtain them from adjacent
parts of Chicago. Children working on farms west of Blue Islafid
lived in the villages Alsip and Wireton and in Blue Island. Children
interviewed on farms of Blue Island came from Blue Island and from
Pullman or West Pullman, parts of the city contiguous to the farming
district. None of these children spent money for transportation;
automobiles called at certain gathering places for those who lived
farther away than walking distance, as most of them did, and con­
veyed them to the farms. The closeness of the farms to the homes
and schools of the children makes work before and after school
* Ibid., p. 18.


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possible during the school term also. The farms here specialize in a
few crops more than do the farms in the city or the districts to the
north. Three crops is a common number, the main crop being either
asparagus or onions. This and South Holland are the only districts
studied in which sugar beets are grown. The larger acreage given
over to one crop makes the work of weeding or harvesting more con­
tinuous than on the northern farms; employers and children come to
know each other and a personal relationship is established. Some
farmers are concerned that the children who work for them shall have
varied tasks; one or two provide treats for them. Yet nowhere in
the districts studied was the relation between the children and their
employers more impersonal than on some of the large onion farms in
this section.
The farms near South Holland, like those around Blue Island, are
generally devoted to three crops, such as asparagus, sugar beets, and
onion sets, with a small acreage of other vegetables. Work seems
to be less continuous than on the Blue Island farms. No personal
relation between employer and workers is apparent unless they are
relatives. None of the workers are from Chicago. They come from
considerable distances, principally from Chicago Heights and Ham­
mond, Ind. The children from Hammond are brought from gather­
ing places— near a certain school, for instance-—and have no car fare
to pay. Italian women and children come from Chicago Heights by
train and are met at the South Holland railroad station by any
farmers in need of workers that day. They go on foot to the near-by
farms or are conveyed by automobile to the farms farther away.
The farmers themselves are Dutch or American.
Most of the farms included in the study on the north side of the
city were in a triangular area north of Niles. Here many kinds of
vegetables are grown, a few acres devoted to each of a half-dozen or
a dozen on each farm. Each day’s work finds a new crew of workers.
For a few days early in the summer the farmer needs extra help in
getting the green onions ready for market, and he goes to the open
space at the end of the street-car lines in Jefferson Park, where, at
an early hour in the morning, he picks up a few boys, or a little later
in the morning he hires boys who have not been successful in obtain­
ing work at Jefferson Park and who come by his farm asking for
work. If at the end of the day’s work these boys have been satis­
factory and part of the crop remains unharvested, the farmer will tell
them to come back the next morning. Thus the boys may have a
few days or a week of work on this one farm. Later, when peas are
ready to be picked, and later still, when carrots or beets are to be
pulled and bunched, the farmer will obtain the needed help in the
same manner. Under this method of hiring and this sporadic need
of help there is no continuous employment under one employer, and
the farmer is not likely to develop an interest in the workers. In
addition to the children from the city the farmers’ sons and daughters
also work on the farms. The farm families are American, German,
and Dutch. The outside workers are largely Polish and Slavic.
Conditions in the smaller district not far east of this area are similar.
To the northwest the three other districts visited on the north
side of the city contain farms with varied vegetable crops. Near
the town of Melrose Park are Italian farmers to whose farms Italian
child workers come from the town. North of Schiller Park are

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farmers of various nationalities, Polish and German among them,
whose child workers are from the city, obtained from Jefferson Park,
or are the children of Italian railroad laborers in the settlement of
Schiller Park, who are sometimes brought out by the farmer in his
car and sometimes find their own way out. The farms in this
locality are rather more prosperous in appearance and have more
modem houses and barns than is the rule in other districts. In the
Norwood Park district just outside the city limits the American,
Scandinavian, and other farmers employ children when they need
extra help, sometimes hiring them at Jefferson Park but more fre­
quently finding them among the families living near the edge of the
city.
M ETHOD AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Collection of information for the study was begun late in June, 1924,
and continued into September, thus extending over the whole of the
busy season; that is, almost the entire weeding season, the peak of
the asparagus cutting in late June and early July, the onion “ twist­
ing” or harvesting in August, and the harvesting of the other and
less important vegetables throughout the summer and early fall.
The farmer’s family (and on some farms an additional boy who is
hired for long periods and becomes practically a member of the
family) can take care of the work on truck crops during most of the
year. Further help is seldom needed until late in the spring. Then
boys who live near the farms are hired on Saturdays to prepare the
sou and to plant, and especially to cut asparagus outside of school
hours on any days. The peak of the work corresponds rather exactly
with school vacations; the season for children’s work begins with the
closing of school in June and continues until its opening in September.
Each farm in the selected districts was visited, and all children
under 16 years of age found working on truck farms on the day of the
visit were interviewed if they had worked on truck farms not less
than four hours on at least 12 days within the year preceding the inter­
view. Children who had worked before or after school were included
even though they had worked less than four hours a day. If migra­
tory workers (persons settling in the district for a season’s work)
had worked as much as six days they were also included in the record.
Children living on the farms on which they had worked were not
included unless they had lived in a rural district the whole year
preceding the interview, as otherwise they did not seem representa­
tive of that group of workers.
Visits were made to a total of 119 farms on which children were
working, 26 farms within the city limits, 39 south of the city, and 54
in the northern section of the county. The number of children
interviewed on the farms varied in the different districts, with an
average of 2.9 on farms in the north, 3.4 on farms in the city, and 6.6
on farms in the south. One hundred and fifty-five children were
included from the northern district, 257 from the southern, and 89
from the city farms. More child workers are employed on those
farms where there are many acres of one crop which must have care
at approximately the same time than on farms with diversified crops.
Specialization occurs in the district at the south on the great aspara­
gus and onion farms, where 20 or more children are frequently seen
in the field at one time. In the northern area many kinds of vege
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tables are grown, as many as 20 or 25 on one farm. The farms in the
city are only somewhat less diversified than those on the north; 10
or more crops were raised on 17 of the 37 northern farms reporting,
and on only 5 of the 22 city farms. Because of the nature of the work
in connection with these diversified crops many of the children work­
ing on one farm on a busy day had not worked on farms long enough
to be included in the study.
.
; . , ,
, r-ii
In addition to the detailed mformation obtamed from each child
regarding the nature and extent of his work, some mformation oi a
more general kind was obtained from the farmers, and attendance
records for each child during the school year 1923-24 were obtamed
from the various schools attended.
THE CHILD W ORKERS

More than three-fourths (77.8 per cent) of the 501 children found
working on the farms were day laborers. More than one-halt of these
390 day laborers, or 201 children, came from Chicago, lh e other
half were divided between town and country, 111, or 28.5 per cent
of them, living in other cities and towns of 2,500 or piore population,
and 78, or 20 per cent, living on farms or in villages of less than 2,500
inhabitants. (Tables 1 and 2.) There were 13 child workers who
stayed on the farm during the week but went home tor bunday, 12
had come to the farm for the season and for purposes of the study
were considered migratory workers, and 86 were residmg on the farms .
where they worked. (Table 1.) The migratory and weekly workers
and children of farmers thus constituted a small g ro u p -o n ly onefifth of the total. The only Children’s Bureau studies of rural child
laborers showing similar proportions of daily workers are those of
the work of children on truck farms near Norfolk, Va., where 71.5
per cent of the child workers came out to work by the day, and of the
work of children on tobacco farms in the vicinity of Hartford, Conn.,
where 66.7 per cent of the child workers came out daily from the city.5
In the Chicago district studied a few of the children were accom­
panied by their mothers, but 365 of the 390 day workers were working
independently.
T a b l e 1. —

Children of specified ages working on truck crops, by kind of worker
Cook County
Children of specified ages working on truck crops
Under
10
years

Total
Kind of worker

Total...........................
City day laborer....................
Town day laborer..................
Rural day laborer................
Resident worker....... ...........
Migratory worker..................

Num­
ber

Per
cent
distri­
bution

501

100.0

29

201
111
78
86
13
12

40.1
22.2
15.6
17.2
2.6
2.4

6
6
5
10
2

10 years,
under 12

12 years,
under 14

14 years,
under 16
Per
cent
distri­
bution

Per
cent
distri­
bution

Num­
ber

Per
cent
distri­
bution

Num­
ber

95

100.0

214

100.0

163

100.0

33
24
17
19

34.7
25.3
17.9
20.0
2.1

44.9
21.0
14.0
14.5
3.7
1.9

66
36
26
26
5
4

40.5

2

96
45
30
31
8
4

Num­ Num­
ber0
ber

16.0
16.0
3.1
2.5

« Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50.
5 See Child Labor and the Work of Mothers on Norfolk Truck Farms, p. 3 (U. S. Children’s Bureau
Publication No. 130, Washington, 1924), and Child Labor in Representative Tobacco-Growing Areas,
p. 30 (U, S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 155, Washington, 1926).


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T a b l e 2.— Place of residence of children working on truck crops in specified

localities; Cook County
Children under 16 years of age working
on truck crops in specified localities
Place of residence
Total

Total_____________
Chicago..............................
Other places of 2,500 inhabitants or more
Rural....................

City
farms

501

89

222
118
161

89

North
Side
farms

21
70

South
Side
farms

97
91

The parents of most of the children were industrial workers. Only
56 fathers or other breadwinners were engaged in farming, 25 of them
being farm owners, 23 tenants, and 8 laborers. The largest occupa­
tional group consisted of 217 individuals (the breadwinners for 261
children) who were engaged in manufacturing and mechanical pur­
suits, and 106 of these (the breadwinners for 126 children) were
factory workers. Smaller groups were engaged in transportation, in
trade, and in domestic and personal service. The mothers of 129
children were gainfully employed exclusive of those keeping boarders
or lodgers— the mothers of 76 children doing farm work and those
of 53 children doing other types of work.
The fathers of all but 4 children were white, and very nearly
four-fifths of the children (389 of the 495 reporting nationality of
father) came from immigrant families. The birthplaces of the
fathers of the children were as follows: 129, Poland; 68, Italy; 55, the
Netherlands; and 48, Germany. Smaller groups reported that their
fathers had been born in Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, or Scandinavian
countries. The families had been residents of the United States for
long periods. All but 4 of the 342 reporting length of residence
stated that their fathers had been in this country 10 years or more.
Nine-tenths of the children came from homes where the father spoke
English, and more than four-fifths had literate fathers.
There ^were 404 boys and 97 girls among these child workers.
More children found working in the fields were 12 years of age and
under 14 than in any other age group, but those under 12 years of age
constituted one-fourth (24.8 per cent) of the whole group, as Table 1
shows. The age distribution was practically the same among boys
and girls.
The season covered by the period of the study was the second on
truck farms for 175 children (35.5 per cent of the 493 who reported the
number of years they had done such work). This two-year group was
the largest among all day laborers. Among the resident workers,
however, 27 (32.1 per cent of the children reporting on this item)
had worked five years or more; 46 (54.8 per cent) had worked four
years or more; and only 25 had worked two years or less. The
opposite tendency appeared in the case of day laborers from the city,
as more than one-half (51.3 per cent) of the 199 reporting had worked
only one or two years, and only about one-fourth (26.6 per cent) had
worked four years or more.
Children begin to do the easier work on truck farms at an early
age. Only 5 of the 28 under 10 years of age who reported the number

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O N IL L IN O IS P A R M S

of years they had worked on truck farms were working for their
first season. Ten of the children of 10 and 11 years of age had worked
five years or more, 6 had worked four years, and 19 had worked
three years. There were 31 children of 12 and 13 years of age who had
worked five years or more and 40 who had worked four years. One
11-year-old boy who was interviewed was then working for his sixth
year as a day worker, and living in a village near the farm. It was
his custom to work all summer except two weeks in July, which he
took for a vacation; and also to work Saturdays during the school
year. Having begun work at 6 years of age he was an experienced
hand, working regularly 10 hours a day. He helped to plant, trans­
plant, and cultivate, by leading the horse which a man drove. He
hoed and weeded, picked dill, and pulled horse-radish.
Farm work near Chicago has few of the advantages popularly
attributed to farm work for children. It is not a child’s share in
the common labor of his family, adapted to his years and chosen
with a view to his best development. The Chicago child doing farm
work is an entity in the world of labor, an individual as much cut
off from the care that is his right as the child in a store or shop or
the child in a factory. He leaves his family just as completely,
goes a longer distance, and often remains away for longer hours.
Frequently his whereabouts is known much less accurately. This
isolation, this early entrance into the world on the child’s own re­
sponsibility constitutes the problem of farm labor of children, near
Chicago.
.
.
Children find their jobs by chance and by their own efforts, their
success depending upon the demand for and supply of labor. The
families of only a few of the children other than the 98 who were
working at home or as migratory laborers knew anything of the
conditions under which their children worked. A few farmers
within the city limits knew their neighbors and took all their labor
supply from their own neighborhood, where the parents had personal
knowledge of the employers of their children, and could, if they
cared to, know something of the conditions under which their sons
and daughters worked. Conditions of work on^these farms were
in general very superior to those on farms outside the city. On
these farms inside the city, and to a slighter degree on those near
towns of considerable size, principally a few farms near Blue Island,
considerable care is taken to make the work fit the child, not only
by apportioning it according to ages— as any farmer does to some
extent in order to obtain the biggest returns from his outlay— but
also by varying it so that the same kind of work lasts only a few
hours. This avoids the fatigue produced by repetition of one opera­
tion all day long, as well as the physical weariness from repetition
of one set of muscular movements. Variation was also made m
the kinds of work in order to keep up the child’s interest.
Change of work is not the only means which these farmers use to
lighten the day of their young employees. Like the farmers on
outlying farms they generally give a morning and an afternoon lunch
period of 15 minutes at 10 and at 3 o’clock. At least one farmer
instituted group recreation at the noon period by games such as
quoits with horseshoes. On a number of these farms the annual
outing of the boys has become an institution. After the ending of the
busiest season a party with ice cream is provided, or an all-day auto
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H R H f _ ^EOEASIO^
'b S B S S ^ ^ a r M XJBaASÏ

P L A T E I.— O P E R A T I O N S IN T R U C K F A R M I N G : 1. W E E D I N G O N I O N S ,
D R Y O N I O N S . 3. P U L L I N G A N D H A U L I N G C A R R O T S


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2. T W I S T I N G

P L A T E I I . - O P E R A T I O N S I N T R U C K F A R M I N G : 1. T W I S T I N G O N I O N S E T S .
2. P L A C I N G
BUSH EL B A S K E T FULL OF O N IO N SE T S ON H E A D O F G IR L
A B O U T T O C A R R Y IT T O S I F T E R . 3. C U T T I N G A S P A R A G U S


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T R U C K F A R M IN G IN

T H E C H IC A G O D IS T R IC T

11

mobile ride given. Of course this is possible only where the work in
one place is of considerable duration. Where continuous employ­
ment by the same farmer is the rule the personal oversight and in­
terest of the employer obviate the worst features of the child’s employ­
ment away from his family. But continuity is the exception, and
it is found only in the districts cited.
Where the children’s homes and places of employment are not so
widely separated their day is shorter because of the shorter distance
to travel. Work beginning at 7 in the morning and ending at 6 at
night, although not desirable, is much less objectionable when the
child can reach work or home in 10 minutes than when (as in the
larger number of cases) he must spend an additional hour or two, both
night and morning, on the journey. In this urban district, however,
a striking contrast may be observed between the working hours of
men— who are strong enough to enforce their demands for a shorter
working day— and the working day of the children, who can not pro­
tect themselves from overlong hours and to whom no legal protection
is extended— for here the children working in the fields can hear the
factory whistles blow and see the operatives leaving the factories for
home at half-past four in the afternoon, when the children themselves
have an hour and a half still to work.
The proximity of these farms to the homes and schools of the child
laborers enables the children to work before and after school hours—
a practice which causes much concern to the teachers of schools when
it is at all common. The principal of a school with 750 pupils esti­
mated that 50 of these pupils work on farms in this way. In spite of
the small proportion of children affected the work had impressed her
as a great evil, because the children were so tired when they came to
school after several hours’ work on farms.
An undesirable feature of the children’s work is the casual way in
which employment is obtained. Usually the farmers in need of
help go to certain corners near the outskirts of Chicago, inside or
outside the city limits, where a crowd of men, women, and children
who wish a day’s work habitually assembles. On the South Side
gatherings are small and are held at various places, as the corner of
Halsted and One hundred and twenty-third Streets, the corner of
Michigan Avenue and One hundred and twenty-third Street, and at
Burr Oak near Blue Island, at Hammond, Ind., and at the railroad
station where the train comes to South Holland from Chicago Heights.
At these places the number of farms to be served is small. The
farms and the character of work on each, and even the general rate
of pay, thus become known to the work seekers. The boys know the
men for whom they like to work, and some quite regularly get on the
truck of the same farmer each morning. North of the city, however,
the number of such centers is smaller, and only one was of much
importance to the farmers interviewed. Almost all the irregular help
comes from one center, and the process of obtaining helpers is cus­
tomarily spoken of as “ bidding at Jefferson Park.” To this place at
the end of a street-car line people come by the hundreds in the early
hours of the morning before it is light and stand around while the
farmers bargain with them for their day’s labor. The amount of
pay offered is determined directly by competition; that is, by the
demand the farmers make for workers on each morning and by the
1307°—26f-----3

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number of workers on hand. The applicants circulate slowly from
group to group, seeking the most favorable terms, or the farmers seek
them out. Wages offered by one farmer are quoted to another,
spokesmen for groups of adults haggle with the farmers, and young­
sters shout their own superior qualities as workers. As each farmer
selects the number of workers he requires he drives off with them in
his automobile or truck. The men and women are chosen first, and
if there are enough of them the children are not hired.
In the district north of the city the casual method of finding work is
at its worst, and the distance from the child’s home to his work is
the greatest. Their transportation is complicated, as almost all the
children are from Chicago, not only from the northern districts but
also from the West Side farther to the south. All come by street
car, usually making several transfers, thus expending 14 cents a day
whether they obtain work or not. Moreover, many must start as
early as 3 a. m., while it may still be dark. This makes the child’s
working day much longer than the actual number of hours of his
labor. If he is fortunate enough to obtain work with a farmer at
Jefferson Park he may start work at 7 o ’clock, but he may have to
seek employment by walking along the road until he finds a farmer
who will hire him. In either case he is away from his home and
usually under no supervision in the early or the late hours of the day—
for he can not arrive home until 7 or 8 o’clock in the evening.
THE CHILDREN’ S W ORK
Principal crops.

More children had worked on onions than on any other crop during
the year preceding the interview. Only 58 of the whole group of 501
had done no work on onions. (Table 3.) The work on this crop
most frequently reported included weeding all kinds of onions, peeling
and bunching green onions, pulling dry onions, and “ twisting” or
harvesting onion sets. Variations of the harvesting process or addi­
tions to it were pulling, washing, and carrying green onions, bunching,
clipping, picking up, and packing dry onions, and picking up, sifting,
and bagging onion sets. A few children had planted onion sets and
dry onions.
Methods of planting onions vary. Winter onions and sets are
grown from the seed, late summer onions from seedlings grown in
hotbeds, and early summer onions from sets grown the year before.
In planting early or late summer onions the child’s part is dropping
the plant on the ground and setting the onion in the ground after the
rows have been made.
!
Onions are usually weeded by hand (PL I, fig. 1, facing p. 10), but
on some farms a small triangular hoe with a short handle is used.
This and the wheel hoe, however, are used by women more than by
children. The harvesting of any kind of onions consists of pulling
the onions from the ground and then peeling, clipping, or twisting
them, these two operations being considered one process and taking
the name of the second operation. (PI. II, fig. 1, facing p. 11.) Most
of the children working on green onions are concerned with the
peeling or the bunching, which is done in July. Only boys reported
peeling, which is done in a shed to which the onions are brought from
the field. The children sit on the floor with the onions on the floor
beside them and peel off the outer skin. Then they put a rubber band

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T R U C K F A R M IN G IN

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T H E C H IC A G O D IS T R IC T

around six onions and make six such bunches into one large bunch,
for which 1 cent usually is paid. Next the onions are washed (more
often by the farmer than by the child), and then they are ready to
take to market. In harvesting dry onions, which is done at intervals
all summer, beginning the latter part of July with the early summer
onions (the late summer onions being ready to harvest early in
August and the winter onions later), the children pull them from the
ground, sometimes peel off the outer layer or skin, then clip off the
tops with shears or twist them off if they are fairly dry. (PI. I, fig. 2,
facing p. 10.) All these operations in the harvesting of dry onions
constitute what is known as pulling. Some of them involve dis­
comfort for the workers. Several twists are necessary if the tops
are stout; and if the tops are removed by clipping with shears the
children sometimes cut their hands. Some of the pulling is done in
the warmest part of the summer when the sun is extremely hot in
the fields. After the winter onions are pulled they are put in baskets
or bags. One other operation on the onion crop that a few children
reported is “ topping,’ ’ which consists of pinching off the bulble t
formed on the top of the seed stock of onions grown to produce seed.
T a b l e 3. — Operations performed on the onion crop by boys and girls of specified

ages working on truck crops; Cook County
Children of specified ages working on truck crops 1
Operations performed on onion crop, and sex of the
children

T o t a l........ : ____ _
Working on onions_____
Weeding...... ..............
Twisting___ _____
Pulling.....................
Bunching___ ____
Picking up.................
Planting.......... ........
Peeling...........................
Not working on onions_____

Total

Under
10 years

501

29

. 443

24

357
248
76
'66
64
48
34

18
13
i

58

2
r

10 years, 12 years, 14 years,
under 12 under 14 under 16
95

214

163

189
72
53
13
10
11
13

153
107
31
35
26
19
17

75
21
25
16
13

6

25

Boys____ __________

404

23

76

173

132

Working on onions_______

357

18

71

151

117

W eeding.________
Twisting...............
Pulling..............
Bunching___ ______
Picking up___________
Planting.......................
Peeling......... ......................

292
201
58
62
50
47
34

13
11
1

42
9

126
84
25

Not working on onions___________

2

9
12

18
19
17

19

41

47

5

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

97

6

Working on onions____ _______ _

86

6

18

38

65
47
18
4
14
1

5
2

14
11
4
2
2
1

27
23

i

3

Weeding..................................
Twisting_____ ________ _________
Pulling............................ .........
Bunching___ _______ ___________
Picking up......... .............................
Planting.............................
Not working on onions..............................................

11

j

21
16
13

22

8

i

1 The items do not add to the totals because some children performed more than one operation,


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OF C H IL D R E N

ON IL L IN O IS F A R M S

The largest number of children engaged in any harvesting process
had twisted or had picked up onions. These operations are consideredjthe same, although picking up is simpler work and ordinarily
is paid for at a lower rate.. Most of this work is done in August,
though when the crop is late (as in the year covered in this study) it
lasts into September, and when the crop is early it may begin in the
latter part of July. In twisting onion sets or onions to be used for
pickles the women or children sit on the ground, pull up a handful of
onions, loosen the dirt, if necessary, by dragging them over the
ground several times, twist the green tops off, and put the onions into
half-bushel baskets. Because this work is usually paid for by the
piece the children are tempted to work too fast, and wrists are
frequently strained as a consequence. Two girls who had filled 50
and 48 baskets the first day of the season were able to fill less than
25 and only 28 baskets, respectively, in the same length of time (6
hours) the second day because of swollen and painful wrists. When
the onions lie rather deep in the soil the farmer first loosens them by
means of a horse-drawn or hand cultivator. Sometimes the bulbs
lie nearly on top of the ground, and the tops have become dry and
withered, so that the onions need only to be lifted in handfuls and
dropped into the baskets, an operation known as picking or scooping.
On many farms each worker carries his own basket (PI. II, fig. 2,
facing p. 11) and even lifts it and empties the contents upon the
screen, where the remaining dirt on the onions is loosened and sifted
away. From the screen the onions are put into flat wooden holders
where they are kept, first in the field and later in storage, until they
are put through the mill for grading. Boys sometimes carry these
wide flat trays from the sifter to piles at the end of the field.
The next largest group of children working on any one process of
any one crop other than onions had cut asparagus. This work begins
M ay 1 or 15 and ends between July 4 and 15. The child stoops to
thrust his knife slightly below the surface of the ground and cut and
gather the stalk, then straightens up and walks to the next stalk which
is ready for cutting. (PI. II, fig. 3, facing p. 11.) The stalks are
taken to sheds for bunching, washing, and packing. Bunching is
done in several ways. The simplest is to place a number of stalks in
a wooden form of the length desired for the stalks with the heads at
the closed end and with a sharp knife to cut off the part of the stalks
extending beyond the form. Rubber bands are then slipped around
each end of the bunch, or twine is tied around it. On farms where
the work is highly organized the stalks are taken up in bunches and
shoved into a metal groove, where a cutter worked by a foot treadle
descends on the stalks. The bunch is then passed to the next
worker, who puts the bunch, tip ends first, into a small metal cylinder
around which rubber bands have been placed and from which each
band is readily pulled off over each end' of the bunch. These bunches
are packed in wooden boxes, which are placed in a long shallow metal
tub filled with water to keep them cool until sent to market in the
evening.
A large number of children had worked during the year on beets, on
carrots, and on beans, their work being principally weeding and
harvesting. (PI. I, fig. 3, facing p. 10.)


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T R U C K F A R M IN G IN

THE

C H IC A G O D IS T R IC T

15

Kinds o f work.

The majority of the children in the Chicago truck-farming district
work on several crops during the course of the year and do a con­
siderable variety of work. Information as to the number of kinds of
work that each child did the day before he was interviewed was ob­
tained for all except 4 of the 501 children. Most of them (338) had
done only one kind; but 136 children had done two kinds of work,
and 23 had worked at three or more farming operations during the
day. Almost all the younger children had done only one kind of
work on the day before the interview, only 6 of the 29 children under
10 years of age reporting more than one.
For the year previous to the interview the number of crops worked
on and the different kinds of work that had been done were ascer­
tained as accurately as possible; but the report is undoubtedly an
understatement, for the children could not remember precisely all
their work except when they had done only one or two kinds. From
1 to 3 farming operations were reported by 221 children (44.2 per
cent), 4 to 6 operations by 183 children (36.6 per cent), 7 to 9 opera­
tions by 72 children, and 10 or more by 24 children. The boys work­
ing on their fathers’ farms and on those farms where a large variety
of crops are raised, reported the largest number of different crops and
farming operations; for instance, one 12-year-old boy reported 12
processes on 14 crops, and his 15-year-old brother reported 14 proc­
esses on 11 crops. All the children who had worked five months or
more of the year had worked on at least four operations.
The number of crops worked on during the year varied from 1 to
15, but about three-tenths of the children reported only 1 crop. Onehalf (48) of the girls had worked on only 1 crop. Most of the chil­
dren (400 of the 486 reporting) had worked on only 1 crop on the
day before, the interview.
Nearly all the children working on truck farms help to cultivate
and harvest. (Table 4.) Nearly an equal number of children re­
ported each, 426 having cultivated during the year previous to the
inquiry and 490 having harvested.
Preparation of soil and planting.— Very few children helped in prep­
aration of the soil for crops (Table 4), only 15 boys and no girls re­
porting this work. Their part is raking when handwork is a good
substitute for harrowing, especially between successive crops. They
also help to clear the ground by pulling out the old plants before
the raking is done.
The planting of 14 crops was reported by 71 children, and the
transplanting of 11 crops by 74 children. Only 6 girls (3 of whom
were under 12 years of age) reported planting, and 16 girls reported
transplanting. Some of the planting is done by sowing seed by hand
in hotbeds, some by sowing in the field by hand or by machine— in
which case the boy’s part may be leading the horse. When trans­
planting by hand the child drops the plant at regular intervals for
the farmer to put in the ground. When transplanting by machine
he sits on the floor of the machine and lays the plants out so that the
machine drops them at the proper intervals, while a man drives the
horse and another boy may lead it. Most planting and transplanting
is done in April, but of some vegetables which produce several crops
in one year (like cabbages and beans) there are successive plantings
until the middle of the summer,

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O N , IL L IN O IS F A R M S

T a b l e 4. — Farm operations performed by boys and girls of specified ages working

on truck crops; Cook County
Children of specified ages working on truck crops i
Farm operations performed, and sex of the children
Total

Under 10 10 years, 12 years, 14 years,
years
under 12 under 14 under 16

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

501

29

95

214

163

Preparing soil _______________ ___________ _ _ ___
Planting.,..........................
Transplanting......................
Cultivating______ ______

15
71
74
420

1
2
5
22

4
16
10
80

4
28.
33
184

6
26
26
140

Weeding............................................................. .
Hoeing_________________
Thinning______
Machine cultivating. ________ _____ . . . .
Operating wheeled hoe________________________

412
160
76
50
28

22
6
1

79
19
9
5
1

177
65
39
22
12

134
70
27
23
15

490

27

91

210

162

Carrying or loading..'.......................
Trimming or cleaning............................. ...............
Peeling___________ ____ .

169
170
159
230
248
66
54
59
42
34

10
8
8
9
13
2
5
2
1

27
22
28
31
53
11
7
7
4
4

75
73
66
108
107
27
23
23
20
17

57
67
57
82
75
26
19
27
17
13

Harvesting......... ...................................... .
Picking......... .........................................................
Cutting...................................................................
Pulling....... ......................
Bunching.......................
Twisting______ _________
Picking up________ _
_____

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

404

23

76

173

132

Preparing soil.................................................................
Planting........ ....................
Transplanting................... ............................... ............
Cultivating_____ __

15
65
58
354

1
2
3
17

4
12
7
65

4
27
27
155

6
24
21
117

Weeding...... ........ ..................................................
Hoeing.....................................................................
Thinning___
Machine cultivating..............................................
Operating wheeled hoe__ ________ ____________

342
142
70
48
25

17
5

64
15
8
4
1

149
59
37
21
11

112
63
25
23
13

396

22

72

170

132

Carrying or Ipading............................................
Trimming or cleaning............................................
Peeling..I............................................................ .

139
145
130
199
201
52
41
56
40
34

7
6
7
7
11
2
3
2
1

19
20
21
24
42
9
4
6
4
4

63
65
57
98
84
19
18
23
18
17

50
54
45
70
64
22
16
25
17
13

6

19

41

31

2
5

3
3
15

1
6
29

2
5
23

Harvesting______

______

Picking_____
_________ '. .
Cutting_____
Pulling______
_______
B un ch ing...____ _______ ____ ________________
Twisting___
Picking up_______ _________________ __________

' G irls...................................................................

97

Planting............ .
........................... ...... ......... ...
Transplanting............................................ ............ .
Cultivating..........
............................................... .

6
16
72

Weeding................ ...................................... ..........
Hoeing.............................................. .....................
Thinning____
. _______ _______________ ..
Machine cultivating.............................................
Operating wheeled hoe_______ ____ _____ ______

70
18
6
2
3

5
1
1

15
4
1
1

28
6
2
1
1

22
7
2

94

5

19

40

30

30
25
29
31
47
14
13
3
2

3
2
1
2
2

8
2
7
7
11
2
3
1

12
8
9
10
23
8
5

7
13
12
12
11
4
3
2

Harvesting...................................................................
Picking..... ...............................................................
Cutting................................................................
Pulling............................. .................... ' ................
B unching..............................................................
Twisting..................................................................
Picking up..................................................: .........
Boxing, sacking, and packing_____ _____ ______
Carrying or loading............. I ........................ ........
Trimming or cleaning.............................................

2

2

1The items do not add to the totals because some children performed more than one operation.


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2

T R U C K F A R M IN G IN

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17

Cultivating.— Cultivating, which lasts throughout the working
season, was reported by 426 children. (Table 4.) Nearly all had
weeded at some time during the year preceding the inquiry. Weed­
ing was reported for 32 truck crops and by 412 children, or 82.2 per
cent of the 501 child workers. Onions had been weeded by 357 of
them. For nearly all vegetables weeding is a hand process. The
children crawl on hands and knees between rows of plants and usually
pull up the weeds with their hands, though a few children use a small
triangular hoe with a short handle. Weeding begins in M ay and
lasts all summer, each crop being weeded about three times. The
children on farms where they are employed regularly weed part of
nearly every day, with other work for variety, and a number of farm­
ers estimated that at least one-half of the time of these children was
spent in weeding.
Other methods of cultivating are hoeing with a long-handled hoe,
reported by 160 children; operating a wheel hoe, commonly called
hand cultivating, reported by 28 children, principally the older boys.
Only 1 boy under 12 years of age and only 3 girls reported using a
wheel hoe. Cultivation by machine was reported by 50 children, 5
of whom were only 10 or 11 years old; 1 of these and 1 child 13 years
old were girls. Frequently the child merely leads the horse between
the rows while a man guides the cultivator. Some cultivators driven
by gasoline engines were used in the area, but only one boy, a farmer’s
son 14 years of age, reported working with one. Thinning the plants,
done principally in June and July, was reported by 70 boys and 6
girls.
Harvesting.— The largest number of child workers were employed
in harvesting; all except 8 of the 404 boys and all except 3 of the 97
girls had done some harvesting during the year. (Table 4.) Twist­
ing or picking up onions was reported by 312 children, and 76 had
pulled dry onions; 119 children had cut asparagus, and 94 had bunched
it; 105 had bunched beets, 105 had picked beans, and 77 had bunched
carrots. The number of children harvesting any other one vegetable
was smaller than any of these groups. Harvesting was done by
young children and girls as well as the older boys, 27 of the 29 chil­
dren under 10 years of age having harvested, 15 of them having
twisted or picked up onions, 10 having picked various crops, and
most of them having cut, pulled, and bunched vegetables. Of the
95 children in the next older group (10 years of age but under 12}
64 twisted or picked up onions, and from 22 to 31 children reported
picking, cutting, pulling, or bunching. Similar proportions were re­
ported among the other age groups.
Harvesting operations in the principal crops on which children
worked— onions and asparagus— have been described on pages (12-14).
Other crops are harvested by picking, cutting, or pulling, followed
frequently by bunching, or by boxing, packing, sacking, or crating,
and then by washing and loading (which involves carrying), and
throwing and catching, all of which processes were reported by the
children interviewed.
Picking vegetables begins early in July or the latter part of June
with peas and beans, successive crops of which may be picked through
October. Later in July cucumbers are picked. Cucumbers to be
pickled (known locally as pickles) are harvested from July to Sep­
tember, and large groups of children or women are frequently hired

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for this work. This process involves constant stooping to the vines
to pick, and straightening up to move on to the next vine. This is
the only part of the work which children or women do, as the more
exacting work of sorting the pickles is usually done by men. Picking
peppers begins in July and lasts through October; dill is picked in
August; sweet corn is picked late in July or in August for a couple of
weeks; and the picking of tomatoes, the latest of all the crops on which
children are engaged to any extent, begins in August or late in July
and lasts until the first frost, usually early in October. With most
of these crops the children’s work ends with the picking, or with
carrying filled baskets (most of them one-half bushel in size) to the
end of the row or occasionally to the barn, washing cucumbers,
packing beans in boxes, packing tomatoes in crates, and holding
open burlap sacks while men put into them the ears of sweet com.
Harvesting by cutting begins early in the summer with rhubarb,
of which the leaves and roots must be cut off after the stalk has been'
pulled. The cutting of lettuce, spinach, mustard, and parsley begins
in M ay or June and continues into September or October. Eggplant
is cut in June and cabbage from, July through October. The chil­
dren put the spinach in boxes for market and pack heads of lettuce
in wooden boxes; and the larger boys help to load the cabbage heads,
which usually are thrown from the spot where they are cut to a man
or boy on a wagon who places them in the wagon just as they will be
taken to market. The cutting of cauliflower is not done by children;
their work on this crop is to tie the leaves up over the heads to ex­
clude the light and keep them white as they grow. After the eauli_flower has been gathered— from M ay to July or August— the children
cut the leaves even with the heads or still shorter, using a knife, and
pack the heads in boxes which they may have lined with leaves.
The pulling of some vegetables begins early. Radishes are pulled
in M ay and June, horse-radish and kale in June, and kohlrabi in
June and July. Beets and carrots are pulled from the latter part of
June until October or November, turnips and parsnips from July to
October, and leeks are pulled and taken to market from the latter part
of August throughout the winter. Children bunch and wash radishes,
beets, carrots, turnips, leeks, and also celery, which no children
reported harvesting. Children help to crate beets and carrots, and
carry them and celery and radishes as well. The children bunch the
pulled vegetables by selecting a suitable number (as four beets) and
tying them with string. Some perform both bunching operations, and
some perform either one or the other. Farmers who make a point of
preparing their product for the “ fancy trade” take especial care to
bunch the vegetables attractively, tying celery with red tape or
“ making bouquets” of mustard by bending the leaves. This work
frequently is done in the field. Carrots for instance are bunched
and then placed on a wheelbarrow and taken to the sheds to be
washed.
The carrying varies in difficulty. Crates of cauliflower or bags of
sweet com may be hauled to trucks in the field, or all vegetables may
be put on a cart, such as a large square one which a 15-year-old girl
was seen to pull across the road from the field to the sheds, while her
father helped by pushing it. Bunches of carrots, heads of cabbages,
or boxes of lettuce or spinach are often loaded on wheelbarrows,
which are then wheeled to the sheds. When vegetables have been

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boxed they must be lifted upon the wheelbarrow, and a wheelbarrow
load of lettuce or cabbage, for example, may be heavy to push. Some­
times the crates of lettuce and cauliflower are carried to trucks in the
{"-i j , ns*ieai* • a wheelbarrow a small wagon of the type used for
a child s plaything is occasionally used, or a two-wheeled cart, or a
box on runners similar to a sled. Onion sets are carried in wide flat
£ray s> u ^ a lly by two boys, from the sifter to piles at the end of the
held, lh e trays are taken from the field to the warehouse by horse
and wagon, and sometimes the boys drive. Except on the highly
organized large farms where occasionally men did the carrying it
seemed that picking and pulling always involved carrying the baskets
at least to the end of the row the child was working on, and sometimes
a longer way across the field to the sheds. Only two boys under 10
years of age had carried.
Only the older boys helped in loading, in the sense used in this
' report— lifting boxes upon trucks. (Table4.) (The term “ loading ” is
used locally to include all the processes of harvesting and preparing
lor market, especially packing and carrying boxes and wheelingwheelbarrows, as well as lifting boxes upon the trucks.)
Some of the boys, either members of the farmers’ families or
permanent workers on the farms, occasionally go into the city on the
truck taking vegetables to market. This adds very considerably
to the length of their working time. If the boys are with their
lathers they usually sleep on the truck while the father stays awake
to sell, but they help unload as the produce is sold. A boy in charge
ol the truck has less rest. One 15-year-old boy who reported driving
a truck into market started at 5 p. m. and stayed with the truck afl
night, sleeping m it when possible, getting back to the farm between
u aj
noon and.starting to work in the field. .He stated that
j *s once or twice a week. Thus, on one Friday he worked in
the held from 6 o ’clock until 5, except for an hour at noon; then
he drove the truck and sold vegetables in the market. When not
selling he was with the truck from 5 p. m. until he reached the
larm at 9 o clock Saturday morning. He immediately went to work
m the held until noon; then he had the afternoon off and went into'
the city. In other words, he was at work 30 consecutive hours except
durmg the time he was asleep on the truck.
LENGTH OF THE W ORKING DAY

Each child was requested to report his hours of work on the last
u
u wor^e<i Pn or to the interview, unless his hours on that day
had been unusual. In that case he was asked his working hours on
an average day on the same crop or crops. Thus the typical hours
were ascertained for each important crop and operation, inasmuch as
each section was visited during the height of its busy season. The
hours worked by children on truck farms in the vicinity of Chicago
are long, 20.8 per cent of the children included in the study worked
10 or more hours, and 42.6 per cent worked 8 or more hours on their
last day of work. (Table 5.) About 50 per cent of each age group
of children 10 years of age and over (and four children under 10 years)
had worked 8 or more hours. The children working the longest hours
were all among the resident workers, but the resident workers, never­
theless, had the second largest proportion working the shortest hours.
1307°—26f----- i

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(Table 5.) The rural day workers and the town day workers showed
the smallest proportion working 8 or more hours. On the whole,
children working on farms inside the city worked the longest hours.
On the South Side farms almost one-half of the workers and on the
North Side one-fifth had worked less than 6 hours. (Table 6.)
This difference is again due in large part to the use of child labor in
cutting and bunching asparagus, a crop which is limited entirely to
the district south of the city and which takes a few hours each morn­
ing, the work beginning fairly early but being finished by 10 or 11
a. m.
T a b l e 5.— Hours of field work on typical day of children working on truck crops,

by kind of worker; Cook County
Specified kinds of child worker under 16 years of age working on truck crops

Hours of field
work on typical
day1

Total

Resident
worker

Town day
laborer

Rural day
laborer

City day
laborer

Weekly Migra­
tory
Per worker8worker1
Per
Per
Per
Per
Num­
cent
cent
Num­
cent
Num­ cent Num­ cent Num­
ber distri­ ber distri­ ber distri­ ber distri­ ber distri­
bution
bution
bution
bution
bution

.......

501

100.0

86

100.0

78

100.0

111

100.0

201

100.0

13

Less than 4 hours..
4 hours, less than 6.
6 hours, less than 8.
8hours, less than 10.
10 hours, less than
12. ____________

62
110
74
109

12.4
22.0
14.8
21.8

16
13
12
21

18.6
15.1
14.0
24.4

3
26
18
17

3.8
33.3
23.1
21.8

21
34
21
23

18.9
30.6
18.9
20.7

19
33
21
42

9.5
16.4
10.4
20.9

3
2

98

11
5
8

12.8
5. 8
9.3

10.3

4

3.6

68

33.8

4
1

42

19.6
1.2
8.4

8

Not reported.........

6 . 7.7

8

7.2

18

9.0

.

Total

fi

12
2
2
3

3

3
2

1Includes time allowed for mid-morning and mid-afternoon lunches, but not for the noon lunch.
1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50.

T a b l e 6. — Hours of field work on typical day of children working on truck crops,

by locality; Cook County
Children under 16 years of age working on truck crops in speci­
fied localities

City farms

Total

Hours of field work on typical d a y 1

North Side
farms

South Side
farms

Per cent Num­ Per cent Num­ Per cent
cent
Num­ Per
distri­
distri­
distri­
distri­ Num­
ber
ber
ber
ber
bution
bution
bution
bution
T o ta l..................... — ........— .

501

100.0

89

100.0

155

100.0

257

100.0

Less than 4 hours______ ___________
4 hours, less than 6............... ..............
6 hours, less than 8....... .......................
8 hours, less than 10________ _______
10 hours, less than 12._____ ______ _

62
110
74
109
98
6
42

12.4
22.0
14.8
21.8
19.6
L2
8.4

10
7
3
11
56

11.2
7.9
3.4
12.4
62.9

2

2.2

18
15
18
59
24
5
16

11.6
9.7
11.6
38.1
15.5
3.2
10.3

34
88
53
39
18
1
24

13.2
34.2
20.6
15.2
7.0
0.4
9.3

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

i Includes time allowed for mid-morning and mid-afternoon lunches, but not for the noon lunch.

Typical instances of the hours spent by the boys working on the
North Side farms are these: One 13-year-old boy and one 15 years old
left home at 5.30 a. m. and arrived home at 7.30 p. m., thus usually

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being away 14 hours for work, although they reported an actual work­
ing day of only 9 hours (from 8 o ’clock to 6 o ’clock). Two other
boys, one 12 years old and the other 13, reported leaving home at
3 a. m. and going to Jefferson Park. There they went with any
farmer who would take them for a day’s work, and although they
worked only
hours, beginning at 7.30 a. m., their working day
was at least 16 hours long by the time they reached home at night.
A third boy, aged 13,^who left home at 3 a. m., put in 11 hours bunch­
ing green onions (being actually at work from 6 a. m. to 5 p. m.).
The time at which a child begins work is significant when noted
m connection with the distance he must travel and the time con­
sumed in reaching the place of work. The actual hours at which
work begins do not indicate the whole problem. (See p. 11.) More
than one-half of the 456 children reporting the hour at which they be­
gan work the day before the interview did not begin until 8 o ’clock
or later, and only 25 (5.5 per cent) started work before 7 o ’clock,
including boys who began work before 6 o ’clock. No child workers
reported starting work on farms in the city before 7 a. m. Fourfifths of the workers in the city who reported the hour began between
7 and 8 o clock, and almost all of them lived near the farms on
which they worked. Among the workers of the North and South
Sides, on the other hand, where the distance of the work from home
made the working day much longer than the hours of actual labor,
36.7 per cent and 43.5 per cent, respectively, of those reporting on
this point began work before 8 o ’clock (which usually meant not
later than 7 or 7.30). All the 24 children who lived 10 miles or
more from their work were on North Side farms. Ten of the 25 who
reported beginning work before 7 o ’clock were working at home,
but 8 of them came a mile or more. One 12-year-old boy came 14
miles from his home in Chicago by electric car to the end of the line
in Jefferson Park. There a farmer met him and took him the rest
of the way in an automobile. He picked up onions from 6 a. m.
until 5 p. m., with an hour off at noon, and was taken by automobile
back to Jefferson Park.
More children were taken to work in automobiles and trucks than
m any other way. This means of conveyance was reported by 144
of the 413 children who worked away from home and reported their
transportation. Others went by electric and steam railways and by
bus, and 22 used two or more such means of transportation. Where
the distance was not great bicycles were in use, and 181 children
walked, 56 of them 1 mile or more. Fourteen children under 12 years
of age came distances of 5 to 10 miles, and 2 of them used two kinds of
conveyances. The farmer furnished only the automobile transporta­
tion if he furnished any.
Among the child workers 25, of whom 19 were paid, reported that
they had started work before 7 o ’clock on the day before they were
interviewed; 196, of whom 170 were paid, had worked more than 8
hours on that day; 17, all paid, had worked more than 6 days of the
week preceding the day of the interview; and 97, of whom 82 were
paid, had worked more than 48 hours during that week. The Illinois
child labor law provides that no child under the age of 16 may be
employed at any gainful occupation more than 6 days in any one
week, or more than 8 hours in any one day, or before 7 a. m. or after


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7 p. m.,6 so that nominally, at least, the provision of the law relating
to hours covers farm work, and all the children referred to above as
having worked for compensation in violation of these standards had
been illegally employed. Such legal provisions, however, are difficult,
if not impossible, to enforce on farms through an inspection system
such as is employed in the enforcement of the child labor law in
factories or stores; and, as in most States where the child labor law
applies to “ any gainful occupation,” its provisions are not enforced
in agricultural work.
Although the farmers interviewed were very nearly unanimous in
asserting that children’s work was needed on truck farms and that the
work on the truck farms was good for the children, the more intelligent
farmers in all districts included in the study said that strict com­
pliance with the present law in regard to hours would work no hard­
ship on anyone. One man in the district where the earliest hours
prevailed remarked that early-morning work was not valuable
because of the difficulty of working while the crops were wet with
dew and that custom alone was responsible for the hour of beginning
work, and especially for the earliness of the hour at whiph the workers
and farmers assembled to bargain for the day’s work. A farmer in
the locality in which the longest working days were usual said that
an 8-hour day would be entirely satisfactory; on his farm it would
simply mean sending the boys home at 4 p. m. instead of 6 p. m.
One man who farmed on a large scale and specialized in a few products
believed that in view of the difficulties involved in the employment of
children and the small amount of work they did their employment
was not worth while. He believed that only an appreciation of the
facts by the public was needed to stop all employment of children on
the truck farms.
The amount of work done by children at the same time that they
are attending school offers a serious problem in the Chicago district.
Information concerning work within the school term was not ob­
tained in regard to 90 children (owing to the fact that the prevalence
of such work was not noted until after the study had been started and
a number of children already interviewed); but 211 (54.2 per cent)
of the 389 children who were enrolled in school and for whom infor­
mation on this point was obtained had worked during their school
term (Table 7); 155 of these were under 14 years of age, and 131 of
them had received compensation. Those under 14 included 107
children of 12 and 13 years and 12 under 10 years. It was found
that 23 of the 211 children had worked three months or more and 62
had worked two months or more while they were carrying on their
school work. This farm work was done at various times, after and
before school, on Saturdays, and on Sundays. There are included
20 who stayed away from school to work as well as working at other
times, 127 who worked on Saturdays (27 of these worked only
on Saturdays), 1 who worked on Saturdays and Sundays only, 99
who worked either before or after school as well as on Saturdays,
and 6 who worked 7 days in the week. In addition, 49 worked only
after school, 7 worked before and after school, and 2 before school
only. For 6 children no report of the time of the work was obtained.
The largest number, 72, reported work after school and on Saturdays.
There were 33 who reported work before school. This group is the
6 111., Rev. Stat. (Cahill’s) 1925, ch, 48, par. 52.


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T H E C H IC A G O D IS T R IC T

one frequently mentioned by teachers as indicative of a bad aspect of
farm work. The Illinois child labor law forbids the employment for
compensation of any child under 14 “ during any portion of any
month when the public schools * * * are in session,” 7 but this
provision of the law, like the provision concerning hours, is not
applied to work on farms even when the children are working as
hired laborers.
T a b l e 7.— Duration of field work during school year of children of specified ages

working on truck crops; Cook County
Children of specified ages working on truck crops

Duration of field work
during; school year 1923-241

12 years,
under 14

10 years,
under 12

14 years,
under 16

Per cent Under 10
Num­ distribu­
years 2
ber
Per cent Num­ Per cent Num­ Per cent
tion
Num­ distribu­
ber distribu­
ber distribu­
ber
tion
tion
tion

Total______ _____ ...

501

29

95

214

163

Attending school_________

479

28

95

212

144

Reporting duration of
field work during
school year_________

389

100.0

22

82

100.0

173

100.0

112

100.0

178

45.8

10

46

56.1

66

38.2

56

50.0

38

9.8

1

5

6.1

22

12.7

10

8.9

26

6.7

4

4.9

13

7.5

9

8.0

47

12.1

9

11.0

20

11.6

11

9.8

No work done____
Less than 6 days’
work__________
6 days’ work, less
than 12___ _____
12 days’ work, less
than 30......... ......
30 days’ work, less
than 60...............
60 days’ work, less
than 90.________
90 days’ work or
more_____ •_____
Not reporting duration
of field work_______
Not attending school........

7

38

9.8

2

7

&5

23

13.3

6

5.4

39

10.0

2

8

9.8

18

10.4

11

9.8

23

5.9

3

3.7

11

6.4

9

8.0

90
22

6
1

13

39
2

32
19

1Includes morning and evening work and work on Saturdays as well as absences from school for field
work.
2 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50.

DURATION OF EMPLOYMENT

The work of children on truck farms is very irregular because many
farmers employ children only when perishable crops must be har­
vested quickly. Even during the peak of the harvesting season a
child may consume a day in looking for work and find none. The
irregular character of the work on truck farms even during the busy
season is indicated by the children’s reports of the number of hours
they had worked during the week preceding, the visit of the agent.
More than one-half of the 442 children reporting on this point had
been employed less than 24 hours during the week, and nearly onefourth had been employed less than 12 hours. Of the 484 who report­
ed the number of days they had worked during the week 209 (43.2
per cent) had worked only one, two, or three days. The irregularity
of the work is also shown by the fact that although during the first
7 Ibid.; par. 44.


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part of the study no record was kept of children unless they had
worked at least 12 days (see p. 7) a record begun some time after
the study was under way revealed that 97 children on the farms
visited had worked some time, although they had not had 12 days’
employment. Nevertheless, 44.7 per cent of the children inter­
viewed had spent at least one month, though less than three months,
in actual work during the year; and 26.5 per cent had worked three
months or more. (Table 8.) Long duration of work was noted
principally among the resident workers, two-thirds of whom had
worked three months or more. The proportion of children working
three months or more was only slightly greater among the older
children than among the younger ones, for 28.7 per cent of the
14-year-old and 15-year-old children reporting the duration of their
work, 30.2 per cent of the 12-year-old and 13-year-old children
reporting, and 25.9 per cent of the children under 12 years of age had
worked three months or more during the year.
T a b l e 8 .— Duration

of field work of children working on truck crops, by kind of
worker; Cook County

Specified kinds of child worker under 16 years of age working on truck crops

Duration of field
work

Total...........
12 days, less than
1 month_______
1 month, less than
2................. ........
2 months, less
than 3.............
3 months, less
than 4_______
4 months, less
than 5................
5 months and
m ore..............
Not reported.........

Total

Resident
worker

Rural day
laborer

Town day
laborer

City day
laborer

Weekly Migra­
Per
Per
Per
Per
Per worker1 tory
worker1
Num­ cent Num­ cent Num­ cent Num­ cent Num­ cent
ber distri­ ber distri­ ber distri­ ber distri­ ber distri­
bution
bution
bution
bution
bution
501

100.0

86

100.0

78

100.0

111

100.0

201

100.0

13
1

12

106

21.2

1

1.2

22

28.2

44

39.6

38

18.9

112

22.4

1

1.2

27

34.6

38

34.2

44

21.9

1

1

112

22.4

16

18.6

18

23.1

16

14.4

49

24.4

6

7

65

13.0

26

30.2

7

9.0

9

8.1

19

9.5

3

1

36

7.2

13

15.1

2

2.6

2

1.8

19

9.5

32
38

6.4
7.6

19
10

22.1
11.6

2

2.6

2

1.8

12
20

6.0
10.0

1
1

3

1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50.

EARNINGS OF CHILD WORKERS

Payment for work on truck farms may be on a time basis or a piece
basis. Young children are paid by the piece for work for which
older and expert children and women are paid hourly or daily wages.
Time wages for children vary according to age, the length of time each
child has been working, and trustworthiness. On one farm the
children’s wages for general and mixed work, such as weeding, pulling,
and bunching, varied from 80 cents to $1.25 a day. On another farm
they varied from 80 cents to $2.50 a day. The largest number of
children received $1, and the next largest number received $1.25 a day
for such work. Hourly rates varied from 10 to 25 cents and monthly
wages from $20 and $25 ip $40.

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Work on onions was paid on both time and piece basis. Children
weeding onions received 8 to 20 cents an hour. A rate per bushel or
half bushel for twisting and picking up onion sets was usual; and it
varied from 4 to 20 cents per bushel according to the difficulty of the
work. The commonest rate was 8 cents. Some of this variation
is due to the efforts of the farmers to grade the payment in accord­
ance with the difficulty of the work, as on one farm where rates of
both 5 cents and 7 cents were being paid because of the different
quality of soil. Payment on a time basis varied from 50 cents to
$3 a day. The commonest rates were $1.50 and $1.75. Sometimes
both types of payment were made on one farm at* the same time, as
on one farm where 5 cents per bushel and $3 per day were being paid
for twisting and picking up onion sets and on another where the pay­
ment was 10 cents a bushel and $2 a day. If there were many workers
the onion twister or picker working on piece rates received a ticket
which he had punched each time he brought a basket to the screen;
or else each person was given a number and he called this out as he
carried his basket toward the screen, a checker making a note oppo­
site the number on a pay sheet. Sifting was always paid for on a
time basis, but the rate varied from 75 cents to $2.50 a day. Twisting
dry onions was paid for at a rate of about 6 cents per bushel, and
topping at $1.25 a day. Pulling and bunching green onions was
usually paid for at the rate of 1 cent per bunch, yet 1 cent per bunch
and $1.50 per day were both paid on one farm, and $1 and $1.50 per
day on another. Rates for other crops varied similarly, picking peas
being paid for at
^ cents per half bushel, and also by the day;
beans at 10 cents per box, and also at $1.75 a day. Sugar beets were
paid for usually on contract at $25 an acre for all the work during
the season; or, if otherwise, at 25 cents an hour. Cutting asparagus
was paid for on a time basis, the rate varying from 10 to 30 cents
an hour. Rates in the same locality varied for no apparent reason,
but on the same farm were graduated according to the ability of the
child, as on one farm where the children received 21, 22, 23, and
24 cents per hour, and on another 10, 20, and 30 cents per hour.
The most usual rates found were 18, 20, and 25 cents per hour.
Only 74 children had worked without pay on the day before the
interview (Table 9), and only 71 had not received payment during
the previous week, all being members of farmers’ families. More
than one-third (36.6 per cent) of the 377 children who reported their
earnings on the last day of work, which was considered typical
had earned $1 and less than $1.50. More than three-fifths (61.8
per cent) of the 136 children reporting time worked had worked 8
hours or more to obtain this amount; and nearly two-fifths of them
(38.9 per cent) worked 10 hours or more. All except 1 of the workers
under 10 years of age earned less than $1.50, and only 4 of the 15
reporting earned as much as 50 cents. More than four-fifths (83.8
per cent) of the 68 reporting who were 10 and 11 years old earned
less than $1.50. The largest number of all workers 12 years of age.
or over (74 of the 166 reporting who were 12 and 13 years old, and 42
of the 128 who were 14 and 15 years old) earned $1 and less than
$1.50, only 8 of those 14 or over earning less than 50 cents. More
of the rural and city day laborers and weekly workers were in the
class earning $1 and less than $1.50 on the typical day than were
in any other. But the town day laborers were almost evenly divided

123


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among the three classes earning less than $1.50, 69 of the 97 children
earning and reporting wages being in these groups. The earnings
most frequently reported were $1 or some amount less than $1.50;
yet south of the city almost as large a number of earnings were between
50 cents and $1, and on the farms north of the city almost as many
earnings were between $1.50 and $2. The lower earnings on farms
south of the city were probably due to the shorter working-day of
asparagus workers, who were found only on these farms. M ost of
the children working without payment, 51 of the 74 who had received
no wages, were found in the northern section where the proportion
of workers who were farmers’ sons and daughters was largest. Chil­
dren working without wages were more than one-third (35.4 per cent)
of the 144 reporting on wages in that section. But only 4 of the 89
workers on city farms and 19 of the 218 workers reporting in the
southern section were in this group.
T a b l e 9.— E a r n in g s o f c h ild ren f o r fie ld w o rk o n tru ck c ro p s , b y h ou rs o f w ork o n
ty p ic a l d a y ; C o o k C o u n ty

Children under 16 years of age working on truck crops specified number of hours
on typical d a y 1

Earnipgs on typical
day8

Total..............
Receiving earnings.
Less than 50
cents________
50 cents, less
than $1______
$1, less than
$1.50........ .
$1.50, less than
$2........... ........
$2, less than
$2.50...............
$2.50 and more..
Receiving no earnings.......................
Not reporting_____

4 hours, less 6 hours, less 8 hours, less 10 hours, less
than 6
than 8
than 10
than 12
Per
cent Less
12 Hours
Num­ dis- than
Per
Per
Per
Per hours not
re­
ber
tri4
cent
cent
cent
cent and
bu- hours3Num­ dis- Num­ dis- Num­ dis- Num­ dis- more3 port­
ed
3
tion
ber
triber
triber
triber
tribubububution
tion
tion
tion
501

62

377 100.0

45

110

74

91 100.0

109

55 100.0

87 100.0

98

6

42

88 100.0

2

9

2

1

56

14.9

37

13

14.3

3

5.5

3

78

20.7

6

43

47.3

14

25.5

8

9.2

4

4.5

138

36.6

2

33

36.3

17

30.9

31

35.6

53

60.2

60

15.9

1

L1

15

27.3

20

23.0

18

20.5

19
26

5.0
6.9

1

1.1

3
3

5. 5
5.5

11
14

12.6
16.1

4
9

4. 5
10. 2

74
50

12
5

14
5

12
7

17
5

3.4

6
4

'

6

3
1

23

1Includes time allowed for mid-morning and mid-afternoon lunches but not for noon lunch.
* Does not include lunches or meals if supplied by employer.
3 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 50.

Of the 359 children earning wages and reporting the amount
earned during the week preceding the interview, 153 (42.6 per cent)
earned less than $3 per week, and 253 (70.5 per cent) earned less than
$6. (Table 10.) Of those earning less than $3 per week 94 (62.7 per
cent of the 150 reporting the number of hours they had worked during
the week) had worked less than 12 hours and only 8 worked 24 hours
or more. The great majority had worked only one or two days during
the week. To earn between $3 and $6 took from three to six days’
work for 87 of the 100 children reporting those amounts. More than

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T H E C H IC A G O D IS T R IC T

one-half the 67 workers who reported earnings of $6 but less than
$9 worked six days, and all but 10 worked five days or more, none
having worked less than three days. Only 3 of the 39 who reported
earnings of $9 or more worked less than five days. Among the
children who put in the equivalent of a full-time week (48 hours or
more) the usual amount earned was from $6 to $11. Three-fifths of
the children earned $6 but less than $12. The town and the rural day
laborers were found in the largest numbers among those earning less
than $3 per week, but the city day workers were in almost equal
numbers in the three groups earning less than $9, with only 16 of the
177 reporting weekly earnings receiving as much as $9.
Payment of wages was made at short intervals, very few children
waiting longer than one week for their earnings. Weekly payments
were made to 267 of the 424 children reporting the interval of pay­
ment, daily payments to 51, and payments at the end of the season
to 74. As payment by the season was most frequent in the harvest­
ing of onion sets and green onions, which usually takes only a few
days, many of the workers paid by the season waited less than a week
for payment.
T able

10.— E a r n in g s o f ch ild ren f o r field w ork o n tru ck c ro p s , hy d a y s o f fie ld w ork
d u rin g ty p ic a l w e e k ; C o o k C o u n ty

501

70

78

61

55

87

Receiving earnings......................

359 100.0

63 100.0

66 100.0

45

34

54 100.0

Less than $3 ......................
$3, less than $6......................

153 ' 42.6
100 27.9
67 18.7
5.8
21
18
5.0

62 98.4
1
1.6

53
12

80.3
18.2

1

1.5

15
25
3
1
1

10
17
7

6
22
19
3
4

5
11

12
9

22
11

71
71

2
5

7
5

80 100.0
5
21
35
10
9
23
13

03

17

116

11.1
40.7
35.2
5.6
7.4

&
P»

I Number of days
not reported 1

£
•3

P er cent
distribution

03

6 days

Number

£
CO

Per cent
distribution

5 days

Number

©

P er c e n t
distribution

fH
&

2 days

1 Number

1 day
Per cent
distribution

1Number

Earnings in typical week

Per cent distribu­
tion

Children under 16 years of age working specified number of days during
typical week

6.3
26.3
43.8
12.5
11.3

17

17 —
2
2
3
6
4
17

1 Per cent distribution not shown where base is less than 60.

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND SCHOOL PROGRESS

Absence from school in order to work on truck farms was not found to
be customary among the children in the Chicago district. Only 20 of
the 466 children included in the study who were enrolled in school
and who reported regarding work during school hours sta ted that they
had worked while school was in session— 11 of the 77 resident workers
who reported on this point and 9 of the 389 nonresident workers.
Of the 501 children included in the study 442 were enrolled in school
for the entire school year preceding the study, and no report was made
for 31 children. All except 4 of the remaining 28 were 14 or 15 years


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O N I L L IN O IS F A R M S

of age and were therefore exempt from school attendance if legally and
necessarily employed.8 (Table 11.)
T a b l e 11.— S ch o o l a tten d a n ce d u rin g the sch o o l y e a r 1 9 2 3 -2 4 o f b oys a n d g irls
w o rk in g o n tru ck c ro p s , by p la ce o f r e s id e n c e ; C ook C o u n ty
Children of specified residence working on truck crops

Residing in
Chicago

Total

Per cent of school attendance, and sex
of the children

Residing in
Residing in
other cities or
towns of 2,500 rural commu­
nities
or more in­
habitants

Per cent Num­ Per cent Num­ Per cent
cent
Num­ Per
distri­
distri­
distri­
distri­ Num­
ber bution 1 ber bution 1 ber bution 1
ber bution
161

118

222

• Total--------------------------------- ------

501

Reporting attendance for entire school
year________________________ ------------

442

100.0

200

100.0

107

100.0

135

100.0

37

8.4

7

3.5

7

6.5

23

17.0

10.0

19

17.8

24

17.8

79.0
7.5

75
6

70.1
5.6

86
■3

63.0
2.2

Attending less than 80 per cent— —
Attending 80 per cent, less than 90
per cent---------- --------------------------Attending 90 per cent, less than 100
per cent_________________________
Attending entire year.—. — - ............

63

14.3

20

318
24

71.9
5.4

158
15

Absent entire year or one-half year--------Not reporting attendance.............— . —

28
31

14
8

7
4

7
19

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

404

198

88

118

Reporting attendance for entire school
year..........................................................

365

100.0

181

100.0

81

100.0

103

100.0

30

8.2

6

3.3

5

6.2

19

18.4

50

13.7

16

8.8

17

21.0

17

16.5

264
21

72.3
5.8

145
14
10
7

80.1
7.7

55
4
5
2

67.9
4.9

64
3
2
13

62.1
2.9

Attending less than 80 per cent—— ..
Attending 80 per cent, less than 90
per cent___"-------------------------------Attending 90 per cent, less than 100
per cent________________________ _
Attending entire year................... —
Absent entire year or one-half year-------Not reporting attendance..........................
Girls.................................................

97

Reporting attendance for entire school
year............... .........................................

77

Attending less than 80 per cent.........
Attending 80 per cent, less than 90
per cent_______ ____ _______ ____
Attending 90 per cent, less than 100
per cent________ ___ l------------- —Attending entire year........................
Absent entire year or one-half year.........
Not reporting attendance.........................

U
9

43

30

24
100.0

26

100.0

32

100.0

19

9 1

1
4

2

7

70 1
¿9

13
1

20
2

21

4
1

2
2

5
6

2

100.0

4

1 Not shown where base is less than 50.

The 222 workers included in this study who lived in Chicago had the
advantage of a compulsory school attendance law enforced m accord­
ance with city standards of enforcement. Moreover, unlike seasonal
workers migrating to the farms for the duration of their employment,
they did not suffer the disadvantages of moving out of the jurisdiction
of the schools that they attended ordinarily. Their school attendance
was therefore considerably better than that of most children whose
farm work has been investigated. It was found that 86.5 per cent
« 111., Rev. Stat. (Cahill’s) 1925, ch. 122, par. 398.


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of the 200 Chicago children who were enrolled in school the entire
year and for whom school records were obtained had attended school
at least 90 per cent of the school year preceding the study. (Table
11.) This percentage was smaller than that of some groups of city
children working on farms near other cities where the Children’s
Bureau made studies. For example, 94 per cent of a group of children
from Hartford, Conn., who worked by the day on tobacco farms in
the vicinity of that city and with whom the Chicago truck-farm
workers may be compared fairly had attended school 90 per cent of
the school year or longer.9
The school attendance of child workers residing in other towns than
Chicago and in the country was less regular than of those who lived
in Chicago. It was found that 75.7 per cent of the town workers
who were enrolled in school and for whom reports were obtained and
65.2 per cent of those living in the country had attended at least 90
per cent of the school year. The percentage of school attendance
among the rural children was higher than that found by the Chil­
dren’s Bureau among some other groups of children who lived in the
country and worked on farms. For example, only 24.2 per cent of
the resident white children working on truck farms in Maryland
counties who were enrolled in school and for whom reports on attend­
ance were obtained, had attended school at least 90 per cent of the
school year; and among resident child workers on truck farms in
New Jersey only 18.8 per cent had attended 90 per cent of the school
year or more.10 However, the percentage of school attendance
among the child workers living in the country and working on farms
near Chicago is lower than that generally found by the Children’s
Bureau among rural children in Massachusetts working on tobacco
farms or among rural children working on truck and small-fruit
farms in Washington and Oregon. The Children’s Bureau found
that 71 per cent of the rural Massachusetts children, 74 per cent of
those studied in the Willamette Valley, Oreg., 86 per cent of those
in the Puyallup Valley, Wash., and 65 per cent of those in the Yakima
Valley, Wash., had attended school at least 90 per cent of the school
year,11 compared with 65.2 per cent of the children living in the
country and working on truck farms near Chicago.
The good school-attendance record of the children working on the
truck farms in the Chicago district is reflected in their school prog­
ress. (Table 12.) Among the children attending Chicago schools
21.2 per cent were retarded.12 This percentage is somewhat less
than the average retardation for city school children.13 Of the
children included in the study who attended schools in other places
of 2,500 or more inhabitants 38.1 per cent were retarded, and of
those attending rural schools 30.6 per cent were retarded. The
9Child Labor in Representative Tobacco-Growing Areas, by Harriet A. Byrne, d . 39 TJ S Children’s
Bureau Publication No. 155. Washington, 1926.
w Percentages compiled from figures obtained in Children’s Bureau studies.
Mn
Tobacco-Growing Areas, p. 40 (U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication
n ^
^ SH&i Chiid Labor m Fruit and Hop Growing Distriots of the Northern Pacific
Coast, pp. 16,44 (u . S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 151, Washington, 1926).
ii The age basis upon which retardation has beer, calculated is that adopted by the U. S. Bureau of Education. Children are expected to enter the first grade at the age of 6 or 7 years and to complete one grade
each year. A child is therefore considered retarded if he is 8 or over on entering the first grade, 9 or over on
entering the second, etc.
13 The average percentage of retardation for city school children is 26.6 as computed from age-grade statis­
tics from Statistical Survey of Education, 1921-22 (U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1924, No. 38, Washngton, i92oj •


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percentage of retarded children among white truck-farm workers
living on or near the farms on which they worked in Maryland and
New Jersey was from 38 to 56.8.14
T able

12.— S ch o o l p ro g ress o f c h ild ren betw een 8 a n d 16 y e a r s o f a g e 1 w o rk in g
o n tru ck fa r m s , b y p la ce o f r es id e n c e ; C ook C o u n ty
Children of specified residence between 8 and 16 years of
age working on truck crops

School progress

Residing in
Chicago

Total

Residing in
other places of
2,500 inhabi­
tants or more

Rural

Per cent Num­ Per cent Num­ Per cent
cent
Num­ Per
distri­
distri­
distri­
distri­ Num­
ber bution
ber bution
ber bution
ber bution
Total........1_____ ____ ________ ___

497

100.0

222

100.0

118

100.0

157

100.0

Retarded...... ............................................

140

28.2

47

21.2

45

38.1

48

30.6

1 year__________ ____ ______ _______
2 years................................................
3 years and more....... ..........................

63
50
27

12.7
10.1
5.4

27
13
7

12.2
5.9
3.2

19
19
7

16.1
16.1
5.9

17
18
13

10.8
11.5
8.3

Normal______________________________
Advanced_______ ______ _____ : ..............
Not reported______________ ___________

271
82
4

54.5
16.5
.8

133
41
1

59.9
18.5
.5

56
16
1

47.5
13.6
.8

82
25
2

52.2
15.9
1.3

1 Children under 8 years of age have been excluded because they can not be retarded.

SUMMARY

A large proportion of the 501 children interviewed on truck farms
in the truck-farming region around Chicago came to the farms to
work by the day. Only a few resided on the farms. The great
majority of the workers were the sons and daughters of foreign-born
industrial workers and lived in the cities or towns of the district.
Their families had been residents of the United States for long
periods, and most of the fathers spoke English and were able to
read and write. The Chicago children had made fair progress in
school, and even those living in other towns in the area or on farms
were less retarded in school than most other groups of child workers
on farms. Except among some of the children of farmers the amount
of absence from school was not serious.
The principal season during which children are employed on the
truck farms corresponds closely to the three months of the summer
vacation, although there is some employment throughout the year.
The work is irregular, but it totaled several months of employment a
year for a majority of the children interviewed. The children weed
and harvest a large variety of crops. Weeding various crops, twist­
ing onions, cutting asparagus, pulling beets and carrots, and picking
beans are the principal kinds of work, and none of it appears to be
particularly arduous except when continued for long hours. It was
found that 196 children had worked more than 8 hours on the work­
ing-day which they reported as typical, and 104 had worked 10
hours or more. The length of the child’s working-day is increased by
n See Child Labor on Maryland Truck Farms, pp. 19, 49 (U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 123,
Washington, 1923) and Work of Children on Truck and Small-Fruit Farms in Southern New Jersey, p. 20
(U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No, 132, Washington, 1924),


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31

the distance between his home and his work. Work before or after
school or on Saturdays or Sundays during the school term was re­
ported by 155 children under 14 years of age, of whom 131 were hired
laborers.
The problem of child labor on truck farms near Chicago is the
problem of the child working away from home at an early age,
working long hours, going long distances over complicated routes at
hours too early in the morning and too late in the evening, to places of
employment unknown to his parents, and, in some sections, with no
certainty of finding work after the effort has been made. Illinois has
prescribed in its child labor law the number of hours in a day and in a
week that a child may work at any gainful occupation; and in order
that the child up to the age of 14 years, at least, may benefit from the
educational facilities provided by the people the State has decreed
that he may not work for compensation during the school year.
The provisions of this law have not been applied to the work of
children on farms, and little thought has been given to the need for
protecting child workers in agriculture from work either at too early
an age or for too long hours.


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GENERAL FARMING
The districts selected for the study of childrens work in general
farming in Illinois represent the varied agricultural conditions char­
acteristic of the State. (See p. 1.) Livingston County lies in the
fertile corn-growing region of northern Illinois, where almost all the
land is tillable and its value is high.1 The farmers are chiefly tenants
of a prosperous type. Good roads and large farms with well-con­
structed and well-kept farm buildings and comfortable houses give
evidence of its prosperity. In Marion County the soil is of the poorest
in the State, and some of the land is still uncleared. Roads other
than the main highways are poor. Fruit (peaches, pears, and apples),
hay, and forage are the principal crops although some wheat is raised.
It is a country of struggling farm owners, and the homes visited
during the course of the study were at best only moderately comfort­
able. Some were mere shacks, and there was even an occasional log
house. Few had even the simplest conveniences. Shallow wells or
springs, liable to pollution, were quite commonly the only source of
water supply; and toilet facilities were poor or lacking. Shelby
County, lying midway between the other two counties, has some of
the characteristics of each. In the northern half lie fertile farms
devoted to the production of corn, but in the south the soil is poorer
and is better adapted to the cultivation of wheat and hay. Land
values at their best do not equal those in Livingston County, but they
surpass those in Marion County.2 Many of the farms are owned by
absentee landlords, some of whom allow their places to deteriorate.
Farm owners are fairly prosperous, but the tenants are a poorer class
than those in Livingston County and move frequently from farm to
farm. Although some houses are of a very poor type they are on
the whole more comfortable and better equipped than those in Marion
County.
In all three counties both owners and tenants farm on a large scale.
Under the type of agriculture prevailing throughout this section of
the country the farm of less than 100 acres does not permit an efficient
use of machinery and horsepower,3 and the farmer who owns only a
small acreage usually rents additional land in order to utilize his equip­
ment to the best advantage. The three counties are alike also m
that they are predominantly rural and their farm population is made
up of natiye white families.
.
Collection of information for the study was begun in April, 1923,
and continued until July of the same year. Agents of the Children s
Bureau interviewed all children between 7 and 16 years of age attend­
ing school in 53 school districts in Livingston County, except those
who were absent from school on the day of the interview. In Marion
and Shelby Counties the schools closed for the summer before the
1 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. VI, Part 1, Agriculture, p. 381. Washington, 1922.
2 Ibid., pp. 376 ff.
.
. T ..
.
3 A Farm Management Survey of Three Representative Areas in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, by E. H.
Thomson and H. M. Dixon, pp. 28,42. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin 41. Washington, 1914.

32

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G E N E R A L F A R M IN G

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study was begun, but the enrollment of the schools in 24 school dis­
tricts in Marion County and 31 in Shelby County was obtained, and
the children enrolled in these schools (or their families) were inter­
viewed at home. Although the procedure was therefore somewhat
different in Livingston County from that in Shelby and Marion
Counties the proportion of the pupils interviewed was about the
same— 91 per cent of the enrollment of the Livingston County
schools, 92 per cent of that of the Marion County schools, and 95
per cent of that of the Shelby County schools. In addition to the
children enrolled in school in the selected school districts the children
living in these districts but not enrolled in any school were inter­
viewed so far as they could be located. Only 16 such children were
found in the selected districts in the three counties. A record of
school attendance for the school year 1922-23 was obtained from
school registers for each child included in the study for whom it was
available. The agent asked each child the cause of each absence
recorded against him. Only those children were included in the study
who were known to have lived on a farm during the entire year prior
to the interview (so that they might fairly be considered to represent
farm children) and who had worked in the fields at least 12 days
of 6 hours or more during the year preceding the inquiry.
THE CHILD WORKERS

During the progress of the study the statement was frequently
heard that owing to the scarcity of labor resulting from the migration
of young men from the farms and to the lack of ready cash resulting
from recent hard times the farmers were depending more and more
upon their children for assistance on the farms. Almost all the boys
12 years of age and older and almost one-half of those under 12 who
were interviewed had worked on the farms. Nearly one-third of the
girls between 12 and 16, and one-tenth of those under 12 reported
that they had done farm work. (Table 13.) There was little
difference among the counties in the proportion of children who had
worked, though it was somewhat larger both for boys and for girls
in Marion County, the least prosperous of the three, than in either of
the other two counties. Only 140 of the 737 working children in­
cluded in the study were girls, and only 99 children were under 10
years of age. The situation on these Illinois farms is very different
from that on farms where a great deal of hand work is necessary in
cultivating and harvesting the crops and where most of the work is
very simple. On truck and small-fruit farms, for example, and in
cotton and tobacco fields almost as many girls as boys are found at
work; in some rural districts nearly every child who has reached the
age of 10 works in the fields, and fully one-fourth of the children under
16 who do farm work are under 10. On farms where the principal
crops are wheat, corn, oats, and hay, machinery is largely used, and
not much of the work can be done by girls or small children. The
proportions of school children of the various age groups who had done
farm work on the general farms of these Illinois districts were very
similar to those found in the Children’s Bureau survey of child labor
on the wheat and potato raising farms of North Dakota, although a
much larger proportion of the workers in North Dakota were girls


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34

W ORK

OF C H IL D R E N

O N IL L IN O IS F A R M S

(but this is probably because a number of foreign-born families in
which it was customary for girls to do field work were represented in
the latter study).4
T a b l e 13.— C h ild ren o f sp e c ified age a n d s ex d o in g field w ork i n each c o u n ty ; L iv ­
in g sto n , S h elb y , a n d M a r io n C o u n ties
Children between 7 and 16 years of age
Boys—

Total—

Doing
field
work

Age and county

Ut

Ut

pO

<D Ä
O

©

a
3

’cQ
O

Not
doing
field
work

U

I3

S

¡25

Doing
field
work

-U>
0

©
©
I©
h
Ph

<5
i

0

pO

«
o

o©
Ut
©
Ph

3

Girls—
Not
doing
field
work
4-3
0
©
©

Ut
©
£

a
3

Ut

&

£

rc8
O
ÉH

Doing
field
work

Not
doing
field
work

Ex
5

<D

"8
8

a
3

Ut

s

a
3

cS
8
Ù

fi

¡3

Total....................................... 1,672 737 44.1 935 55.9 885 597 67.5 288 32.5 787 140.17.8 647 82.2
7 years, under 8...............................
8 years, under 10..... .........................
10 years, under 12....... ............... ...............
12 years, under 14— ........................
14 years, under 16.............................
Livingston County................
8 years, under 10........................................
10 years, under 12.............. .............
12 years, under 14................... ........

.

.

...

Shelby County......................

...

8 years, under 10
........................ ........
10 years, under 12.............................
12 years, under 14............ ........
14 years, under 16.............................

.

...

Marion County.....................

179 12 6.7
386 87 22.5
376 179 47.6
397 243 61.2
291 211 72.5
43
5

14 years, under 16.............................

93.3
77.5
52.4
38.8
27.5

89
9 10. 1 80 89.9 90
203 70 34.5 133 65.5 183
194 153 78.9 41 2 1 .1 182
213 199 93.4 14 6.6 184
165 162 98.2
3 1.8 126
22
21
4.
17

560 237 42.3 323 57.7 314 191 60.8 123 39.2 246
58
142
118
134
74
34

7 12.1 51 87.9
34 23.9 108 76.1
56 47.5 62 52.5
86 64.2 48 35.8
73.0 20 27.0
34

35
82
65
75
43
14

608 250 41.1 358 58.9 312
67
123
137
152
124
5

67 100.0
19 15.4 104 84.6
58 42.3 79 57.7
79 52.0 78 48.0
91 73.4 38 26.0

s

2

29
59
71
78
72

a

6
27 32.9
47 72.3
69 92.0
4?
212

67.9

17
52
70
71
2

28.8
73.2
89.7
98.6

504 250 49.6 254 50.4 259 194 74.9
54

years! under 10..............................
10 years, under 12.............................

8

167
299
197
154
80
38

121
121

111
93
4

5 9.3
34 28.1
65 53. 7
78 70. 3
66 71.0

5

49
87
56
38
27
2

90.7
71.9
46.8
29.7
29.0

25
62
58
60
50
4

1

23
60
53
59
31

14

20

100

32.1 296

29
55 67.1
18 27.7
6 8.0

29
42 71.2
19 26.8
8 10.3
1 1.4
1

65 25.1 245

22
3
26 41.9 36 58.1
93. 1 4 6.9
60 100.0
1 2.0
49 98.0

54

Î

38
64
66
74
52
2

29
59
63
51
43

3 3.3 87 96.7
17 9.3 166 90.7
26 14.3 156 85.7
44 23.9 140 76.1
49 38.9 77 61.1
1

46 ia 7
1

7 11.7
9 17.0
17 28.8
12

21
200

81.3

22

53 88.3
44 83.0
42 71.2
19
20

38 12 .8 258 87.2
2 3.1
6 9.1
9 12.2
20 38.5
J

38
62 96.9
60 90.9
65 87.8
32 61.5
1

56 22.9 189 77.1
2

8 13.6
11 17.5
18 35.8
17

27
51 86.4
52 82.5
38 64.7
26 __

2

i Not shown where base is less than 50.

Most of the child workers on these Illinois farms are farmers’
children (Table 14) of native white parentage. There is no need
for the employment of large numbers of workers at rush seasons as
on truck and fruit farms where quantities of a perishable product
must be harvested within a few days; hence the migratory worker or
the day laborer from near-by towns is not found in this section. The
majority (61 per cent) of the farmers whose children were included in
the study in Livingston County, like the farm operators in the county
as a whole in 1920, were tenants; in Marion County the majority (73
4
923.

Child Labor in North Dakota, pp. 1, 8. U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 129. Washington,


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35

GENERAL FARMING

per cent), again like the farmers in the county as a whole, were owners;
and in Shelby County somewhat more than one-half the fathers, like
farmers in the county as a whole, owned their farms and somewhat
fewer than one-half rented them.5 A few of the fathers represented
in the study left the management of their farms to older children and
themselves engaged in another occupation, such as mining or rail­
roading; but almost all the families were entirely dependent on the
farm for their livelihood.
- •
The acreage of most of the farms owned or rented by the families
with children who had worked was somewhat larger than that of the
average farm in the counties. In Livingston County the average
acreage per farm for the farm families represented in the study and
reporting on the acreage of their farm was 200, as compared with 171
in the county; in Marion County it was 134, as compared with 107;
and in Shelby County 137, as compared with 117.5
T able

14.— F a r m sta tu s o f c h ie f b rea d w in n ers o f fa m ilie s o f ch ild ren d oin g field
w o r k ; L iv in g s to n , S h elb y , a n d M a r io n C o u n ties

Families of children doing fieldwork
Farm status of chief breadwinner
Total

Total......................................................................................
Farm owner...................................................................................
Farm tenant....... ........... ....................................................
Other.......... ............ ........... .............. ......................
Not reported.................................................... _•................

Living­
ston
County

Shelby
County

Marion
County

534

174

196

164

287
226
18
3

55
104
12
3

112
79
5

120
43
1

CONDITIONS OF W ORK
Place of employment.

The children working on general farms work in the fields with the
older members of the family. Some are called upon for light tasks
only; but others serve as regular field hands, helping with anything
that has to be done. Their work begins early in the spring with the
breaking of ground and continues intermittently through the planting
of. crops and the period of cultivation until the harvest is completed
in the late fall or early winter. Many of the children included in
the study worked only for their parents on the home farm, but 301
(about two-fifths of the child workers) assisted neighboring farmers
in addition to their work at home, and 25 children (including 4 girls)
worked exclusively as hired laborers.
Duration of work.

The majority of the children included in the study did not work
long— 27 per cent of the working children had worked less than one
month (of 26 working days), and 31 per cent had worked between
one and two months during the year preceding the inquiry. Yet
124 children (17 per cent) had worked three months or more, either
consecutively, fairly consecutively, or intermittently throughout the
year, and 14 children had worked six months. Of these 124 children
8 Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. VI, Part I, Agriculture, pp. 381, 382,384. Washing-


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36

W ORK

OP C H IL D R E N

O N I L L IN O IS F A R M S

18 were under 12 years of age and 34 were between 12 and 14. Boys
more often than girls worked a considerable length of time. (Table
15.)
T able

15.— D u r a tio n o f fie ld w ork o f ch ild ren , hy a ge a n d s e x ; L iv in g s to n , S h elby,
a n d M a r io n C o u n ties

Children of specified ages doing field work
Duration of field work, and sex of the
children

Total

7 years, 10 years, 12 years, 14 years, Age not
under 10 under 12 under 14 under 16 reported

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

737

99

179

243

211

5

Less than 1 month..................................... .
1 month, less than 2_______________ _____

200
231
140
70
54
42

47
38
10
2
1
1

64
77
16
10
5
7

52
74
69
24
10
14

35
41
45
33
37
20

2
1

3 months) less than 4__......... ................... .
4 months and more________ ____________

1
1

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

597

79

153

199

162

4

Less than 1 month________ ____ ________
1 month, less than 2____________________

128
185
128
69
50
37

36
32
9
1

32
56
66
24
10
11

9
28
38
33
35
19

2
1

1

49
68
15
10
5
6

140

20

26

44

49

1

72
46
12
1
4
5

11
6
1
1
1

15
9
1

20
18
3

26
13
7

1

3

2
1

3 months, less than 4___ ___ _______ ____ _

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

1

1

Hours of work.

The working-day for the children on these farms was long. A 9hour or 10-hour working-day was quite usual and an 11-hour day not
infrequent. The length varied with the season and the weather. In
periods of rush work when it was necessary to take advantage of suit­
able weather conditions the work usually continued as long as daylight
lasted. Although it was not possible to obtain information in regard
to the daily hours in the field from all the children included in the
study a considerable number reported their usual hours of work for
various operations during seasons of the greatest activity on the farm.
(Table 16.) Few boys and girls worked less than 8 hours a day at any
time, and the majority generally worked 9 or 10 hours. The longest
working hours were in the spring when the fields were being plowed
and prepared for planting; the shortest were at the harvest season.
Of 526 children who had done general farm work almost one-half had
worked 10 hours or more a day, whereas of 708 who had worked during
the harvest season only one-fourth had worked 10 hours or more a
day. However, even at this season two-thirds of the children helping
in the harvest had worked in the fields at least 8 hours a day. Their
working hours during the harvest season are shorter. M ost of the
children husk corn, and this is done at a time of year when the hours
of daylight are few; and since school is in session the children attend­
ing school can work only a few hours in the morning and evening.
During the husking season some children worked on school days

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37

GENERAL FARMING

about an hour every morning and an hour or two every afternoon,
husking until it was too dark to see. On Saturdays they husked all
day. Girls generally had shorter hours than the boys. Compara­
tively few of them spent as much as 10 hours a day in the field except
in the spring, but a 10-hour day was not unusual for the boys at any
time. The children under 12 years of age worked shorter hours than
did the older ones. Neither their work nor that of the girls is insig­
nificant, however, for the majority reported that they had worked
at least 8 hours a day. In addition to their field work almost all the
children had chores to do, and this could add several hours to their
working day. Only 22 of the 737 children included in the study
reported that they did not usually do daily chores, and 41 per cent
of those reporting chores said that they generally spent at least 2 hours
a day in chores at the season of the year in which the inquiry was
made. Girls as well as boys helped with the milking and other odd
jobs outside the house, and the boys often did housework.
T able

16.— H o u r s o f field w o rk o n t y p ic a l d a y , b y k in d o f w o r k ; L iv in g s to n , S h e lb y ,
a n d M a r io n C o u n ties

Children between 7 and 10 years of age doing field work specified number
of hours on typical day

CD
©
m
<D

Ph

d
©
O
S
-4
CD
P-4

4*
d
<
D
O
tC-4
D

Ph

"8
<D
©
pH

43
d
©
©
u

©

Ph

Hours
not re­
ported

|Number

U
CD
P-4

d

12
hours
and
more
1 Number

O

1 Number

CD

|Number

d

1 Number

43

Number

1 Number

To­
tal

1 Per cent2 |

Kind of field w ork1

|Number

11
10
Less 6 hours, 8 hours, 9 hours, hours,
hours,
than 6
less
less
less
less
less
hours than 8 than 9 than 10 than 11 than 12

d

©
©•
©

Ph

General farm work_________ 526

24 4.6

20 3.8

49 9.3 158 30.0 199 37.8

53 10.1

4 0.8

19 3.6

Plowing........................... 227
Harrowing_____________ 203
Disking............................ 77

4 1.8
14 6.9
3 3.9

5 2.2
10 4.9
5 6.5

21 9.3
22 10.8
4 5.2

86 37.9
55 27.1
9 11.7

84 37.0
64 31.5
47 61.0

23 10.1
24 11.8
5 6.5

1 .4
1 .5
2 2.6

3 L 3
13 6.4
2 2.6

Planting and transplanting- - 283

34 12.0

27 9.5

26 9.2

70 24.7

45 15.9

12 4.2

1

.4

68 24.0

Planting........................... 190
29
Drilling_______________
14
Sowing........................ . . .

23 12.1
3
3

21 11.1
2

18 9.5
3
2

54 28.4
9
2

27 14.2
8
2

8 4.2
2

1

.5

38 20.0
2
5

057

20 3.0

45 6.8

62 9.4 188 28.6 214 32.6

63 9.6

5

.8

60 9.1

Machine cultivating____ 458
Hoeing......... , .................. 141

12 2.6
7 5.0

16 3.5
25 17.7

42 9.2 136 29.7 186 40.6
17 12.1 38 27.0 12 8.5

54 11.8
3 2.1

5 1.1

7 1.5
39 27.7

48 6.8 101 14.3 131 18.5 176 24.9 115 16.2

45 6.4

8 LI

84 11.9

43 16.8 23 9.0
13 14. C 3 3.2
4 7.7
15 28.8
6
2
1
5

7 2.7

20 7.8
1 1.1
8 15.4
11
3

Cultivating............................

Harvesting............................. 708
Husking corn__________ 256
Raking hay...................... 93
Threshing........................ 52
Shocking grain................ 43
Mowing hay................... 25

33 12.9
2 2.2
2

36 14.1
16 17.2
5 9.6
1
1

45 17.6
31 33.3
4 7.7
9
5

49 19.1
27 29.0
15 28.8
12
10

1 1.9

1If the child performed more than one kind of work of a given type the typical day is for the kind of work
of longest duration.
! Not shown where base is less than 50.

Earnings o f child workers.

About one-third of the children engaged in general farm work,
mostly those who worked away from home, received pay for at least
part of their work. A few children were paid for their work on the
home farm, but usually field work, like chores and housework, was part

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38

W O K K OF C H IL D R E N

O N I L L IN O IS F A R M S

of the child’s share of family responsibilities and duties. Not all those
who worked away from home were paid, since in accordance with the
custom in many farming communities many gave their services in
exchange for similar services rendered to their parents by members of
the family for whom they were working. When money payment was
made the amount depended upon the individual farmer and probably
upon the length of the working-day. It was most often between $1
and $1.75 a day, though it varied from 25 cents to $2. Several
children who had furnished their implements or teams had received
$3.50 and $4.50. Cutting, shocking, and husking corn were some­
times paid for on a piecework basis of 6 to 8 cents a shock for cutting
and shocking and 1 to 2 cents a bushel for husking.
KINDS OF W ORK

Tables 17, 18, and 19 show the kinds of field work done by children
of different ages in the three counties. Small numbers of children
also reported various other tasks in the fields, such as cutting down
old cornstalks in the spring, clearing the ground of new sprouts, weed­
ing, hauling, baling and shocking hay, and picking fruit.
T able

17.— F a r m o p er a tio n s p er fo r m ed b y ch ild ren d o in g fie ld w ork o n s p e c ified
c ro p s , b y a ge o f c h ild r e n ; L iv in g s to n , S h elb y , a n d M a r io n C o u n ties

Children of specified ages doing field work 1
7 years,
under 10.

Farm operation, and crop

10 years,
under 12

12 years,
under 14

14 years,
under 16

Age not
reported

Total
Num­ Per Num­ Per Num­ Per Num­ Per Num­ Per
ber cent8 ber cent8 ber cent8 ber cent ber cent8

Total.....................................
General:
Plowing................. .................
Harrowing................................
Disking____________________
Hoeing_____ _______________
Corn crop:
Cultivating..............................
Husking................. ...............
Planting.......... .......................
Rolling........................... .........
Cutting.... ...............................
H oeing............................... .
Shocking..................................
Hay crop:
Raking........................ .............
Driving fork or stacker...........
Mowing...................................
Pitching...................
Grain crop:
Driving binder........................
Shocking.................................
Threshing—
Hauling grain....................
L oad ing......................... .
Pitching..... ................... .
Stacking..................................
Carrying or hauling water___

737

99

13.4

179

243

243

33.0

211

28.6

5

0.7

350
493
338
197

14
43
19
21

4.0
8.7
5.6
10.7

71
115
66
54

20.3
23.3
19.5
27.4

126
173
122
61

36.0
35.1
36.1
31.0

137
159
130
58

39.1
32.3
38.5
29.4

2
3
1
3

.6
.6
.3
1.5

492
486
176
161
145
122
105

39
57
22
14
10
27
4

7.9
11.7
12.5
8.7
6.9
22.1
3.8

109
115
40
42
32
29
20

22.2
23.7,
22.7
26.1
22.1
23.8
19.0

170
163
51
52
53
49
37

34.6
33.5
29.0
32.3
36.6
40. 2
35.2

171
149
62
52
60
17
44

34 8
30.7
35.2
32.3
.84. 5
12 9
41.9

3
2
1
1

.6
.4
.6
.6

320
184
162
90

14
15
4
3

4.4
8.2
2.5
3.3

57
44
18
15

17.8
23.9
11.1
16.7

115
75
61
18

35.9
40.8
37.7
20.0

132
49
78
54

41.3
26.6
48.1
60.0

2
1
1

.6
.5
.6

53
321

1
25

1.9
7.8

4
72

7.5
22.4

16
110

30. 2
34 3

32
113

60.4
35.2

1

.3

91
27
22
12
312

4
1
3

4.4

12.1

50
15
13
6
47

54.9

14.7

26
9
3
4
124

28.6

46

11
2
3
2
94

1

.3

30.1

39.7

15.1

1 The items do not add to the totals because some children did more than one kind of field work.
8 Not shown where base is less than 50.


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39

GE N E R A L. F A R M I N G

T a b l e 18.— F a r m o p er a tio n s p er fo r m ed b y ch ild ren d o in g field w ork o n s p ecified
c r o p s , b y c o u n ty ; L iv in g s to n , S h elb y , a n d M a r io n C o u n ties
Children between 7 and 16 years of age doing field work in
specified counties1

Farm operation, and crop

Num­
ber

General:
Plowing..... ................ ...... ...................

Corn crop:

Rolling!!____________________ _____

Hay crop:

Grain crop:
Shocking____ _____________________
Threshing:

Livingston
County

Total

Per
cent

Num­
ber

Per
cent

Shelby
County
Num­
ber

Per
cent

Marion
County
Num­
ber

Per
cent

737

100.0

237

100.0

250

100.0

250

100.0

350
493
338
197

47.5
66.9
45.9
26.7

40
104
78
43

16.9
43.9
32.9
18.1

167
207
160
70

66.8
82.8
64.0
28.0

143
182
100
84

57.2
72.8
40.0
33.6

492
486
176
161
145
122
105

66.8
65.9
23.9
21.8
19.7
16.6
14.2

149
223
24
25
8
26
2

62.9
94.1
10.1
10.5
3.4
11.0
.8

180
168
47
118
24
27
24

72. 0
63.2
18.8
47.2
9.6
10.8
9.6

163
105
105
18
113
69
79

65.2
42.0
42.0
7.2
45.2
27.6
31.6

320
184
162
90

43.4
25.0
22.0
12.2

48
76
29
29

20.3
32.1
12.2
12.2

135
82
81
31

54.0
32.8
32.4
12.4

137
26
52
30

54.8
10.4
20.8
12.0

53
321

7.2
43.6

21
149

8.9
62.9

20
95

8.0
38.0

12
77

4.8
30.8

91
27
22
12
312

12.3
3.7
3.0
1.6
42.3

32
6
3
4
143

13.5
2.5
1.3
1.7
60.3

39
6
9
2
95

15.6
2.4
3.6
.8
38.0

20
15
10
6
74

8.0
6.0
4.0
2.4
29.6

1 The items do not add to the totals because some children did more than one kind of field work.

'Although some children in each county did each of the kinds
of work listed there is a striking difference among the counties in the
number of children who reported certain operations. In Livingston
County the principal kinds of work, so far as numbers of children
were concerned, were husking and cultivating corn, shocking grain,
and carrying water to the grain threshers, or hauling water for the
threshing engines. In Shelby and Marion Counties comparatively
few children had done any of these kinds of work except husking
and cultivating corn, and the proportions engaged even in those
operations were much smaller than in Livingston County. In those
two counties the largest proportions of the workers had done general
farm work, such as plowing, harrowing, and— in Shelby County—
disking; but comparatively small proportions of children in Living­
ston County had plowed, disked, or harrowed.


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T a b l e 19.— A g e s o f ch ild ren d o in g s p e c ified k in d s o f field w ork , b y c o u n ty ; L iv in g ­
ston , S h elb y , a n d M a r io n C o u n ties
Children of specified ages doing field work i

Kind of field work, and county1

Total

Under 12
years

12 years,
under 14

14 years,
under 16

Num­ Per Num­ Per Num­ Per Num­ Per
ber
cent ber cent
ber
ber
cent
cent
Total.................................................
Plowing...................... ..............................
Harrowing..................................................
D isking--.....................- ..................- ........
Hoeing______________ ________________
Cultivating corn.......... ................... - ........
Husking corn............................................
Shocking grain. ........................................
Livingston County..........................

Shelby County._______ _________

100.0 ' 278

Age
not
report­
ed2

100.0

243

100.0

211

100.0

5

350,
493
338
197
492
486
321

47.5
66.9
45.9
26.7
66.8
65.9
43.6

85
158
85
75
148
172
97

30.6
56.8
30.6
27.0
53.2
61.9
34.9

126
173
122
61
170
163
110

51.9
71.2
50.2
25.1
70.0
67.1
45.3

137
159
130
58
171
149
113

64.9
75.4
61.6
27.5
81.0
70.6
53.6

2
3
1
3
3
2
1

237

100.0

97

100.0

86

100.0

54

100.0

40
104
78
43
149
223
149

16.9
43.9
32.9
18.1
62.9
94.1
62.9

8
30
16
17
47
89
49

8.2
30.9
16.5
17.5
48.5
91.8
50.5

14
38
31
14
57
82
54

16.3
44.2
36.0
16.3
66.3
95.3
62.8

18
36
31
12
45
52
46

33.3
66.7
57.4
22.2
83.3
96.3
85.2

250

100.0

77

100.0

79

100.0

91

100.0

69
70
60
25
75
67
43

75.8
76.9
65.9
27.5
82.4
73.6
47.3

1
2
1
1
1
1
1

737

3

Plowing.............. ...................... ...............
Harrowing..... .............................. .............
Disking.................. ....................................
Hoeing............ ............ ............ — ...........
Cultivating corn............. .....................
Husking com....... .................... ...... .........
Shocking grain..........................................

167
207
160
70
180
158
95

66.8
82.8
64.0
28.0
72.0
63.2
38.0

40
63
44
22
44
44
24

51.9
81.8
57.1
28.6
57.1
57.1
31.2

57
72
55
22
60
46
27

72.2
91.1
69.6
27.8
75.9
58.2
34.2

Marion C o u n ty ............................

250

100.0

104

100.0

78

100.0

66

100.0

2

Plowing-------------- --------- --------- ----------Harrowing____ __________________ ____
Disking-------- ------------- ------ ---------------Hoeing--------------------- -----------------------Cultivating com ..... ........... ......................
Husking corn.............................— ...........

143
182
100
84
163
105
77

57.2
72.8
40.0
33.6
65.2
42.0
30.8

37
65
25
36
57
39
24

35.6
6^5
24.0
34.6
54.8
37.5
23.1

55
63
36
25
53
35
29

70.5
80.8
46.2
32.1
67.9
44.9
37.2

50
53
39
21
51
30
24

75.8
80.3
59.1
31.8
77.3
45.5
36.4

1
1
----2
2
1

1 The numbers do not add to the totals because some children did more than one kind of field work.
2 Per cent not shown where base is less than 50.

The fact that only 13 per cent of the Livingston County children
interviewed were 14 or 15 years of age, whereas 18 per cent and 20
per cent, respectively, of the Marion County and the Shelby County
children interviewed were 14 or 15 years of age— although the pro­
portion of 14 and 15 year old children among all children between
7 and 16 years of age in each county is approximately 20 per cen t7—
might indicate that there were a number of 14-year-old and 15-yearold children in the selected districts in Livingston County whose
work was not reported on because they were not enrolled in the
schools visited; and children of these ages are most likely to do the
heavier work such as plowing and disking. However, assuming
that at least a sufficient number of children of these ages lived in
the Livingston County districts (although they were not enrolled
in the schools visited) to bring the proportion of 14 and 15 year old
? Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Vol. I ll, Population, pp. 256, 257, 259, Washington,
1922.


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41

children up to 20 per cent of those interviewed, if they had been
included, and assuming that all these children had plowed, harrowed,
and disked, the proportion of Livingston County children plowing
or harrowing would still be considerably smaller than those in Shelby
and Marion Counties, and the proportion of those disking would be
much smaller than in Shelby County though slightly larger than in
Marion County where comparatively little disking was done. More­
over, although the age distribution of the children under 14 years of
age interviewed was about the same in-each of the counties, there
was a marked difference between Livingston County and the other
two counties in the proportion of children under 14 plowing, disking,
or harrowing.
Harrowing was the commonest kind of field work for the children
of Shelby and Marion Counties (PI. I ll, fig. 1, facing p. 44), and
husking corn for those in Livingston County.
This difference in the kinds of work that the children did is to be
explained largely by the difference in crops. For example, Livingston
County raised more corn than either of the others. In Shelby und
Marion Counties hay was a more important crop. The difference in
crops does not, however, fully explain the difference in the children’s
work. There seems also to have been a tendency among Livingston
County farmers to use their children chiefly on the lighter kinds of
field work or for emergencies when everyone on the farm is pressed
into service, as at threshing and corn-husking time. The farmers in
Livingston County, on the whole more prosperous than those in
Shelby or Marion County, hired adult help for the heaviest work.
At least one girl did each kind of work listed except hauling grain,
but considerably smaller proportions of the girl workers than of the
boy workers shared in the various operations on the farm. The largest
proportions of working girls husked or shucked corn, cultivated corn,
harrowed, carried and hauled drinking water to threshers, shocked
grain, hoed corn and other crops, and raked— 20 per cent or more of
them in each operation. The largest proportion of working boys
plowed, harrowed, disked, cultivated, and husked or shucked corn—
more than 50 per cent doing each of these kinds of work. Hoeing
corn was the only work in which the proportion of working girls
engaged exceeded that of the working boys— 25 per cent as compared
with 15 per cent. Other hoeing had been done by a slightly smaller
proportion of girls than of boys— 24 per cent of the girls and 28 per
cent of the boys. Only 50 per cent of the girls did any kind of
general work as compared with 85 per cent of the boys; only 52 per
cent as compared with 75 per cent had worked on the grain crop;
only 47 per cent as compared with 79 per cent had worked on the hay
crop. The great majority (86 per cent) of the working girls, however,
as well as of the working boys (98 per cent) had helped with the corn
crop. Much larger proportions of the boys than of the girls had done
the various operations, and only 140 girls as compared with 597 boys
had done any field work at all. The girls who do field work do only
the easier kinds; as has been said, they can not handle the heavy
machinery required in many of the operations on the farms of this
region; and even in Marion and Shelby Counties, where many boys
did the work of regular hired hands, girls had comparatively light
tasks.


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General work.

Plowing, disking, and harrowing are the hardest kinds of work that
the children do, plowing being the most difficult. In Livingston and
in Shelby County the one-share or two-share riding plow drawn by
three or four horses is in general use. In Marion County the oneshare walking plow drawn by two horses, which is better adapted to
the rough, hilly land, is more common. There is probably no harder
work on a farm than plowing with a walking plow where the depth of
the cutting can be regulated only by bearing down on the handles of
the plow; and it is especially difficult in stony or recently cleared land
like much of that in Marion County. Almost one-half (350) of the
children included in the study had plowed, and nearly three-fourths of
them were boys between 12 arid 16 years, constituting more than
two-thirds of the working boys of those ages. Nineteen girls, 4 of
whom were under 12 years of age, and 81 boys under 12 years of age
had also plowed. In Livingston County with its more prosperous
farming population only 40 children, or about one-sixth, had plowed
(see p. 39), but in the other counties the majority had done plowing.
The majority of all the working children who had done plowing were
engaged in the work less than two weeks, but 39 children had plowed
at least one month and a few at least two months. Examples of
somewhat extreme conditions in connection with plowing are those
of an 11-year-old boy who plowed for three weeks with a walking
plow and a 12-year-old boy, hired by a large orchard owner, who
plowed with a riding plow more than two months.
In both plowing and disking there is danger of accidents. A small
child is easily jolted from his seat if a machine hits a snag or the
horses start to run. Disking is considered more dangerous than
plowing, for a child jolted from his seat may be thrown in the way
of the moving disks. One-fourth of the children who had disked
were under 12 years of age. The proportions of boys and girls who
had plowed were about the same as the proportions of boys and
girls who had disked, and the children were of about the same ages.
Harrowing is not so difficult as plowing nor so hazardous as
disking. It is often done by girls and by the younger as well as by the
older boys. It is extremely fatiguing work, especially when no seat
is provided on the machine and the driver has to stand on the machine
or walk behind it through the loosened soil as did the majority of
the child workers in the study who had harrowed.
Hoeing is the only other kind of general farm work which any
considerable number of children did. This is a simple operation, and
one-half of those who reported having hoed were girls or were boys
under 12 years of age.
Work on corn.

Almost every child who works on a farm in these sections of Illinois
helps on the corn crop; only 28 of the children included in the study
had done no field work on corn. Their work consists usually of cul­
tivating and husking, but some of the children— in Marion County
a large proportion of those who had worked— had shared in nearly
every operation from the time the corn was planted until it was
harvested.
Rolling.— If the field in which corn is planted has many clods, as
often happens in dry seasons, it is usually rolled by a flat or corrugated

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mmm
P L A T E II I . — O P E R A T I O N S IN G E N E R A L F A R M I N G : 1. H A R R O W I N G . 2. C U L T I ­
V A T I N G . 3. R E A P I N G A N D B I N D I N G . 4. S H O C K I N G G R A I N


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roller before the harrowing is done. Rolling may be done if necessary
even after the com has begun to come up. It is simple work, entailing
only driving the horses; but it was reported by few children except
in Shelby County.
Planting.— In the States of the Corn Belt the corn is most fre­
quently planted with the checkrower. This is a two-row planter
equipped with a roll of wire which unwinds with the progress of the
machine across the field and in unwinding releases the seed from the
seed box at regular intervals. A corn drill is used when it is desirable
to plant in closer rows than the checkrower allows. Planting is not
hard work with either of these machines, but the rows must be kept
even in order to facilitate cultivation; and it is difficult for children
to drive straight enough unless they have had a great deal of exper­
ience. In Marion County about two-fifths of the children helped
with the corn planting, but in the other two counties the proportion
was small. Only ,a few did machine planting— in Marion County
less than one-half of those reporting corn planting. The children's
work in com planting was rather to go over the field after the corn
was up and replant by hand in places where the seed of the first
planting had failed to sprout.
Cultivating.— More children reported cultivating corn than reported
any other work on the farm except harrowing. A large majority of
the workers in each county had cultivated. A four or six shovel twohorse cultivator was generally used. (PI. I l l , fig. 2, facing p. 44.)
The majority of the children who had cultivated corn were at least
12 years of age, but many young children did the work. The crop
is generally given three or four cultivations, the first and last of which
are difficult and are usually done by only the older children. At the
first cultivation the corn is just above the ground, and care must be
taken not to cover the young shoots with the loose soil. At the last
cultivation the stalks are high, and there is danger of their being
damaged by the machine as it passes over them. Considerable time
is given to the work on account of the necessity of the several culti­
vations. One-fifth of the children who had cultivated corn reported
that they had done so for at least four weeks, and some had cultivated
for six or seven weeks.
Harvesting.— In Livingston County the usual way of harvesting
com is to gather the ears from the standing stalks and husk them in
the field, leaving the stalks to be plowed under the following spring.
Frequently in Marion County and occasionally in Shelby County the
stalks are cut and shocked, the ears being husked later from the shock
and the stalks saved for fodder.
Husking corn is not difficult for the experienced workers, but it is
not uncommon for the beginner to sprain his wrist, and even experi­
enced workers often strap their wrists for protection. As the work
can not be done until after a heavy frost the weather often adds great
discomfort to the job. A large majority of the working children,
and almost all in Livingston County, had husked corn. It was
reported by girls more frequently than any other work and quite
often by young children. Fewer children help with cutting and
shocking than with husking. Shocking is hard work, for the corn
stalks are long, heavy, and awkward to carry. Owing to the method
of harvesting corn common in Livingston and Shelby Counties few
children in these counties had cut or shocked, but in Marion County

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a large proportion of the working children had done each operation.
Only a few girls and only a small proportion of the younger children
had cut and shocked corn.
Work on grain.

Although 71 per cent of the children who had worked in the fields
had done some work on grain other than corn, their work was con­
fined for the most part to shocking. They also did a small amount
of loading, hauling, and pitching at threshing time. A few of the
older children reported drilling or seeding, and driving the binder at
harvest time (PI. I l l , fig. 3, facing p. 44), but as a rule these opera­
tions were done by men.
Shocking.— The shockers follow the binder in its progress across
the field, gathering the bundles in piles as they fall from the machine
and standing them on end. (PI. I ll, fig. 4, facing p. 44.) Some
workers cap the shocks as well, but not many children are skilled
enough to do that part of the work. A fairly large proportion of
girls (28 per cent) and of younger children did this work. Threetenths of the shockers were under 12 years of age, and a few were
under 10. Although the work is not difficult it is done at a time of
year when the heat is intense. Many of the children shocked regu­
larly for long hours during a period of two weeks and a few for three
or four weeks.
Threshing.— Threshing time is one of the busiest on the farm, both
in the house and in the field. Although girls and younger boys do
not do much in the field except carry drinking water to the workers,
some of the older boys serve as regular members of the threshing
crews. Hauling water for the engine, hauling grain to the thresher
or from there to the elevator or barn, and pitching bundles of grain
up on the wagon were the kinds of work at threshing time (in addi­
tion to carrying drinking water to threshers) most commonly reported
by the children. Although it is extremely dusty work, none of it is
arduous except pitching bundles of grain to the wagon and hauling
grain to the threshing machine. Hauling the grain to the threshing
machine brings the child close to moving machinery. Often it in­
cludes feeding the machine; that is, pitching the bundles of grain
into it. This requires not only strength but skill, and the child
who does this work is usually considered a regular member of the
crew and must work long hours. The worker pitches the bundle
upon a moving belt which carries it under a set of moving knives
that cut the twine binding the bundles and spreads out the grain as
it goes into the thresher. Workers must constantly be alert and
take care not to get too near the machine. Hauling bundles of grain
to the threshing machine was reported by 37 children, 7 of whom
stated that they had also fed the machine. Two girls and 20 boys
reported pitching.
Work on hay.

Most of the work in haying time is light enough to be done by
children. Only a few children stack hay, as this requires more skill
than a child usually possesses; but they do nearly everything else—
mowing, raking, pitching, and driving the team for the hay stacker
or the fork that is used in unloading in the barn. For example, a
boy of 14, his 13-year-old sister, and an older sister put up all the
hay from a 55-acre tract with the assistance of a neighbor for only

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two half days-—mowing, raking, and stacking it in small bundles for
baling.
M owing and raking .— Mowing requires little more than the ability
to drive a team and manipulate the lever that regulates the height
of cutting, but because of the sharp knives it has an element of
danger for children. Only a few girls had mowed. Children under
12 years of age constituted one-seventh of those who had done this
work. Raking hay was reported by almost one-half of the boys
and one-fifth of the girls. More than one-fifth of the children who
did the work were under 12 years of age. R a k in g is easy work—
driving horses and operating simple levers.
D riving stacker team and hay fo rk .— Hay is often stacked in the field
by means of a stacker and is lifted from the wagon to the barn loft
by a hay fork, both of which are operated by horse power. Children
often drive and manage the horses for this work. More than onefourth of the boys and about one-sixth of the girls had driven horses
for the stacker or the hay fork.
FARM W ORK AND SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

In the general-farming districts of central Illinois the children
were not kept out of school for farm work to the extent that has
been found to be the case in many truck-farming and beet, cotton,
or tobacco growing areas where there is much hand labor that chil­
dren can do. Farm work caused less absence in this presumably
representative section of the Corn Belt than in a wheat-raising dis­
trict of North Dakota where the Children’s Bureau made a similar
study and where much of the work is done, as on Illinois farms, by
machinery.8 Nevertheless the school attendance of a small group of
Illinois children was seriously affected by their work on the farms.
School records were obtained for 636 children, but only 582 of these
children could state the cause of the absences which were recorded
against them on the school registers. Of these 45 per cent had been
absent from school for farm work at some time during the school
year preceding the inquiry. The proportion was larger for older chil­
dren (60 per cent for those between 14 and 16 years of age) and larger
for boys (53 per cent for those between 12 and 14 years of age and 71
per cent for those between 14 and 16). The great majority of the
workers had lost only a few days on account of their work (Table 20),
but 71 children (12 per cent of those for whom a report on the rea­
sons for absence could be obtained) had stayed out of school at least
one month, and 39 children had stayed out two months or more to
do farm work. The majority of the 71 children were 14 years of
age or older. Although very long absences for farm work among
children under 14 were rare they did occur. For example a 13-yearold boy whose father was a member of the local school board had
lost 75 days for farm work during the school year preceding the inqrnry, and his 11-year-old brother had lost 3 7 ^ days. Absence for
farm work was less frequent in Livingston County than in the other
counties, although the school term was longer in Livingston County.
Since the children in Livingston County did not generally do much
heavy farm work not many were kept out of school for the spring
8 Child Labor in North Dakota, pp. 34-36. U. S. Children’s Bureau Publication No. 129. Washington,


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O N IL L I N O I S F A R M S

plowing and harrowing, which probably more than any other work
interfered with school attendance in Shelby County and in Marion
County. Corn husking, though done by many children and done
after the opening of school in the fall, interferes with school attend­
ance but little, since farmers can usually depend upon the help of
their children for four or five days in the height of the season, because
at this time the schools are closed for the teachers’ institute; and
with this help and a few hours a day before and after school and on
Saturday, most of the husking can be finished without keeping the
children out of school. The school attendance law makes no specific
exemption from school attendance of children doing farm work, but
it contains a provision by which a temporary absence may be excused
by principal or teacher “ for cause.” 9
T a b l e 20. — A b s e n c e fr o m sch o o l o n a cco u n t o f fa r m w ork o f ch ild ren , b y c o u n ty ;
L iv in g s to n , S h elb y , a n d M a r io n C o u n ties
Children between 7 and 16 years of age doing farm work in
specified counties

Absence from school on account of farm
work during school year, 1922-23

Livingston
County

Total

Shelby
County

Marion
County

Per cent Num­ Per cent Num­ Per cen
Num­ Percent
distri­
distri­ Num­
distri­
distri­
ber bution
ber bution
ber bution
ber bution
737

Not reporting reasons for absence or school

237

250

250

582

100.0

183

100.0

191

, 100.0

208

100.0

319
86
43
46
19
52
17

548
14 8
7.4
7.9
3.3
8.9
2.9

136
26
11
3
1
1
5

74 3
14 2
6.0
1.6
0.5
.5
2.7

86
32
18
19
9
27

45.0
16.8
9.4
9.9
4.7
14 1

97
28
14
24
9
24
12

46.6
13.5
6.7
11.5
4.3
11.5
5.8

155

54

59

42

Children who attend rural schools, many of which have short
school years, can ill afford to lose even a few days for farm work when
they lose so much for other causes such as sickness, bad weather,
and bad roads. Of the 71 children who had missed at least one month
of the year’s instruction on account of farm work all except 12 had
been absent for other reasons also. Nineteen children, 13 of whom
had lost at least six weeks for farm work, had absences in addition to
those for farm work amounting to at least one month and in a few
cases to two months. Of the 636 children for whom school records
were obtained 88, or approximately one-seventh, had had instruction
less than 100 days (5 school months) during the year, and 43 had had
instruction less than 80 days.
The relation between school attendance and progress in school
could not be ascertained for the children included in this study, owing
to the system of grading in effect in many of the rural schools of
*111., Rev. Stat. (Cahill's) 1925, ch. 122, par. 398.


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Illinois.10 All studies of school progress have shown, however, that
among children of normal mentality absence is the principal factor
in a child’s retardation or falling behind the normal grade for his age.
Over-age children tend to drop out of school as soon as possible and
so are less likely to complete high school, or even the elementaryschool course, than children who have attended regularly and have
kept up with their grades.
A brief analysis of the relation of the farmer’s education to his
income made by the United States Department of Agriculture in
connection with a survey of farm management in several Com Belt
States is of interest in connection with the present study.11 To
determine the influence of education the tenant farmers included in
the survey by the Department of Agriculture who had had the same
training were grouped according to their capital. The difference in
income was shown to be in favor of those who had had a high-school
education. The average income of farmers having over $3,000 capital
who had had high-school training and an average capital of $5,095
was nearly double that of those whose education had been limited to
the elementary school, although the average capital of the latter
group was $4,023.
SUMMARY

Districts in Marion, Livingston, and Shelby Counties were selected
as representative of general farming conditions in Illinois. Of 1,672
children under 16 years of age attending rural schools in the selected
districts or living in the districts and not attending school, 737
children (67 per cent of the boys and 18 per cent of the girls) worked
in the fields. More than three-fifths (62 per cent) were 12 years of
age or older; about one-seventh (14 per cent) were under 10 years
of age. ^Almost all the children who worked on the farms in this
section lived on farms in the vicinity, their parents being farm owners
or tenants. Most of the children included in the study were of native
American parentage. Some worked on only the home farm, but
many helped neighboring farmers as well, seldom receiving any pay­
ment in cash but doing the work in exchange for similar service
rendered to their parents.
Compared with truck, cotton, or tobacco farms, with beet or onion
culture, or with hop growing the general farm offers comparatively
little work within the strength of girls or young children. The girls
and the children under 12 years of age included in the study usually
did the easier kinds of work, such as hoeing, cultivating, raking
hay, and husking corn, but many of them harrowed, which is hard
work, though not heavy in the sense that it requires great physical
strength. Some of the boys 12 years of age and oyer did a great deal
of field work, some of it involving the use of heavy machinery and
necessitating the handling of heavy teams of horses. The majority of
io Two consecutive grades of pupils are combined in one class, both doing the work of one grade, so that
tbe grade reached is not a precise indication of school attainment. Thus, a pupil in the seventh grade, for
example, may have completed the work of either the fifth or the sixth grade and at the end of the year may
be promoted to either the sixth or the eighth grade. The pupil who enters the sixth grade after comple­
tion of the seventh is promoted, at the completion of the sixth grade, to the eighth grade.
» A Farm-Management Survey of Three Representative Areas in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, by E. H.
Thomson and H. M . Dixon, pp. 38-39. U. S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 41. Washington,


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48

W ORK

OF C H IL D R E N

ON IL L IN O IS F A R M S

the children worked in the fields less than two months, but about onesixth worked at least three months during the farm season.
The working-day was usually long for the younger as well as the
older children. It was seldom less than 8 hours and more often was
9 or 10 hours. The longest working days were reported for the
spring, when plowing and other work in preparation for seeding had
to be done; fully one-half of the children worked 10 or more hours a
day at this time. The shortest working-days were those of the
harvest season, but even at that time two-thirds of the children who
had worked reported a working-day of at least 8 hours.
Farm work does not interfere with the school attendance of the
children in this section to the same extent as in most rural com­
munities surveyed by the Children’s Bureau, though some children
lose a considerable part of their schooling on account of their work.
Almost one-half of the workers for whom school records were obtained
and who reported the reasons for their absences had been absent from
school for farm work during the year preceding the inquiry. Usually
this absence was for less than 10 days, but 71 children had lost from
1 to 5 months of school attendance because of their farm work.
Much of this absence for farm work comes at the beginning or at the
close of the school year, when it is likely to be particularly disastrous
to the child’s progress in school. Absence for farm work was more
frequent in Marion County and in Shelby County than in Livingston
County. In Livingston County, the most prosperous of the three
counties, the children do not help much with the spring work, which
probably more than any other interferes with school attendance in
the other two counties. They do lighter work and lose considerably
less time than children in either Shelby or Marion County.

o


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